Metacritic: Best Video Games of 2023 So Far (at Midyear): The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)
Metacritic: Best Video Games of 2023 So Far (at Midyear): The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)
by Turbostrider27
26 Comments
StretchKind8509
I haven’t played enough this year to have a Top 5, but so far my top 3 Switch games for the year are: Zelda TotK, Paranormasight, and Ken Follet’s The Pillars of the Earth.
Joseki100
Honorable mention to the Xenoblade 3 story expansion at 92.
asparagushunter
Not on the Switch but Dave the Diver must have missed out by a matter of hours – sits at 89 with 7 reviews but the most recent two look to have been added to MC on the cut off day, and MC itself doesn’t seem to have updated to show that it officially released and came out of early access yesterday.
Anyway, these lists are nice to read through for things people might have missed – I kind of wish the end of year ones would also have a companion ‘second half of the year’ best of as some smaller titles lose out of a little bit of exposure there.
Dukemon102
They should have waited a day before doing this list to add Ghost Trick to the 85 club (Although it deserves higher score than that).
Also it’s funny seeing RE4 and Metroid Prime at the top with TOTK. Gamecube’s legacy lives on.
W1cH099
Man i loved Hogwarts Legacy, the castle itself it’s so impressive and fun to explore, also the world i got lost on it. I haven’t felt that in a while during open world exploration
A lot of excellent games this year, i own but still have to play trough Diablo 4, Resident Evil 4, TOTK, Metroid and Dead Space so fun times ahead for me 😎
chaosxq
ToTK is a true master class in game design. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
fender_fan_boy
Hoping Pikmin 4 will be up there too for end of the year. Just played the demo and had a great time
ShopCartRicky
Been a pretty decent year so far, with TotK, Diablo 4 and FF16 all being GotY worthy. Then we have Starfield and Baldurs Gate 3 around the corner before we even get to the onslaught coming in October.
That said, best game, hands down for me, is FF16. I was so against the new combat from trailers and previews and I just can’t put the game down ever since I tried the demo. Great gameplay and fantastic story. I’ve tried to continue my TotK and Diablo 4 saves a few times, and I just put them down within minutes and head back to FF.
shadow0wolf0
This has been a very good year for games. There’s still four big games I’m really excited for that are coming out this year. Super Mario Bros Wonder, Mario RPG, lies of p, and Starfield.
seeyoshirun
While TotK is definitely an outstanding game, I can’t shake that slight feeling of disappointment when I see that three of the other places in the top five (Dead Space, Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime) are remakes of old games – great games, yes, but they don’t fill me with the same sense of wonder as something truly new does.
On that note, I hadn’t heard of Humanity (#12) but it looks really unique and I’ll probably check it out soon!
superyoshiom
Waiting on the flurry of “Tears of the Kingdom is no masterpiece” or “Tears of the Kingdom isn’t very good, actually” that we’ll have to deal with until the release of the next entry
kindastandtheman
I can’t think of a single time where I’ve ever bought this many new games right on release, and the year is only half way over. Dead Space, Re4, ToTK, FF16, and Star Wars already so far.
And there’s still Starfield, Spiderman, Alan Wake 2, and a few other smaller releases that I have my eyes on…
Squaretangles
TotK really blows my mind from a technical standpoint, but I feel like I need a strategy guide just to turn it on. I came around to BoTW and ended up loving it. But choice paralysis is insane in this one. Like I legit am just lost trying to get to Rito Village, and the mobs I run into while wandering are kicking my ass since I have four hearts.
I’m not sure it’s for me. Or is there a moment where it clicks for most people?
chippeddusk
Glad Octopath II made the short list. Great game and so far my game of the year (haven’t had much of an itch for open world, so I’ve played “only” about 20 hours on TotK, too soon to judge where it’ll land.)
xXMickFlurryXx
2023 has been an incredible year for gamers so far. I still haven’t beaten totk but I’ve been switching between that and sf6. Then right after I beat totk I have ff16!
