The 2022 Games I Didn't Review (Zero Punctuation)

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This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviews a bunch of games from 2022 that he didn't have time to make reviews for.
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[@theescapist]

This week's Zero Punctuation episode on Pentiment is now available. www.escapistmagazine.com/pentiment-zero-punctuation/ Watch it early on KZbin via KZbin Memberships or Patreon for $2/month.

[@rocko7711]

Please make a playlist of the Best, Worst, and blandest in the year

[@connorb2112]

How comes you do a Top 5 best worst and blandest games video but don't include the Top 5 most interesting or unique or whatever the opposite of bland is games?

[@maxwyght1840]

Please get Yashtzee to do Tribal Hunter. I'll even buy a code to send you guys. I just want to hear his take

[@raphicoco]

Hello Ben Croshaw. I am the son of one of the leads of Sunday Gold and I wanted to say thank you to acknowledge the existence of the game. You see, my father was a huge fan of yours and was even the one who made me discover your channel. He even had most of your books in his library which he did enjoy immensely. Sadly, my father died toward the end of the production from heart failure. So even if he won't be able to see your review of it, I am happy to know that his work was at least acknowledged by you. Thank you.

[@samovarsa2640]

I got the game. Thought it was good fun! Artwork was very tes bien.

[@slipknotboy555]

That's so sad; very sorry for your loss

[@Osric24]

Respect

[@METROIDBUSTERM]

What a beautiful circle

[@wasneeplus]

Wow, a game with a tragic backstory. Literally.

[@badoli1074]

0:51 Signalis 1:56 The Case of the Golden Idol 2:39 Citizen Sleeper 3:14 Sunday Gold 3:57 Thymesia 4:40 Bear & Breakfast

[@tariqshort4025]

thanks

[@tidmouthmilk12]

Damn, can't believe there's only 2,022 games that Yahtzee didn't review. Figured it'd be way more than that.

[@folx2733]

To be fair doing a game review every week for literally 15 years, I think only 2000 worthwhile games out there he hasn't reviewed sounds about right

[@victorleon67]

Last (last) year was 2,021 games. It seems that every year Yahtzee reviews every game released except for one. Must be one of the goddamn Ubisoft sandboxes again

[@Axius27]

​@@victorleon67 Must be one of those bland games so bland that you forget to add it to the bland list

[@wisesquirrel4986]

Very smart point, let me follow your spirit with a less clever clone. Why are you talking about Yazhee? The title says that the person who didn't play 2022 games was I.

[@alex.g7317]

@@wisesquirrel4986 😂

[@jordanj809]

I’d be genuinely surprised if Yahtzee were able to stretch a whole 5 minute review out of Vampire Survivors

[@gogauze]

I've seen on do more with less 🤷

[@Mene0]

Eeh he can do it

[@productions1203]

I couldn’t make a 1 minute review cause I would just go “brain fuzzy” the entire review

[@greenredblue]

It's literally just "Staring into a kaleidoscope: the game" (Just cuz I was addicted for 4 days doesn't mean I'm gonna pretend it's anything more.)

[@EroPantherH]

It shouldn't be hard

[@mrpetebojangles21]

I do agree the limited inventory of Signalis was at times annoying, but man, I loved that game. So much style and so many great puzzles.

[@mittensbro]

That's exactly how I felt about it. It's one thing to ape the survival horror genre, it's another thing entirely to know exactly what's great about it and nail every single mechanic while also having your own totally unique design aesthetic that stands on its own. It deserves a lot more love and attention than it's been getting, imo.

[@aleksanderolbrych9157]

@@mittensbro It had a unique mechanic other than the radio? If anything the game does the bare minimum of what survival horror is: You pick up items with an extremely annoying inventory system, solve puzzles (those were good) and run around completely passive enemies which don't know how doors work and effectively remove any sort of meaningful tension the limited inventory could have provided. "Healing item vs ammo vs plot relevant tool" is not a dilemma if I can run around 90% of enemies like they're not there. I love survival horror and had huge hopes for Signalis but 3/4 in and it is easily the most overrated "underrated" game of the last few years. I do love the story and style tho, even if much of it is derivative of other works.

[@mittensbro]

@@aleksanderolbrych9157 I didn't say there were unique mechanics, but not every game needs to be a 9/10 mind-blowing, life-changing experience. Like you admit yourself, the story and style are great and the puzzles are well-designed. There are some sticking points that maybe should have been left behind back in the days of older survival horror games, but they exist in the game for a reason; they force you make more use of the map via repeated traversal to make you think harder about which enemies are worth perma-killing to avoid having to repeatedly run past them and which ones are not. I don't disagree with your complaints, but for an indie game made by a studio of two people that's producing a somewhat flawed, but still excellent game in a genre I love, those complaints just come across as meaningless nitpicks.

