Games/VN that didn't land GOTY/WOW ALL TIME CLASSIC but deserve a mention:

Cris Tales: mostly made for people who are nostalgic for Golden Sun era JRPGs, made by Colombian studio whose Colombian roots are gently planted then gloriously flowered through. The art is solidly one of my favourite of all time. I still strongly recommend everyone to buy this, I think the studio deserves all the success. Unfortunately the quality of life stuff, like the 10 seconds loading time every random battle, and poorly thought out boss fights made me not fully love it. Think of the game play as what happens if Yoko Taro wasn't supervised by someone else.

Octopath Travelers: entirely made for people who are nostalgic for FFIV era JRPG, made by SE. Pretty much streamlined all the quality of life stuff, unbelievably beautiful, with surprisingly complex combat. Poor fit for me because I found that era of JRPG meh.

MoonRPG: trollishly made for people who are sick of the nostalgia for early Dragon Quests, made by ex Enix staff. Made in 1997, somehow managed to be more clever than just about every 00s/10s "ironic" JRPG subversions. I absolutely cannot play any games where you race against seconds of clock, so I had to tap out. Hella good game.

Death Mark: a fairly it's-what-you-expect Japanese urban horror. Amazing atmosphere, surprisingly willing yo address stuff like violence against women and transphobia, and in a sort of Asian way of, if we can't convince people to stop being shit because it's bad thing to do, what if we just scare them into not behaving like shit so they are not haunted by angry ghosts of their victims? I'm put off by the weird sexualised women victims pictures though. One way to defeat your own purpose.

Paranormasight: a fairly it's-what-you-expect urban horror. The way it treated image/videos was incredible, a high school aged expert was respected appropriately, though I really hated one key character to the point of unable to fully love this game. (Yes yet another awful abusive man who is treated as the victim because boo hoo he felt bad for being an awful abusive man). Special shout out that this is an urban horror about ghosts killing randoms in Sumida region, made with support by Sumida council to boost tourism. Yes yes I totally went to Sumida for this. Was not killed.

Corpse Factory: I'm usually a little put off by "Japanese VN" made in Melbourne by whitefellas, here it's ok with me because I do get the sense that the creators genuinely do care about Japanese VNs instead of How To Draw Manga kind of incompetent misappropriation. It's intentionally depressing through and through, think of something almost touching Aku no Hara without truly elevate into that level of WELL DONE AND I'M NOPING OUT. Still worth a try imo.

Monark: it's basically Persona but dialed up the validly depressed teenagers to 100, so maybe a more accurate term is SMT wearing Persona skin? As a story, I preferred this over any of the SMTs. As a game, holy jpeg grinding.

Omori: I lasted around an hour before this game depressed me so much that I want to die, and I was still at the wholesome part. This is the appeal, but eh. Here's your ten star I will never touch it again.

Rain Code: I would've enjoyed it so much more if I'm not already a Danganronpa fan. V3 blew my mind. Rain Code is too much reusing the same plot twist that's been used in Danganronpa already. The town design is hella gorgeous.

A Requiem for Innocence/Assento Dele: look, they are good. Imeon is now one of my favourites of this series (admittedly it's also because most characters are pretty much too fucked up to exist), Ceren is a close second (admittedly its also because she out-fucked up everyone else against my expectation); I'm glad I got to know Morgana more, it's kinda just a bit extra reading material if my expectations were House in Fata Morgana.

The Good Life: I try to advance it every year, then I remembered that in order for me to continue the fairly enjoyable eccentric story, I'm forced to emulate daily struggle of spending hours to earn 20 pounds so I don't die of starvation.

Tales of Berseria: would be GOTY material by a lot, if I didn't had to stop half way due to life circumstances.

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2023 Visual Novel of the Year: Seventh Lair. With the disclaimer that I am a House in Fata Morgana fan, Seventh Lair somehow managed to be a mixture of JRPG affectionate parody, isekai, and Fata Morgana reused sprites, yet a fresh and sincere story about indie game dev and the parasocial nature with the players. As expected per Novect title, everything about it just perfectly makes sense in the context of an utterly messed up cast.

A more in-depth, spoiler heavy post about it: https://toot.cat/@BigShellEvent/111692639528369337

(____ Of The Year is based on the year I first had access to it, NOT based on the year of release).

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2023 Game of the Year (exclude VN): Narcosis. I adored the stage design, as it it gave me Layers of Fear kind of otherworldly feelings, and the plot is spot on. I've never experienced such realistic horror like this, the adult fear of what if you, an otherwise perfectly harmless person, is too arrogant to consider basic safety protocols apply to you because you are the protagonist of the world, and caused great harm because of that?

(____ Of The Year is based on the year I first had access to it, NOT based on the year of release).

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