RyanTheQ
I clicked through with adblock so you don’t have to. I hate listicle bullshit where everything is on its own page.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
2. Metroid Prime Remastered
3. Resident Evil 4 Remake
4. Street Figther 6
5. Dead Space
6. Final Fantasy XVI
7. Teatrhythm Final Bar Line
8. Hi-Fi Rush
9. Diablo IV
10. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
11. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
12. Humanity
13. A Space for the Unbound
14. Octopath Traveler II
15. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
16. Hogwarts Legacy
17. Cassette Beasts
18. Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society
19. Age of Wonders 4
20. Doomblade
Luck88
I wish half the people who love Zelda gave a shot to Metroid Prime or Dread.
ssmike27
I really loved Tears of the Kingdom, but I think I liked the Resident Evil 4 remake a bit more. I genuinely think Zelda would have edged it out for me if the sage abilities weren’t so insanely clunky.
ManiacalTeddy
I loved TotK immensely, way more than BotW but when I step back and look at it objectively, it has some pretty major flaws. A lot of it is in the menus and the tedium of cooking, fusing (especially arrows) and using the sages. The world is incredible in scale, but the sky is mostly empty with a lot of repeat islands. I was a bit disappointed when I realized that the starting island is the biggest and most significant. The Depths is incredible to explore in the dark and the first time I found it I was blown away that there was another Hyrule-sized area to explore but it is fairly bland over all.
My biggest gripe is still the same as the one I had with BotW, which is an underwhelming reward system. The only stand-out rewards are armor pieces – and that’s really it. Rupees and seeds and the like are expendable currencies and you can easily get far more than you need. It’s not exciting when a reward or a hidden chest give you rupees or an ingredient. Swords and shields make for underwhelming rewards because they’ll shatter and disappear before the end of the next fight.
Exploring for the sake of taking in the sights can be a reward in of itself, but that’s what BotW was about and once you had explored, there wasn’t much to see or do. We’re back in the same Hyrule with only a handful of changes to the settlements and its new components I feel lose their luster pretty quick. Reuniting Koroks and helping Addison are a fun way to interact with small portions of the world at a time but after your nth Korok seed they become meaningless and I was done with Addison’s single dialogue tree by the end of my first day.
It’s now just meandering around, hoping to find whatever non-brittle and non-expendable collectables are left.
TotK is still a phenomenal game mostly due to Ultrahand and the Zonai devices. What you can make really is limited only to your imagination but in the six years of development it seems like that’s the basked the devs put most of their eggs into and if you don’t have patience to build enemy-targeting laser arrays and gundam I don’t think TotK offers much to keep you around any longer than BotW could.
romanbaitskov
As someone who’s never played Metroid prime should I give it a go? I only have one game for my switch currently and looking to try something new
husbandofsamus
Pikmin 4 is gonna get robbed of a game of the year nomination so hard
AskinggAlesana
FF16 should be bumped up to #2 but other than that I agree.
captainhyrule1
Kinda sucks most of these are remakes / remasters. Honestly totk is more botw than a brand new game
mcbergstedt
I just started playing and I love it so far. My only gripe is that the zoanite/charge/crystal/battery grinding is incredibly annoying.
jjwhitaker
I think they more or less took the steam description for some of these games.
Article:
> A slice-of-life adventure set in rural 1990s Indonesia depicted through pixel art graphics, Unbound follows high school sweethearts Atma and Raya as their lives are changed by a brush with the supernatural. The emotional (and humorous) story, unique atmosphere, and plentiful puzzles combine into a low-key gem suitable for a wide range of gamers.
Steam:
> A Space for the Unbound is a slice-of-life adventure game with beautiful pixel art set in the late 90s rural Indonesia that tells a story about overcoming anxiety, depression, and the relationship between a boy and a girl with supernatural powers.
> Follow two high school sweethearts, Atma and Raya, on a journey of self-discovery at the end of their high school years. When a mysteriously supernatural power is suddenly unleashed threatening their existence, they must explore and investigate their town to uncover hidden secrets, face the end of the world, and perhaps learn more about each other.
