An RPG Gamer's Guide To The Holidays - Holiday Buyer's Guide

[@KedaiCiplak]

Been following your channel since your DOS 1 days and now you're reaching 100k. Thank you for building this shopping guide.

[@PrinceOfGenovia]

Love the channel Mort - I’m about 15 hours into Tactics Ogre Reborn on switch right now and man, this is is perfection. Streamlined gameplay but still deep and layered, perfectly balanced difficulty, compelling story but not overdone, incredible music. Man if square could do a TRPG with modern graphics like this, it would be a perfect game. FFT2 would be insane. Anyway, keep up the great content my dude, and have a great holiday season!

[@Castapher]

there were rumours about the remaster of FFT but still nothing. I dont want to hold my breath .... :(

[@NinjaSushi2]

I miss linear story games. The last 20 years everything's been open the world in one way or another. Sometimes it's nice knowing you only have to keep moving forward and that you don't have to backtrack.

[@luluna5228]

@@NinjaSushi2 20 years? thats practically all of gaming lmao what games hav eyou bee playing

[@JohnnyTightIips]

Mortym is our Christmas miracle in terms of content, thanks dude!

[@Mystra]

I think you should have been nominated for content creator of the year for TGA. Almost nobody makes useful videos like this, at least not this extensive! Thank you :)

[@lokilalisan7078]

Such a man of culture. Easily one of my newest fave KZbinrs!

[@TerenceVsHill]

Completly agree, he's rly good :D

[@johnreynolds2512]

Discovered him about 15-16 months ago with all the new Wrath of the Righteous coverage at the time and Mort is definitely one of my very favorite YTers for RPGs.

[@L330ne]

agreed!

[@R3GARnator]

Indeed.

[@KaguroDraven]

I am once again asking you to review Geneforge

[@TheSkoneczny117]

I second that

[@lordcatpotato]

Detailed quick review nice.. I'll get new one for my wishlist , triangle strategy.. As Fellow Gamers , my personal favorite is Pathfinder Kingmaker & WOTR, Divinity 1 2, Baldurs Gate 3, Spellforce 3 , Total War Warhammer II

[@siddharthshishulkar8992]

Great roundup man, love from India 🇮🇳

[@MarkHyde]

Just found this video a few days late, Really happy with a purchase of PF: Wrath of the Righteous today - even if it hasn't been released this year :) Was on Black Friday special. Amazing and apt content though re late 2022 releases plus sales etc.

[@Post5775]

Small suggestion: when referring to console versions, there are still quite a few people with last gen consoles. It might be better to mention which console, e.g. Steel Rising is only available for PS5 and will never release for the PS4. Love your content!

[@coconutologist]

This was impressively thorough. Thank you. Onward to 100k, and all glory to the Algorithm!

[@wiz349]

I like what you did here. Feedback of I may: please include the names of the games while their being shown so if I miss you speaking it's name I don't have to rewind. Great video for sure

[@ThousandairesClub]

*ELEX 2 was reallllyyyy gooooooood but needs a feature where you get to protect your castle from outside threats constantly.*

[@Flagonborn]

Yay, glad you made this video!

[@MortismalGaming]

Glad you suggested it!

[@StarkeRealm]

I've got some concerns about Evil West. It's the latest from People Can Fly, and while their previous release (Outriders) was pretty enjoyable, there were some serious technical issues that marred the release, some of which remain to this day. Issues like your account being zeroed out, and a lack of cheat protections which allow cheaters to permanently corrupt your account, "for the lulz."

[@EKCO0310]

You're almost at 100k subs! Congrats!!!

[@davidhalseyhiller4955]

I wish you had done these in past years, I would have gone back to watch them if I hadn't already seen them (which I likely would have).

[@FhargaZ]

Great year tor Strategic RPGs. Expeditions Rome is pretty good, many things from Ex: vikings that i hated were fixed here 😁.

[@joodystipes2093]

I'd love to see you cover Kenshi!

[@PandaPowerable]

Not sure why but I read the title as a holiday destination guide and I thought, why is an RPG gamer recommending holiday destinations! 🙂

[@leilanisunainamilja2966]

You just earned a subscriber. Fantastic content

[@N0strapapas]

idk, Mort. My 5 year old LOVES Dark Souls, so he might like Elden Ring too. ...He can't even make it to the bridge dragon, but he's having a good time!

[@sub0entity387]

I was sure Asterigos would be on this list

[@neosho3953]

So pumped for this video!

