In the beginning of 2022, I had the goal of playing as many games as possible. That goal didn’t exactly go according to plan, due to the lack of balancing between games, anime and the most common issue that I struggled with – some form of choice paralysis; not being able to choose what to do next and as such I end up procrastinating.
That said the games I did play throughout 2022 have been pretty solid choices. We delve into a few releases that came out in 2022 but also a bunch of older classics. A majority of the games were played on my PlayStation 5 (with many played via its backwards compatibility), but I did play a game or two on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch. Overall I was unfortunately only able to finish 31 different video games throughout 2022, which is lower than 2021’s 38 games.
Like my 2020 & 2021 posts, I have compiled my thoughts over on Anime UK News and stored them on my blog! They were essentially a collection of what I liked/disliked for each one, and some will have more to say than others but that’s because of the huge scope of the experience. Like before, they are long but I didn’t want to trim down my thoughts as some of this info might make you interested in these titles.
Due to the length of the post, I have decided to split the list into two parts. Part 2 will cover the 14 remaining games I completed, which were during July to November. Sadly I didn’t have time to complete any games in December, but hopefully I can change that for 2023!
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4 was one of the first games I played in the franchise. The game had an interesting development cycle, going from a psychological paranormal type game and eventually shifting to an action horror. We also moved away from fixed cameras and tank controls for a third person shooter, though you still need to stand still in order to shoot your enemies.
So with the announcement that a remake is on its way in March 2023, I decided to replay Resident Evil 4 and it has aged pretty well on both the visuals and gameplay. Despite its action approach, survival elements are still there, as you’ll want to preserve your ammo and health as much as you can due to potential crowds of enemies. There’s also the game’s iconic cut-scenes which are known for having quick-timed events which, if unsuccessful, can result in a game over.
The story is standalone from the Resident Evil universe, which the focus on parasites rather than a virus causing the situation, but you do get returning character Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil 2 back into the mix. He offers some pretty amusing dialogue and his counters during combat is solid, for instance when an enemy is hurt in a specific way you can respond back by kicking them or even killing them. Each enemy will drop something in return, like extra ammo, health, money or special items you can use to sell to the game’s merchant to buy or upgrade your weaponry.
The merchant is a new addition to the franchise, and he offers you a way to upgrade your equipment and buy new guns or health when needed. You will need to upgrade your case, as there’s limited space available to begin with. Much like the earlier games, going into your equipment menu will pause the game so you can relax and carefully pick which weapon or item to use at any moment. If you feel like adding a ridiculous challenge to yourself, if you kill the merchant he won’t come back for the entirety of the game so you’ll want him alive to improve your combat.
The weapon selection is great, with pistols, magnum, shotgun, rifles, machine gun and the iconic rocket launcher all make a return. The knife is a super useful tool as you can use this to open up boxes for more items, and when an enemy is down you can use it to kill them to preserve your ammo.
Resident Evil 4 is also semi-linear with some areas having you go back and forth in the area, but for the most part you will be going from point A to B. The story is also split into chapters and the typewriter returns for saving. You can return to the same area without losing too much progress thanks to the checkpoints, which will be handy for the hardest difficulty Professional (which is unlocked after finishing the game at least once).
The enemies are also great, with a variety to keep you at your toes. Alongside your usual villagers, you have the iconic chainsaw people who can instantly kill you if you’re not careful, bugs who turn invisible, dogs, regenerators who can’t be killed unless you find their specific weak spots using a heat sensor, and more. There’s also a boulder sequence to run away from!
Included in the later releases of Resident Evil 4 was more content, and one of those is Separate Ways which is a new mini campaign focused on Ada Wong who turns up in parts of the story. Her campaign has limited equipment and re-uses a lot of areas, but her storyline does provide some missing gaps and context to the main storyline. The crossbow weapon is pretty cool too.
Overall, Resident Evil 4 is a classic and one worth playing even if the remake ends up being an improvement. The story can take about 13-14 hours and the Separate Way campaign adds another 3-4 hours. The trophy list is pretty small as it matched what Xbox 360 had with the main focus being the story and a Professional playthrough. I played the game on Normal but I have played aspects of Professional many years ago.