> Set in a small town inspired by 90s era rural Indonesia, A Space for the Unbound presents an endearing story-driven experience with a vibrant environment waiting to be explored.
I bet ChatGPT wrote this article.
deathsabove
Even though its not on the list I thought Dredge was one of the best games Ive played so far this year.
26 Comments
I haven’t played enough this year to have a Top 5, but so far my top 3 Switch games for the year are: Zelda TotK, Paranormasight, and Ken Follet’s The Pillars of the Earth.
Honorable mention to the Xenoblade 3 story expansion at 92.
Not on the Switch but Dave the Diver must have missed out by a matter of hours – sits at 89 with 7 reviews but the most recent two look to have been added to MC on the cut off day, and MC itself doesn’t seem to have updated to show that it officially released and came out of early access yesterday.
Anyway, these lists are nice to read through for things people might have missed – I kind of wish the end of year ones would also have a companion ‘second half of the year’ best of as some smaller titles lose out of a little bit of exposure there.
They should have waited a day before doing this list to add Ghost Trick to the 85 club (Although it deserves higher score than that).
Also it’s funny seeing RE4 and Metroid Prime at the top with TOTK. Gamecube’s legacy lives on.
Man i loved Hogwarts Legacy, the castle itself it’s so impressive and fun to explore, also the world i got lost on it. I haven’t felt that in a while during open world exploration
A lot of excellent games this year, i own but still have to play trough Diablo 4, Resident Evil 4, TOTK, Metroid and Dead Space so fun times ahead for me 😎
ToTK is a true master class in game design. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Hoping Pikmin 4 will be up there too for end of the year. Just played the demo and had a great time
Been a pretty decent year so far, with TotK, Diablo 4 and FF16 all being GotY worthy. Then we have Starfield and Baldurs Gate 3 around the corner before we even get to the onslaught coming in October.
That said, best game, hands down for me, is FF16. I was so against the new combat from trailers and previews and I just can’t put the game down ever since I tried the demo. Great gameplay and fantastic story. I’ve tried to continue my TotK and Diablo 4 saves a few times, and I just put them down within minutes and head back to FF.
This has been a very good year for games. There’s still four big games I’m really excited for that are coming out this year. Super Mario Bros Wonder, Mario RPG, lies of p, and Starfield.
While TotK is definitely an outstanding game, I can’t shake that slight feeling of disappointment when I see that three of the other places in the top five (Dead Space, Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime) are remakes of old games – great games, yes, but they don’t fill me with the same sense of wonder as something truly new does.
On that note, I hadn’t heard of Humanity (#12) but it looks really unique and I’ll probably check it out soon!
Waiting on the flurry of “Tears of the Kingdom is no masterpiece” or “Tears of the Kingdom isn’t very good, actually” that we’ll have to deal with until the release of the next entry
I can’t think of a single time where I’ve ever bought this many new games right on release, and the year is only half way over. Dead Space, Re4, ToTK, FF16, and Star Wars already so far.
And there’s still Starfield, Spiderman, Alan Wake 2, and a few other smaller releases that I have my eyes on…
TotK really blows my mind from a technical standpoint, but I feel like I need a strategy guide just to turn it on. I came around to BoTW and ended up loving it. But choice paralysis is insane in this one. Like I legit am just lost trying to get to Rito Village, and the mobs I run into while wandering are kicking my ass since I have four hearts.
I’m not sure it’s for me. Or is there a moment where it clicks for most people?
Glad Octopath II made the short list. Great game and so far my game of the year (haven’t had much of an itch for open world, so I’ve played “only” about 20 hours on TotK, too soon to judge where it’ll land.)
2023 has been an incredible year for gamers so far. I still haven’t beaten totk but I’ve been switching between that and sf6. Then right after I beat totk I have ff16!