[@richard_n]

The Warhammer 40K game is the only one I've played on this list and it's great. I do disagree about the difficulty though. The normal mode is equivalent to hard modes on most games IMHO. Definitely play on easy until you get the hang of the game and the mechanics. That being said, I definitely recommend it.

[@L330ne]

Great video man, definitely enjoy your content! I really want to get the King Arthur game. I doubt it will go on sale anytime soon though, might have to bite the bullet.

[@AcheliusDecimus]

Currently I am playing Thymesia, and man it is hard, but satisfying to kill bosses. Just finished the god of fools. I am 10% into Elden Ring, but I need to get better at dodging and blocking hence Thymesia.

[@rizzy11111]

Awesome video. thank you very much for putting this together

[@Corleony101]

i just want to say, thank you for the nudity warning. as my son is getting more into gaming, things like that is a concern. thankx.

[@spaceghostohio7989]

Great video. Thanks for the info on all the games.

[@ryanz486]

King Arthur's really surprised me at how much fun it was. The end game is punishing af though (perhaps a bit unfair especially if you didn't build your team with end goal in mind) but it's well worth a buy. Also one thing I realized is lacking this year, and something I've been looking for lately are the "Diablo-style arpg's". I completely forgot about Waylanders, I came so damn close to buying that when it first released in EA as I liked the premise. So glad I didn't.

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

One solid pick in the Diablo-styled genre if you haven't checked it out is Grim Dawn. It's usually one of the commonly recommended titles though; alongside Path of Exile. Since the title goes back a few years you can usually get a good sale price during the holidays.

[@ryanz486]

@@XoRandomGuyoX Grim Dawn was actually the game that got me into the genre, and tbh to this day is still my absolute fave arpg. Especially on sale, it's an unbeatable price for what you get! Thanks though!

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

@@ryanz486 Ah. Well, if you don't mind a relatively clunky predecessor, there's also Titan Quest. That game is slower and simpler... and beyond Immortal Throne a new company took over and has put small bits of the refinements from Grim Dawn into Titan Quest. I still enjoy that title from time to time for its mythological setting.

[@name_christian]

Thanks for the list. Currently enjoying Dying Light 1 - cheap and a ton of content! From the looks of it I feel it’s even better than the sequel! Did you cover Days Gone? Seems very underrated as well and will be my next playthrough. Shoutout to Project Zomboid the only real zombie survival game 👍

[@Antonin1738]

great list!

[@jetngunzlk]

Great vid!

[@Nostromo2144]

You forgot Babylon’s Fall... :D Hey, it could still get patched into an awesome action rpg, with amazing gameplay & player resurrgence. Of course, a number of land animals are likely to fly before that happens, but hey, anything is possible, errr, right? 8-/

[@LC-pp4bb]

Tactics Orge, (single run is usually 40 hours). I'm at 35.2 hours and still on chapter 2. (About to get on boat, i'm guessing that starts chapter 3?

[@SergeiKozak]

Very good video

[@Mythicalmage]

Surprised you haven't had a look at Asterigos honestly, seems like a really interesting soulslike.

[@MortismalGaming]

I talked about it a little bit in a video a while back but havent had the time to actually finish it

[@EwigD]

No mention of star ocean at all?

[@SuperLootz]

Thanks man

[@subaru246]

Lot of interesting games to try. Thanks for the work. it's a shame that the Waylanders launched with so much bugs, it's unplayablr. I purchased it while in early access, not doing that again for any other game. Hugs from Spain

[@bmx3539]

Morty is relatively relative as always.

[@isaacmiller8833]

I'll probably just send you xcom at some point considering you can get a cdkey for just a couple bucks lol

[@RamssesPharaoh]

Looking forward to High on Life (Gamepass), and Midnight Suns.

[@CZiNTrPT]

Isn't there some sales platform where you could link to and earn some affiliated income? Even if it's not global, just US should be a nice bonus

[@MortismalGaming]

I mostly review games these days and I try to avoid the appearance of attaching a financial incentive to the sales of them. Maintaining my reputation is a lot more important than short term gain. Especially in today's environment where there is a lot of questions about a reviewers integrity.

[@CZiNTrPT]

@@MortismalGaming I understand your concerns. Still just some affiliated link with say humble bundle wouldn't harm your reputation, I say. You still review your games like you want and you already recommended enough games that if somebody wants to buy some of them they can. If say in the future there would be no more games you can wholeheartedly recommend, people can still buy the ones from the past videos, like this one. That's what I meant. I already own most of them I'm interested in, the others I put in my isthereanydeal waitlist for a very discounted price. just some food for thought

[@anaveragegamer359]

I doubt midnight suns will do well just based on the marvel bame since marvels avengers flopped

[@MortismalGaming]

Avengers flopped as a live service, initial sales were very good which is usually the case with bad games that leverage the marketing reach of a brand

[@anaveragegamer359]

@@MortismalGaming true enough

[@mattwong8465]

What is the name of the game seen at 1.30?