Resident Evil 5
Just like Resident Evil 4, I also played Resident Evil 5 back when it was released on Xbox 360. I remember watching the announcement trailer which had a great concept of using sunlight as a way to cause fear due to being blinded by what’s ahead of you as the infected are after you. Though unfortunately the developers couldn’t fully utilise the idea, but what we got was still a solid B-Movie type adventure with solid co-op gameplay.
So much like Resident Evil 4, I also replayed Resident Evil 5 for the PlayStation 4, though this time I have gone for a single player approach since I have no one else to do co-op with. That said, the game plays really well on the PS4 with 60FPS being consistent throughout. Now despite how fun the game is, I actually do not recommend using this game as a starting point because it directly references the others in the franchise and I consider it to be the final part of the storyline (as the rest going forward do their own thing with the stories told). That said, Resident Evil 5 still looks great visually and replaying the final battle was fun as before.
The gameplay is designed for co-op so your partner will be with you on all chapters which is a nice change of pace, and while Resident Evil 0 had a similar idea this game handles it much better. One of the biggest differences between Resident Evil 4 & Resident Evil 5 is the inventory system. Before you could pause the game and expand your inventory to have as many weapons and items as possible, but in Resident Evil 5 the inventory is limited to 9 slots per character and it will not pause the game if you want to change items around or switch weapons so you will need to be more tactical when that happens. That said, you can even trade items with your co-op partner which is pretty handy, and the herbs is adjusted so it relies on 1 green herb, 2 green herbs or 1 green & 1 red to get a full or half health amount compared to other games.
The story is structured similar to Resident Evil 4 with chapters, and this time Capcom has set it up so that you can revisit other chapters offline and online. The story is paced pretty well with each chapter covering specific areas, like a town, lake, or facility. In-between chapters you can upgrade your weapons and adjust your inventory to get the best experience, and you’re also ranked based on how well you’ve performed. There are boss battles which are decent but the latter half is unique in a good way which helps make the game stand out well on the franchise. Now I know Resident Evil 5 had been criticised by a lot of people, but I do think it holds up pretty well with Resident Evil 4 on the action horror genre and the boulder punching scene is still amazing.
Overall I spent about 10 hours plus an additional hour for each of the DLC storylines that were bundled with the remaster; Lost in Nightmares which has references to the original Resident Evil, and Desperate Escape which is a nice action approach for those who enjoyed that. There’s also mercenaries and versus mode for added content. Do I think Resident Evil 5 is worth revisiting after all of these years? I say yes especially if you have a co-op partner because the remaster has helped make the game aged pretty well after all these years.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
When the Nintendo Wii was released, many people jumped onto the craze and so did the Japanese developers like Capcom, by bringing the Resident Evil franchise onto the motion control platform. While the console was not as technical as the others in that era, Wii had the opportunity to bring in the shooter genre thanks to the Wii Remote acting like a gun in a sense, though only a handful made full use of this idea like SEGA’s Ghost Squad, Ubisoft’s Red Steel and EA’s Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. For Capcom, not only did we have Resident Evil 4 make use of this but they also produced an on-rails shooter compiling a lot of the stories from the previous games starting with Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.
Capcom brought back these light gun games over to the PlayStation 3 with the Resident Evil Chronicles HD Selection, which included both Wii exclusive games. In Japan, the collection received a physical release under the name Biohazard: Chronicles HD Selection, which is the version I picked up, and this may surprise people because the Japanese version is about 90% in English, with all the voices dubbed and only a small portion is in Japanese.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles covers three of the Resident Evil games; Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil Remake, and Resident Evil 3, though the latter more loosely than the others in terms of being faithful. Each game has 3 main scenarios and a couple of bonus scenarios. These bonus scenarios are the most interesting ones of the bunch as they cover content from the other perspective of those games’ situation, for instance how did Albert Wesker get through the events of Resident Evil 0 & Resident Evil Remake, and how Rebecca Chambers ended up where she was in the mansion. There’s also a fourth main scenario which is new to the story and involves Chris & Jill going to Russia to stop Umbrella.