I clicked through with adblock so you don’t have to. I hate listicle bullshit where everything is on its own page.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
2. Metroid Prime Remastered
3. Resident Evil 4 Remake
4. Street Figther 6
5. Dead Space
6. Final Fantasy XVI
7. Teatrhythm Final Bar Line
8. Hi-Fi Rush
9. Diablo IV
10. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
11. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
12. Humanity
13. A Space for the Unbound
14. Octopath Traveler II
15. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
16. Hogwarts Legacy
17. Cassette Beasts
18. Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society
19. Age of Wonders 4
20. Doomblade
I wish half the people who love Zelda gave a shot to Metroid Prime or Dread.
I really loved Tears of the Kingdom, but I think I liked the Resident Evil 4 remake a bit more. I genuinely think Zelda would have edged it out for me if the sage abilities weren’t so insanely clunky.
I loved TotK immensely, way more than BotW but when I step back and look at it objectively, it has some pretty major flaws. A lot of it is in the menus and the tedium of cooking, fusing (especially arrows) and using the sages. The world is incredible in scale, but the sky is mostly empty with a lot of repeat islands. I was a bit disappointed when I realized that the starting island is the biggest and most significant. The Depths is incredible to explore in the dark and the first time I found it I was blown away that there was another Hyrule-sized area to explore but it is fairly bland over all.
My biggest gripe is still the same as the one I had with BotW, which is an underwhelming reward system. The only stand-out rewards are armor pieces – and that’s really it. Rupees and seeds and the like are expendable currencies and you can easily get far more than you need. It’s not exciting when a reward or a hidden chest give you rupees or an ingredient. Swords and shields make for underwhelming rewards because they’ll shatter and disappear before the end of the next fight.
Exploring for the sake of taking in the sights can be a reward in of itself, but that’s what BotW was about and once you had explored, there wasn’t much to see or do. We’re back in the same Hyrule with only a handful of changes to the settlements and its new components I feel lose their luster pretty quick. Reuniting Koroks and helping Addison are a fun way to interact with small portions of the world at a time but after your nth Korok seed they become meaningless and I was done with Addison’s single dialogue tree by the end of my first day.
It’s now just meandering around, hoping to find whatever non-brittle and non-expendable collectables are left.
TotK is still a phenomenal game mostly due to Ultrahand and the Zonai devices. What you can make really is limited only to your imagination but in the six years of development it seems like that’s the basked the devs put most of their eggs into and if you don’t have patience to build enemy-targeting laser arrays and gundam I don’t think TotK offers much to keep you around any longer than BotW could.
As someone who’s never played Metroid prime should I give it a go? I only have one game for my switch currently and looking to try something new
Pikmin 4 is gonna get robbed of a game of the year nomination so hard
FF16 should be bumped up to #2 but other than that I agree.
Kinda sucks most of these are remakes / remasters. Honestly totk is more botw than a brand new game
I just started playing and I love it so far. My only gripe is that the zoanite/charge/crystal/battery grinding is incredibly annoying.
I think they more or less took the steam description for some of these games.
Article:
> A slice-of-life adventure set in rural 1990s Indonesia depicted through pixel art graphics, Unbound follows high school sweethearts Atma and Raya as their lives are changed by a brush with the supernatural. The emotional (and humorous) story, unique atmosphere, and plentiful puzzles combine into a low-key gem suitable for a wide range of gamers.
Steam:
> A Space for the Unbound is a slice-of-life adventure game with beautiful pixel art set in the late 90s rural Indonesia that tells a story about overcoming anxiety, depression, and the relationship between a boy and a girl with supernatural powers.
> Follow two high school sweethearts, Atma and Raya, on a journey of self-discovery at the end of their high school years. When a mysteriously supernatural power is suddenly unleashed threatening their existence, they must explore and investigate their town to uncover hidden secrets, face the end of the world, and perhaps learn more about each other.
> Set in a small town inspired by 90s era rural Indonesia, A Space for the Unbound presents an endearing story-driven experience with a vibrant environment waiting to be explored.
I bet ChatGPT wrote this article.
Even though its not on the list I thought Dredge was one of the best games Ive played so far this year.