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

Dying Light 2. It's covered in the Misc Open World Game chapter of the video. The tone is a bit different from the first game. That one was more of an open world shooter. Dying Light 2 ditched that feel for something more akin to a comic book look with a beat'em up feel.

[@BLACKDOJAH789]

Mort , i was hoping you could give gaming TUTORIAL on GPU, memory , fine choices for 2020-2025 hardware choices

[@MortismalGaming]

Thats more the realm of tech youtubers but I'll think about it

[@AliIKarimi]

All I want for the holidays is mort to get to 100k

[@tonynussbaum]

I want all the nudity games please and thank you.

[@ceetruth4709]

Too. Many. Good. Games.

[@kn0bhe4d]

41:16 So GOTY then.

[@edwarren7022]

The new God of war is boring to me. I miss the old god of war games

[@satanamogila9251]

This channel is godsend for someone who recently transitioned from console to PC gaming, and opened a whole new world of tactical games

[@Nostromo2144]

Welcome to the PC Master Race mate! You can now start breathing through your nose and using your 8 fingers for gaming! ;)

[@satanamogila9251]

@@Nostromo2144 feels good, bro

[@satanamogila9251]

@@HArryvajonas xcom2 was the first thing I bought when I moved to PC

[@slappypants69]

Dude yes!!! Built my first pc this year. So stoked to put it to the test. Gonna crank Callisto Protocol to the max

[@unafflictedgaming]

@@slappypants69 i can't help but laugh at this considering callisto protocol release with terrible optimization lol

[@MunsterNox]

You forgot about Skyrim: Special Anniversary Enhanced Edition.

[@kbar4462]

Really appreciate this buyer guide, for ppl with limited time or limited funds, these concise reviews really are a life saver for gaming time

[@NinjaSushi2]

It's taken twenty years but I'm glad crpgs are making a comeback.

[@HelmuthGerka]

CRPGs never really died and we had a few amazing ones since long ago like Pillars of eternity, Pathfinder, Numenera and others more Tactical like Divinity OS.

[@nsp477]

That is a comprehensive guide if there ever was one. Good job, and happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

[@oil3]

This was SUPER helpful for holiday shopping. Excited to see what other kinds of content you make 🤘

[@jepeman]

Steam autumn sale is apparently starting next tuesday, so there is that at least. Edit: A nice addition could've been to mention if each game (Expeditions: Rome) is available on Gamepass, of course, how long it'll stay there, is always a question.

[@MunuM77]

Game pass games that are new this year and/or popular include tunic, vampire survivors, expeditions Rome, plague tale requiem, pentament, trek to yomi, weird west

[@rehf27]

Steelrising is definitely worth the full asking price. Great story, gameplay, music and voice acting, and the game already has new game plus. Lots of build options with variety of weapon choices. Finally, not overly challenging for us Souls-noobs.

[@dennisdavidov782]

If anyone looking to get it there is a 40% discount now on Greenmangaming.

[@BWills32]

Both of those "western" games look pretty fun, I haven't heard of them before. Love the insight about the rest, gonna keep my eye on some sales!

[@Becks670]

I hope sometime in the future we will see another not-soulslike action rpgs i miss them. Everything now has to be souls rehash it's tiring.

[@Krushx0]

Yeah I cannot find my RPG type of game this year. Everything are pixelated or using out of date engine with old limited features or soulslike with dumbed down systems and horrid unrealistic forced universe design like a nightmare with inconsistent map levels and how to whole thing just feel artificial to the point that i can smell the map editor instead of the game atmosphere iam looking at you dark souls and elden rings or trying to mix fantasy with scifi or having disturbing unpleasing concepts and just feel forced and soulless universe for the sake of being new different like those wild west cowboy games and others. I really miss RPGs like Skyrim or Gothic style with the good old gold xp equipment story crafting be fantasy or scifi or third person or fps. All Top down RPGs are weak and garbage tier for me since Divinity Original sin 2, i have hope for Baldurs Gate III. If you really want to introduce a new genre with a new fresh universe you should do it with an SS tier movie like the lord of the ring or make really detailed tv series with good universe and story. Its next to impossible to do with video games.