The controls is handled with two options; the PlayStation Move (which I don’t own) or the controller. The controls for the controller include R1 to shoot, R2 for using the knife, L2 + R1 to use grenades, D-Pad to change weapons and using X to pick up any items you find on the screen. Health is done automatically and a First Aid Spray is available if you lose all of your health. The game also has quick-time events which involve shaking the controller or using both sticks, or using L1, R1 or both when the icon shows up on the screen.
The length of each scenario takes a few minutes to as long as 10-20 minutes depending on the situation, and while you can continue if you get a game over, the issue does come down to how well you can manage your inventory. Your pistol has infinite ammo, but with no way to upgrade it, it does provide to be a challenge in later scenarios – where weapons like machine guns or shotguns are more handy than your standard pistol. This can also be a problem during boss fights which can be a massive nightmare if you used up most of your ammo before the battle.
Now to upgrade your weapons, these require stars which can be achieved by earning a good rank or finishing the scenario. The more stars you win in a scenario, the faster you can upgrade your weapons. Now while each weapon can reach up to Level 4, there is a 5th level available if you can get S rank on each scenario in Hard mode.
Overall, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is a pretty fun on-rails experience. The difficulty is frustrating at times, but this was mainly during the final few parts of the game and it’s recommended that you have a PlayStation Move controller for a better aiming experience and even a co-op partner to get through the scenarios together. I spent roughly 8 hours going through the scenarios and upgrading some weapons along the way.
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
Following the success of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Capcom & Cavia then released another instalment called Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles which comes with a number of tweaks to the formula whilst also offering new and old content for the stories presented.
For instance, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles focuses on the storylines of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil Code: Veronica as well as a new storyline that goes over Leon’s relationship with Krauser (from Resident Evil 4). Each chapter shares the same formula as the previous game with your task of shooting everything insight to get from point A to point B. That said, the UI design is a lot different with them going for a blue/purple esque look and there’s also changes to the weapon upgrade system.
There’s now one gun type each and you can now upgrade your pistol which is super handy considering that was one of the biggest issues I had with the previous game due to moments where you can run out of ammo easily at the wrong moments. In addition, you can also pause the game to change your weapon setup which is pretty handy if you need to change your empty grenades to a magnum as an example. Another big difference is that you can now store first-aid herbs, so when you are running low on health you can pause the fight and use a herb in the same way you can update your weapon setup which is a plus considering how ridiculously challenging the previous game was at parts.
While the stories presented is well done, especially considering they didn’t have remake footage at the time so all was done from scratch on the cutscenes etc, for some reason they decided to introduce a shaky camera approach which unfortunately ruins the experience completely. The idea is there but the execution is pretty poor altogether. The game also has two chapters that essentially repeat the final two chapters of the new scenario but done from Krauser’s perspective – which is only made more tedious due to the increased difficulty as well, so you will have to spend a long while grinding money to upgrade your setup if you want to finish the story.
The controls were similar to the previous game for this HD remaster as you can use either the PlayStation Move or a controller. I went with the controller which plays fine but the shaky camera does make it unfun at times. The quick-time events are back but they feel much easier than the previous game which was interesting, they’re not as common throughout but when they’re there it’s much easier to react. The length of each scenario takes about 7-20 minutes depending on the situation.
Overall, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is both an improvement and a disappointment in terms of being a new instalment to the previous game. The weapon upgrade and inventory setup is much better, but the shaky camera can ruin your on-rails experience. Like before, it’s recommended that you have a PlayStation Move controller for a better aiming experience and even a co-op partner to get through the scenarios together. I spent roughly 9 hours going through the scenarios as well as a bit more time to get through the final two chapters of the game.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time HD
During the 2021 PlayStation 3 store fiasco, I decided to order through another batch of physical releases for the console and one of those was a HD remaster collection for Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia trilogy from the PS2 era. When the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was first announced I suspected demand would go up for this collection but it didn’t (likely because the remake got postponed), but when the PSN store was going to close a lot of games were being bought up so I decided to secure a physical copy as soon as I could.
But it took this long for me to finally start Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, released in 2003 but playing the game using the HD version. The HD transfer is pretty good with the presentation holding up pretty well, though there are some technical issues like graphics flickering, audio delay during one of the cutscenes, and multiple crashes during combat. But outside of that, I had a great time playing this classic.
