A Late, Long, and Necessary 2023 Retrospective

youre killing it. keep it up.

“Let’s do one on me!”

Yes. I want this every time.

First off, your druid spell selection is terrible. Second, why are you not a gnome wizard? Third, Bwin.

Really like your stuff man, and if you are looking for a fun indie game (though it's not a recent game) is Tower of Heaven, nice and short and really fun, and banger music, def recommend 👍 keep up the good work, and looking forward to trying out any games you feel like releasing in the future

Your beard looks stupid and you're balding.



(That's the revenge for the full-screen picture of Bobby)

Joking aside, love your stuff and a thumbs up for all the games that are on your list for 2024.

I hope you find some time for some old snes ARPGs at some point. I would love to hear your thoughts on the Gaia trilogy from Quintet.

I appreciate you using my proper Christian name here. Great video man!

An hour and 30 minutes of Zerbraxi... a blessed day

Really great video. Since the first video that I watched you got me hooked for more!

Another great video, and a great angle to do the retrospective on the past year/aims for the new year type of content. I too have wanted to get into the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series for a while and I found a weird way into the series, maybe it's worth looking into for you. Last year I played Like a Dragon:Ishin! the game that takes places during Japan's Edo period except they mapped a lot of the characters from the actual current day games onto the historical figures. I had no background in the series at all, but loved that game. I also in the last couple weeks decided to play Like a Dragon Gaiden: The man who erased his name, because I heard it was pretty short (12-15ish hours) and some folks on the gaming podcast Minnmax said they played it with little background in the rest of the series and really liked it. I can say having only a vague idea of some of the characters personalities from Ishin that Gaiden hit really hard for me (despite being a bridge between Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon). I was fist pumping during the finale as people I didn't know showed up to help a protagonist I only knew from the 10ish hours of the current game, and the ending had me actually crying with tears running down my face because the folks at Ryu Ga Gotoku are incredible story tellers. After finishing this I will be playing the rest of the series, I just have to figure out when the hell to play 8 (with the new one coming out this) big RPGs with incredible cities to get lost in and accidently spend dozens of hours on side content.

Wow you REALLY got me with the Sea of Stars to Golden Sun comparison. Haven’t heard that anywhere else, and personally I don’t love Chrono Trigger. I have The Messenger sitting unplayed on my Switch; as soon as I finish that I’m definitely getting SoS.

Best of luck on your new aspirations, too!

My name is wes and I haven't played any Kojima games yet

nice shirt

Such a great Video really Like Your Personal and honest Breakdown of the Year Not only about Games!

Zerbraxi video!!!! Man totally go for the thousand year door. But you do you and we will be here to support you. ❤️

Honestly you're one of the most chill YT'ers I've seen that hasn't been "exposed" lately, or quitting, and I fear that's gonna start happening to a lot of top tier YT'ers now, so I pray you never go down that path. But, as it stands, I would LOVE to just randomly message you one day and... shoot the shit. It's rare to have someone with a common interest in games but also have level headed opinions on stuff. Like:

I personally HATED Tears of the Kingdom for multiple reasons, but I'm not gonna rag on you for liking it and thinking it's a really good game, because it is. There's other reasons I was disappointed.

And Baldur's Gate 3 having the impact it did, I've never even TOUCHED the series, and even I was like "This is what we need MORE of".

You're unironically a better analyst and content creator than most of the guys with hundreds of thousands of subs. I don't know how you're so good at this right out of the gate, but I really hope you keep uploading. You're gonna take off, I guarantee it.

kwin

Well first off thanks for the sonic reference in crusader of centy. Don't mean to sound like a certain someone we know : ) but now I've got to mentally come up with an interesting and cool backstory to explain the cameo. Nice how he's always reminding us "not for resale". Always on message, that one.

Really though now that I know about this 8bit gem I can add it to my backlog. Sometimes I think you've become a recommendation engine for me :). I've loved playing some of the mana series and golden sun. Actually that save file music sounds like its ripped straight out of an old school shining force game. Also, I've long been on my high horse about emulators (whether out of fear for legal repercussions or malware, feeling overwhelmed and unsure about how to do it, or just plain smug moral superiority) but I think it's finally time I've descended to the common folk. The recommendation on the hardware and the video are very helpful and sound like a fun project.

Overall I would have to say you did an amazing job weaving a year in gaming retrospective into your personal life. It feels as if I gotten to know you on a personal level just through how you've described these games have affected your life. I'm sad to hear all the struggling you've had to endure this year but am glad you've found an escape through these games as well as achieved personal growth and refocused your priorites and direction in life. I can say I empathize about a troubled childhood with less-than-ideal parents (though I haven't seen your zelda video yet just from what you've said here yours sounds way worse) and that awesome magical ability for games to whisk you to another world. Indeed, this is one of the parts, if not THE part, of games that is why I have such fondness for them. Oh and I didn't know you were so lonely. If you're in the mood feel free to give me a message sometime if you're playing a game I have. Or if its not too expensive, I'll buy it.

I would also say not to beat yourself too much about your output in terms of videos. While I haven't watched all your videos to the nth degree (sorry I've only done that with those seal slapping belly channels and I will be flogging myself later) I've seen the length and quality of recent videos go up substantially and I think that counts for something. And please don't overwork yourself too much as it sounded at times. I would be disheartened to hear you question making gaming videos again. I love your videos, even the bad-in-a-good-way jokes. Especially those! I totally agree with that comment about subscriber count not matching the quality of the channel and may have even mentioned it before. I'm just waiting for when it finally corrects and then you'll be making a certain video we agreed upon >: ).


Finally, I know this video must have taken a monumental effort (its not late btw, you were only a couple weeks in and just in time for my bday) but next time could you list the games you mentioned and maybe even split the video that way?

The effort and love you put into your content is really something else my friend, keep it up and I'm sure you'll be cracking 10k subs in no time. And from there on sky is the limit, you make better quality content than some of the one million plus sub game channels I know.