[@martinantelo7086]

I just discovered Black Geyser, looks interesting. From all the others I have all of ones I'm interested in except for Diofield. Currently playing Triangle Strategy and it's great, I love how well differentiated the units are. From this year I still need to play Expeditions Rome, Weird West, Hard West 2 and King Arthur. It has been an awesome year

[@davealaya]

Triangle Strategy is amazing!

[@Gwyndon]

Getting close to 100k so happy for your success, you deserve it.

[@sanjithechef]

Great recommendations and channel. Honestly, I love the expert opinion coupled with comments like whether a game is good for beginners or kids.

[@ThomasPaine01]

Excellent video, Mortym. Thank you for helping us out here!

[@CZiNTrPT]

Feedback: putting the game title on the screen somewhere I kind of lost my place while stuffing games into my waitlist while listening

[@robertdanielpickard]

Vampire Survivors. Not really an RPG but as an exsmoker i've found its short runs great as an alternative to a cigarette which I have more cravings for around holiday madness. happy holidays gamers :)

[@theshadowcult]

Witcher 3 big update also comes out in decemeber. Something like the 12th i think. If you have not played it, its a great time to do so.

[@patriot5550]

Need a guide like this for 2021 releases, as they will most likely be on sale these holidays.

[@Bandoolero]

Definitely the year of "XXX West" games

[@viet123456VN]

This is a really thorough and very to the point guide. Thank you and please keep up the good work.

[@jellycubed3575]

If you're into the Fire Emblem style games, I would suggest Symphony of War. It's a good one in the genre. It is kind of a mix of the old Ogre Battle game meets Fire Emblem.

[@onatgz]

you know what holiday means? that's right, free comment!

[@REALVINERGY]

Just a thought ( you can always wait until next year if you're considering it ) but maybe add 2022 to the title? So that you can do another one next year? As I think this video will easily blow up with black friday, christmas etc.

[@robcampion9917]

I tend to use Xmas as the time to get various DLCs.

[@ludovictiengou5014]

Nice review. Many games strikes me as potential buy such as Daemonhunters (even not a great fan of 40K to say the least) or Stray or Cult of the Lamb But time is a commodity I'm laking. So... i've to wait to finish some of the games you're talking about Steelrising which actually reconcialte me with Souls like. I hate that genre way too difficult to be enjoyable. Steelrising, despise its flaws, is fun to play (I'm doing it on SteamDeck and it runs quite smoothly...until the game make the deck overheated and shut down). Expedition Rome. Way better than the old Expeditions other titles. the historical side....well don't be as me an historian of the period because the game is awfull on that side (for example a legion of the era don't wear at all the outfit saw in the game. Nor are the ennemies of the era wore hoplite style weapons and gear). Otherwise a quite decent and fun game though Steelrising is the surprise for me. I hate (and quite ferociously) Souls like. But that one.... well.. I've tried it as I'm quite found of the Spyder experience (a small french studio with a nack for storytelling). And I'm found of it as result. Difficult but not as absurdly as the Souls thanks to the difficulties option. Quite good to on an historical point of view. I've pointed just one mistake. The Swiss Guard (yes they was indeed in Swiss Guard in French monarchy) is given a blue coat instead of the red one they wore. Also the soldiers you will saw wears a blue coat... not in 1789. At that time french soldiers wears a light grey (close to white) coat. The blue coat appears in 1793 Weird West. It's named suited it perfectly. I'm really balanced on this game. The mechanics are huge (with verticality, obstacles, destruction to be accounted in your tactics). But the story. As a french the Wild West is not so great a period. So the story doesn't reached me at all for now. And I'm not quite unticed to end that one.

[@szwajcer9862]

It doesn't quite fit the theme of the video, but I can very much recommend Metal: Hellsinger. It's quite similar to Doom from 2016 and doesn't offer a very long story, you can master the levels though. It's 30 € base, so I'd recommend it on a sale of some sort. The soundtrack is made by the studio so you basically get a heavy metal album in addition to the game one could say. And for narrative games I absolutely recommend Plague Tale: Requiem. Other than that amazing video as always.

[@jeremytipgos505]

Bro your taste in games is admirable. You're easily one of my favorite youtube game reviewers now. Keep it up, love the non-typical recommendations.

[@JesseKerson]

Appreciate the video, I would only ask that you consider adding the title in text on screen as you go through the game. A smorgasbord of games like this I have found is a great way of finding games I didn't know about or forgot about. That said, RPGs (Especially Tactics games) can have convoluted titles and the reason I may have forgotten about these games is because of the titles.

[@transcendingthedyad5663]

This man pumps out content the times I procrastinate in a day... Truly admirable... Keep up the great work.