The gameplay is pretty simple – you have to climb and navigate your way through each area to proceed and sometimes they are timed or filled with traps and enemies which you will need to fight your way through. The climb and navigation is great and the controls hold up very well. The only issue I had with climbing was one section in the library where it was pretty difficult to figure out where to go at times.
The combat mostly works as each enemy will have different ways to fight so you can’t re-use the same combos, but I do have an issue with the enemy AI because when you get knocked down and are trying to get back up, the AI just keeps hitting you which doesn’t give you enough room to recover and you end up losing a lot of health as a result. That said, you could rectify this by using the rewind feature which is there to reverse time, but as I was going for the Platinum trophy I ignored this feature entirely except for one moment near the end.
As for the story I like it but the audio issues with the game has affected the experience. For instance dialog is randomly quiet in a lot of places. I did enjoy listening to the prince’s monologues throughout which adds to the fun.
Overall, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a great game and I spent 9 hours due to tackling the trophies so it will be a lot shorter when you play it normally but I had a fun time. The HD remaster is nice looking but definitely flawed. The HD collection was only released on PlayStation 3 but it was released on PC so I suggest going for that approach for a potentially better performance.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within HD
After the success of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ubisoft made a follow-up a year later with Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, which took the formula and went even further on the platforming and combat while also making the story and characters darker in-tone. This is quite literally the dark horse of the series as the game basically goes for the edgy look with some metal-esque soundtrack here and there and gore added to the mix.
Despite the tone change, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a pretty decent sequel in the trilogy as the story is really interesting and holds up pretty well. The idea that the Prince has to try and figure out a way to escape his fate after the events of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is great and how the story develops was surprising. I suppose it can be considered predictable but I liked how it wrapped up in the end.
As mentioned, the gameplay has been updated – combat is better but the difficulty spikes do occur from time to time (primarily with the boss fights though) and there’s a pretty cool gameplay mechanic that occurs during its third act which offers a nice balance of gameplay to the mix. I do like the second weapon pickups for dual-wielding but sometimes the game refuses to let you pick one up when you’re in combat which can be annoying. I also do think some enemies basically sponge in terms of health which can also be tedious.
One addition we have with the game is the Dahaka who is basically a mini version of Nemesis in terms of hunting you down, but he isn’t as frequent as you would expect due to the game’s core aspect of changing between two timelines. That said it is amusing that the monster’s theme song is an instrumental version of I Stand Alone.
In terms of how the HD remaster has performed, thankfully there were no game crashes but there is some graphical issues like water not looking great on the edge and being able to see through walls. The character models also look pretty off as well which is a shame, but from what I’ve seen the PC version is the way to go for the game.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a solid instalment but it’s hard to describe how I really feel about it as a whole as there’s both good and bad parts throughout. The good parts stand out really well but the bad parts include backtracking which can be hard to navigate, uneven difficulty spikes at parts and graphical issues. I went with the Normal difficulty option and managed to get the Secret Ending (which is acquired by getting all 9 health upgrades and collecting the Water Sword). A total of 11 hours or so was spent going through the whole story plus the artwork and health collectibles.
Stray
Stray, dubbed by many as the ‘cat game’, finally released and was made available to download on PlayStation Plus so I decided to try it out this past weekend. It’s a simple platformer with some puzzle and stealth elements thrown in from time to time.
Despite its relatively short length, Stray offered a really solid story from the moment you meet your companion robot and while the ending isn’t what I had in mind for the cat (basically makes you question why Chapter 1 was even a thing sometimes), how that chapter was heart-warming admittedly.
The gameplay mostly consists of your cat travelling and climbing your way through various platforms while at times dodging enemies which one of them is basically rip-off face huggers from Half-Life. There’s also some collectibles available for your cat to acquire like the memories of the past, music sheets for a robot to use, and badges to add to your mini suit.
The game also has some pretty easy but can be a bit of a challenge trophies. One of which requires you to finish the game in under 2 hours, which I managed to do in 95 minutes. Overall Stray is a good time and I recommend giving it a shot, however I don’t recommend buying it at full price due to its short length and some simplicity in its gameplay.
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones HD
With the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time being an enjoyable platformer adventure and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within improving on some elements with some additional mixed results, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones manages to combine the best parts of the two and provides a really solid third instalment and send off to the trilogy.
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones continues where we left off from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and brings back cast from the first game with a new take on the story. The story may feel like its repeated itself from the first game, but it’s actually different. One part is due to the addition of Dark Prince, a persona of the Prince as a result of the Sands of Time, and also takes the storyline of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within into account for the Prince’s motivations, goals and how he sees himself in front of others, whether he wants to focus on himself or his people.
The platforming was still as strong as before and even better with the new mechanics working really well for the gameplay. For instance you use your knife to hold onto parts of a wall so you can wall-run in a new way. There’s also the addition of stealth combat which works pretty well once you get used to how the quick-time events work.
The collectibles are back but more simplistic as we only have health upgrades and mini portal bases, the latter of which is unmissable as it’s story-related – basically you want to take out the enemies and seal the portal before they spawn more enemies into the combat.
Speaking of combat, the difficulty here actually feels more balanced than before. Enemies can be challenging but it’s not ridiculous like Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was so you actually have a chance to progress without being in a silly situation for hours. That said, folks may feel disappointed by this, and personally I can see why but I was happy with how this game turned out.
Overall, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is a really solid action platformer for the trilogy and I recommend it a lot if you liked Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and didn’t like Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. The story took about 8-10 hours of progress.
Resident Evil HD Remaster
“Enter the survival horror”.
We all know the story behind Biohazard (Resident Evil) and how it got popular and influential, but for some reason I could never get into the first game because of fear. Not just from the zombies but the survival aspect of its gameplay – limited supplies, camera and controls, and worst of all – limited saves. It was something that put me off for years, but at the same time I had wanted to give it a shot.
After watching some randomisers, I finally tried the HD remaster for the Resident Evil remake that was released back on the Nintendo Gamecube via the PS4 version, and it does deliver on the fear – with zombies around the corner which can be hard to dodge on modern controls, all the way to knowing what to do and where to go. I played Resident Evil twice in this run – one via Jill on Normal mode, and one via Chris on Easy mode. Despite following the same structure, both characters have differences to both their gameplay and story elements.
In Jill’s campaign, you have 8 inventory slots, the use of lockpicks which can open some doors, the option to use the Grenade launcher, some enemies not appearing, some puzzles not appearing, and you can insta-kill a boss fight half-way through the game as her character had scientific knowledge for one section. Jill is also considered the starting point for players, as she has more ease of entry for the gameplay. That said, she does die quicker than Chris.
In Chris’ campaign, you have 6 inventory slots which means you will need to backtrack a lot to your supply room to move items in and out. There are also other challenges – you don’t get access to the Grenade launcher, but you do get access to Flash grenades in return, you have to survive the Shotgun room without any assistance, you also need to find some old keys to unlock some doors because you don’t get access to the lockpick, and you also don’t get any assistance to fight one early boss fight. In return you also have better health, can use Flash grenades to insta-kill zombies, and have insta-access to the lighter which is integral in the remake.
The stories for both characters are in a weird canon/non-canon territory and I guess you could argue both happened at the same time but with some differences. Side characters can also die but they are easy to avoid if you acquire 3 MO Disks that appear (one early on in a tiger puzzle, and the rest in the final area) and respond with the right decision near the end game.
Now despite the original being bright, campy and a simple survival tale, Capcom went the extra mile to make the Resident Evil remake more dark, haunted and catch you off-guard with how it handles its zombies. In remake, when shot dead the zombies stay on the ground until a certain amount of time later to revive as Crimson Heads, which are faster, aggressive and can ruin your path if you weren’t prepared. Using the lighter and Kerosone, which only has a finite amount, will burn the bodies before they revive again which will make it easier for you – however the harder the difficulty, the faster they come back.
Puzzles are also interesting, ranging from examining items to receive keys or components used to unlock something else, all the way to using a crane to change the path. There are also some fun ones like using a lighter to check lamps to determine which number matches the symbols. For items, the map does a great job telling you whether a room is fully checked as you progress, so you don’t have to worry about checking constantly to see if you have the items or not.