[@frontendchaos]

Dang dude, fantastic video. This is not content I would get anywhere else. Out of curiosity, have you ever covered Dysmantle?

[@abylaybissekenov1588]

Great guide, I see that there were a lot interesting games this year. I am personally concerned with older games, but seems like there is something for me to grab as Expeditions: Rome

[@scratthesquirrel5242]

i like how you categorized the games, but i would prefer the video chapters to be for each individual game

[@dennisdavidov782]

Taliking about Action games with RPG elements, what about: Monster Hunter: Rise (and Sunbreak), Asterigos and Stranger of Paradise ? I know they weren't reviewed here but they seem more worthy of a recommendation than both Soulstice and Valkyrie: Elysium imho. For TRPG's Symphony of War and Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia are also worth a mention and reviewed pretty well. For 2D Metroidvanias/Souls'-likes there were some good releases this year: Moonscars, Dark Light and The Tarnishing of Juxtia.

[@pizzaman1891]

A great video for parents trying to buy games for thier kids. What a excellent idea.

[@ilovebiscuits7771]

That's a pretty nice list. I'd love to add some games that seem to have flown under the radar yet I found them rather enjoyable: For open world, I'd recommend a game called Gedonia. Its a game made by 1 guy so its very indie and it shows but it has got strong old school feels and some nice concepts and classes. For roguelites, I'd recommend Tainted Grail, Few Nights More and Warm Snow. First one is a card turnbased roguelite, second one is turnbased 2d vampire roguelite, third one is somewhat a chinese Hades. For CRPGs (C here as in Chinese), I'd recommend Sword and Fairy 7, Gujian 3, Xuan Yuan Sword 7 and Tale of Immortal (isometric 2d openworld with instance combat) For Tactical, I'd recommend Troubleshooter. Its a Korean anime RPG that plays abit like X-COM yet has its own unique different style of gameplay. I'd also recommend Sands of Salazar but I'm not sure how to categorize this. Its possibly best described as a mount and blade like isometric ARPG.

[@Baardnick]

for christmas games? id recommend Witcher 3 next gen remaster, coming 14th of december, if u dont have the game already, the upgrade is free. Chained Echoes is also an RPG id reccommend, oldscool jrpg coming 8th of december. highly inspired by classics like ff6, 7, 9, 12, xenogears, suikoden 2. look really good and the philosphy of the design has been "not like the old games were, but how we remember them".

[@isaacmiller8833]

Still think you should replay/review xcom and xcom 2. Considering you seem to like warhammer 40k daemonhunter and its pretty much just a warhammer version of xcom.

[@trashman1358]

Hehe - that opening! People been giving you a hard time huh? I'd take the entire beginning, make it a video called 'caveats' or something and just refer to it in the beginning. :) Love the way you approach and cover games though - like a mate giving you their breakdown rather than what frequency the sound uses on your sound card (I need to know that why?). Awesome, loved it, subscribed.

[@Shikao87]

Managed to get through the rest in two more sessions I will be looking at an unusual for me feature this year during Winter Sale - does the game have Portuguese (Brazilian variation in particular) translation? As it seems I will be going to Brasil next year for two months. I was happy to find out that Wildermyth and Ruined King both have that. Also I might to a replay of Maneater ^_^

[@bobzar77]

I found you a few weeks ago and have probably watched 25 or 30 videos since then. I am very glad you are doing this, as someone who was into trpgs back in the day, you have firmly convinced me it is time to go back. Thank you! -r

[@musguera]

So sad in the CRPG list there is only one game. As for buying new games, with my backlog and available time to play it, I think I'm covered for a few years...

[@stimublu8570]

I let my little brother play Elden Ring. Everydeath=30min math. Now his math is no longer B for bad, but A for average.

[@humorinpolitics56]

Once theres a few more games on game pass that I'm interested in, I'll subscribe for a month and give pentiment a try. Pay for a month of game pass, beat 7 or 8 games and you've payed less than 2 bucks per game.

[@NinjaSushi2]

A new Mortismal Gaming episode?! OH BOY!

[@mazfgit]

I'd love your take on the Nioh games. Not for everyone but would be interesting from your perspective. Stories aren't related so play in any order. First game is harder arguably.

[@NinjaSushi2]

20:00 so like a DMC game? Everyone compares everything to Dark Souls but it's like they forgot about Devil May Cry.

[@jizamkizam9611]

My list pretty much just has sonys latest pc ports. But I'm cheap and still waiting for bigger discounts lol. Also keeping an eye out for if Wotr season pass 2 gets a discount at any point