The storage boxes throughout Resident Evil can hold as many items as you would like which is very handy for going through the game. One of the difficulties available when you finish a playthrough unlocks a mode where each box is not inter-connected, therefore making it harder to progress as items won’t move around from box to box, so you would have to take them out from one location to another. This mode interestingly enough, was the original plan for the classic PlayStation game before they changed it in the final product due to testing feedback.
The playthroughs will take about 6-7 hours each character and faster if you know where to go on the path and puzzles. The differences between each difficulty includes some rooms not having any zombies and more health/ammo appearing in some areas. Now the big question some will have is the save feature – which requires using Ink Ribbons.
There are 30 chances to save in your playthrough and if you can manage to save at least 6 times during the first part of the game (which is getting some masks and defeating a monster to receive a Metal/Stone Object that will let you get outside to the gardens), you won’t have to worry about progression going forward as it’s much easier to know what to do and can backtrack better if you die for some reason due to its linearity.
Overall Resident Evil has been a scary but fun ride, with the best endings achieved for each character and got a lot of items along the way. The remake is available across multiple platforms but for the definitive version get the PC release so you can also take advantage of the randomiser mods.
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (Phantom Reverie Remaster)
Bandai Namco’s wahoo game is another one of the classics that I did not play when I was younger. Released on the original PlayStation it’s a platformer that I would have enjoyed had I played it when it first came out. While I did acquire the original via the PlayStation 3 store to secure access to the game when the store was going to close, I never had the chance to start it.
And now months later I have finally tried it out, thanks to Bandai Namco remaking the first two games for modern platforms, and here we are with Klonoa: Door to Phantomile running on PlayStation 5 with 4K 60fps gameplay.
The gameplay is pretty simplistic – you jump, grab enemies to throw onto objects, and reach the exit. The original was considered 2.5D but here it’s more akin to New Super Mario Bros where it’s 2D side scrolling but with 3D models. There are also branching paths in the levels which is pretty cool as you may find some collectible items along the way. Upon finishing the level, you return to the world map that makes note of how many gems you acquired and how many people you have rescued.
The playtime for the story was only a couple of hours but the final world does provide some extra challenge like being careful on dodging and figuring out some of the puzzles. The boss battles weren’t hard but had a nice sense of challenge as it relies on the skills you learn over the course of the story.
Overall, the game is great. It is short, but I had a great time. The trophies are also pretty simple, with the focus solely on completing the story and rescuing the residents in each level. The Platinum trophy is shared between both games so expect that to be picked up when I eventually try out the sequel.
Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil (Phantom Reverie Remaster)
In addition to the original, Bandai Namco also brought back wahoo’s second game which debuted on PlayStation 2. Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil plays pretty much the same as the original, with a new story, different map design and a few more branching paths like choosing which level to start next.
Just like the previous game’s remaster, the PS5 version runs at 4K 60fps which is great, and the difficulty is just as good a before. I don’t have much to say about this one as the gameplay is pretty much identical as before, but I do think the characters are better this time around. The playtime for the story was also just a couple of hours and the final world provided more challenges to get those collectibles.
Overall, Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil was a fun time and with the rest of the trophies acquired for finishing the story and collecting the residents throughout, I now own the Platinum trophy.
Nioh Remastered
With the critical and commercial success of FROM SOFTWARE’s Soulsbourne games during the 7th & early 8th generation, many developers attempted their own version of the genre. Koei Tecmo & Team Ninja’s Nioh, a Japanese historical themed action game, was actually in development hell for many years since the 6th generation era. The original idea was supposed to have been based on Akira Kurosawa’s Oni which never came to fruition. Eventually, elements of the original concept, like a foreign blonde character as the MC and the samurai period, did carry over to the final product as well as other elements like inspirations of Kurosawa’s other titles and then taking elements of the real-life figure William Adams. After switching from a traditional RPG to Dynasty Warriors style, Team Ninja stepped in and settled with Action Souls RPG gameplay.
Nioh is not an easy game by all means. The Souls gameplay is all about three things – patience, skill and practice. You can’t rush your fights because you will be smacked over like a ragdoll. You need to learn how to defeat your opponent in the best way possible and overcome that brick wall which is in front of you (in this case, a boss fight or a larger-sized enemy). Practicing your move set and how to fight is also important, as the game teaches you different methods of combat.
Nioh stands out from Souls by being much faster in pacing. The gameplay relies on different weapon options, like a sword, dual-wielding swords, spears, bows, and more that are available. There’s also difference stances – a low stance delivers great dodging but less power for offence, mid-stance is a good balance of the two, and high stance which delivers strong offence, but you will be left vulnerable if you time it incorrectly. My weapon preferences are sword and dual swords as I found them effective for a solid combat experience, especially as you can do special attacks when you level up your combat skills, like one move that splashes some Ki energy into the air which can hurt the enemy’s health and stamina which is handy to do some strong attacks if their stamina ends up in the red.
In addition to the main weapons there’s also slots for some sub-weapons like guns and bows. These are actually pretty useful as you can take out an enemy with one hit if you have the right level equipment and aim for their head. Sometimes they may survive but it will still help you with the combat that comes after. I don’t recommend this with the bigger enemies though, as they are still strong and have tons of health.
You can equip up to 8 items that are tied to the D-Pad. These are pretty handy and can cover various items like more health, more Amrita (this game’s souls equivalent) to use up, attack and defence items, and items that can made from Onmyo and Ninja abilities. Ninja is about stealth and special attack items that you throw against enemies, while Onmyo is about magic and talismans.
Onmyo believe it or not, will be your best friend during the game’s latter half because the talismans can slow your enemies down and reduce their defences/attacks, which can make bigger fights easier to manage. The best part is that, because these talismans were created at the shrines, they will refill the amount each time you die or visit the shrine, so you don’t have to worry about losing them after each defeat.
Nioh‘s story is pretty interesting, as William sets out to Japan from England to rescue his spirit and meets a bunch of people and yokai along the way. The storyline spans about 20 missions, 19 are the main ones while the final 20th is an epilogue of sorts. The difficulty recommendations are pretty high at Level 135 for the main story mission, but you can finish it at about Level 120 if you have the right equipment and extra items like talismans to help you out. I finished the 20th mission at Level 124 in the end. Along the way you can also do sub-missions which are mini levels that require you to take out a yokai or defeat an opponent, and twilight missions which are randomised but super hard rehashes of the main missions which can give you stronger weapons if you manage to finish them.
Other notes about the gameplay – you do lose Amrita (this game’s equivalent of souls) if you die twice without recovering them from where you first died, so do be warned about that. You also lose the spirit ability until you recover it which can be tedious during boss fights. If you die a second time, it will return back to you. You can use items to bring it back if you die the first time, but it won’t recover the Amrita. You also can’t leave the mission unless you use an item that will also wipe out your Amrita. Throughout each mission there’s also a secret hot spring which can heal your health. You will also encounter red swords stuck to the ground which are mini fights against an individual that basically acts like dead players from other parts of the world similar to other Souls-like games.
In-between missions on the world map you can visit the Dojo to build your weapon, ninja and onmyo skills which can be completed if you level up your weapon efficiency, ninja and magic skills. You will also unlock more spirits if you complete missions across your playthrough. There also skills and prestige points that can be earned which will help build your character’s skills and earn some extra % increases like luck, damage, amrita acquired and more.
I spent 56 hours 40 minutes playtime with all 20 story missions completed and a lot of the sub-missions completed as well. Now I have yet to play the Expansion content and I decided to save them for later because those have difficulty spikes from my understanding and wanted to take a break from this genre in the meantime, because Nioh is a very challenging game and is brutal if you mess up or not prepared for some fights.
Despite the challenge, I do think Nioh is an overall fantastic package, and I went with the PlayStation 5 Remastered version which is also played using the 120fps performance mode for the best gameplay experience possible. My physical copy of the Nioh Collection also includes the Expansion content as well as Nioh 2 Remastered, so I am ready to check out the rest at any point. Considering I went from Code Vein to Nioh without bothering with the FROM SOFTWARE games is a weird experience but a nice way to get into the genre properly.
God of War Ragnarok
Because of my work bonus I decided to get the latest God of War game earlier than planned. God of War Ragnarok, aka God of War 5, is the latest instalment in the series and the second & final major instalment in the Norse mythology saga. The game takes place a few years after the events of the 2018 game and we see Kratos & Atreus deal with the threat of Ragnarok as well as other Norse gods.
Now it’s been 4 years since I last played the previous game and to be honest it’s been long enough that I don’t actually remember what was in the previous game in terms of features. God of War Ragnarok does retain the use of the RPG aspect with customising your skills and weapons but other than two key weapons the rest I can’t recollect. However, what this game does provide is really good, the combat feels rewarding especially the parry tactic and the shield, the world-building is incredible and the character dialogue throughout is investing, which makes tackling the side content more interesting than a lot of other games. Basically, the dialogue is so good you won’t be bored to death.
Now throughout my playthrough I did decide to delve into the side content as the game lets you try out some of the areas within a realm along your journey which is optional but lets you find new items to support your equipment, more XP to level up and side-quests that will benefit your trophy progression. The side-quests also add to the world-building, so it feels just as good as the main story which is great as other RPGs tend to be pretty weak on this aspect (side-quests in a lot of RPGs don’t have much effort on them and are mainly fetch-quests, though I hear Trails is pretty solid for their quest content).
While you’re on a boat or mounting on a sleigh with wolves, your characters will monologue throughout which adds a lot of fun moments and references to previous games. I know many people don’t want to play the Greek mythology saga, but I highly recommend playing the franchise from the start to get the best impact possible on Kratos’ development because there’s a lot of call-backs and dialogue that hits more if you know his backstory.
I spent 45 hours overall on God of War Ragnarok with all trophies acquired, including the Platinum. There are some tough fights with the Berserker Gravestones and a post-game boss fight but with practice and a very handy Resurrection Stone, you will beat it without an issue. One trick that I have found is that some big bosses will try to bifrost you (which eats your HP, especially if you get damaged after) and to protect yourself you’ll want to double-tap the shield so that it does a deflect – you’ll notice this tactic will generally appear when you see two blue circles appear on the enemy. Enemies will also have two yellow circles which if timed right will allow you to parry, or two red circles which basically means dodge them as you can’t protect yourself from them.
I haven’t talked much about the story or other gameplay elements to avoid major spoilers, but I do recommend going into God of War Ragnarok with as little knowledge as possible because it’s a great journey from start to finish and wraps up very well.
Super Mario 64 (3D All-Stars Remaster)
Back when I first acquired a Nintendo Switch the first game that I basically played was the original Super Mario 64 remastered from the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection. This remaster upscales the game and makes it clearer, though it doesn’t improve the framerate.
I 100% finished the Nintendo DS remake many years ago and while I owned the digital version on the Nintendo Wii via the Virtual Console, I had never finished the original before and now I finally have. I started the game earlier in the year but only continued where I left off while I was on holiday since I brought the Nintendo Switch with me.
The camera is pretty terrible, it’s not great and has caused a lot of deaths as a result so I won’t lie there. But besides that, I do think the rest of the gameplay holds up very well. The jump setup is cool, the weird crouch-jump trick is handy for large gaps, and it’s challenging in specific areas. I haven’t gone for 100% completion in this instance because I can’t be asked to try and get 100 coins for each level so I managed to get as many as 108 of 120 stars overall (6 stars of 7 for each level, though I did manage to get 100 coins for 2 levels, and about 11 of 15 from the Castle).
Overall, Super Mario 64 is good fun and will eventually go through the other two games in the collection later.
And that concludes my list of video games I played throughout the year of 2022. The backlog has grown even more, with 139 PlayStation games and 11 Nintendo Switch currently which is very large indeed. My stance still remains as I would rather acquire them than don’t bother at all due to the nature of the physical media market.
Honourable mentions as I don’t consider them as complete games was the beta demo for WoLong that Koei Tecmo released in September time which helped inspire me to start Nioh, the 51 Worldwide Games collection that Nintendo released which I played during my holiday trip to Center Parcs (before continuing progress with Super Mario 64) and Ridge Racer 2 which was added to PlayStation Plus in December.
The 2023 gaming experience I intend to be a mixture of both PlayStation and Switch. Hopefully the games are shorter so that I can add more to the completion list!
The Normanic Vault 
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