[@shreksolosgoku]

@@aleksanderolbrych9157 I'm not sure which mode you played on, but trying to evade enemies on survival mode was extremely challenging and I found myself running very low on ammo for the majority of the game. My only gripe with the inventory system is that you can't use healing items at full health or destroy it like you can with ammunition in order to make room for future item pickups. Also, I do think the flashlight should be an item that stays with you by default upon picking it up, like the lighter for Chris, or lockpick for Jill in Resident Evil 1. Otherwise, I'm glad that enemies don't follow you through other rooms because a classic Survival Horror staple is that every individual room is a puzzle by itself, and deciding how to approach a combat encounter for specific rooms has always been a design pillar in the genre. I actually think having enemies follow you through rooms would be extremely annoying and detrimental to the gameplay loop because it throws the route planning/decision making aspect out the window since you don't have to consider whether you should clear out a certain room you'll be exploring often, or if you should instead evade enemies to conserve your resources. They'll just constantly be on your tail and you'll have no choice but to kill them, which doesn't work in a survival horror game except maybe Resident Evil 2 remake where you can afford to bring more weapons and ammo with you due to a larger inventory.

[@aleksanderolbrych9157]

@@shreksolosgoku I played on normal, maybe switching to Survival will improve my experience.

[@lastsinnersa8002]

I actually played through Citizen Sleeper two days before Yahtzee did his mini-review on it. It certainly was absorbing in its human element and didn't overstay its welcome, very much like Road 96 in 2021 on the human aspect but more like Disco Elysium in style.

[@bluemooninthedaylight8073]

Road 96 was such a neat little experience. I hope those devs build on that concept, because it sidestepped a lot of issues games tend to have. The mini playthroughs that add up to a bigger story was a nice way to avoid save scumming, and to add a sense of real danger, in that the teens you control might end badly. The writing just needs polishing, and more acts to allow for greater replay value. It's a great proof of concept for a narrative game.

[@PeacenikHippie]

Having played both Disco Elysium and Citizen Sleeper, I don't get the comparisons. Citizen Sleeper was sleek, simple, and easy to understand in terms of what the consequences of a certain action might be. Disco Elysium was pretentious and obtuse and I gave up after two and a half hours when I suddenly lost after making a choice in a conversation tree with a car, of all things, that had no indication it would cause my character to suddenly go crazy. This came after about a fifteen-minute navigation of a dialog tree with a single character who lectured me on his views about race which resulted in nothing in terms of an inventory item, solved quest, etc. Spare me with that. Citizen Sleeper was the far better game and kept me compelled to the end.

[@lastsinnersa8002]

@@PeacenikHippie Personally, I think Road 96 is the closest comparison I would give to Citizen Sleeper, in terms of the human aspect and how it presented its characters with a fairly balanced political take. Disco Elysium seems to be the one due to the format, but I think they're fundamentally different in what they want to invoke in the player.

[@lastsinnersa8002]

@@bluemooninthedaylight8073 You'll be glad to know that Road 96: Mile 0 got announced today. Out in April.

[@lastsinnersa8002]

Final chapter of Citizen Sleeper out in a few days

[@RaikenTB]

Signalis could have used probably one more item box per area to balance out the limited inventory. Especially since you need the eye camera and flashlight pretty regularly. I wouldn't want infinitely deep pockets like SH1-3 cause then it turns into an increasingly large mountain of crap you have to sift through as the game goes on. Also the lack a map in the mining area feels almost cruel.

[@nonyabidness8676]

I found the camera, but I wasn't sure what to use it for. I instinctually just started writing stuff down on a pad of paper though. I felt the inventory was a bit tight, but I didn't mind. It was kind of nice to have a game demand that I decide what is and isn't important to take with me when leaving a safe room.

[@mrpetebojangles21]

Dudeeee I struggled soooo hard in the mining area. I think I’m the absolute worst at memorizing video game levels haha. I spent way more time there trying to figure out how to get places than I’d care to admit… that and many of those areas looked quite similar to other areas.

[@cloudbroken]

​@@nonyabidness8676 I also never used the camera. I surmised it was for taking pictures of hints, but I was also taking pen and paper notes and the only place I wished I had used it was the planetarium. I would have almost no gripe about the inventory if A. The flashlight didn't take up a slot and B. Ammo stacked higher. I had to fight Falke about six times before defeating her because I couldn't manage my inventory properly once the damn spears came into the equation.

[@pirojfmifhghek566]

Hey Yahtzee, have you tried Valheim? I heard it's this really obscure indie developer game that nobody has ever heard of. It's a lot like Persona 5 in the sense that the programmers have found a way to turn a series of 1s and 0s into colors and shapes that appear on the screen. A delight for the ages. You should dedicate at least ten episodes to it.

[@nicklager1666]

Wow signalis even had anime robot girls. If it only had cadbury egg and was a souls like it would have been yahtzee bingo.

[@foolishlyludicrous]

And had a gun with tits that was on fire.

[@hnglbanana]

so i went back to the endling review after this to refresh my memory on yahtzee's opinion of it and i noticed a comment from you that also mentioned cadbury's creme eggs. is this a regular thing for you?

[@foolishlyludicrous]

@@hnglbanana Cadbury eggs, Branston pickle, and soapy titwanks are all on Yahtzee's list of Very Good Things.

[@nicklager1666]

@@hnglbanana Not for me personally but as Wade writes Yahtz loves mentioning them from time to time.

[@hnglbanana]

@@nicklager1666 fair enough. just seemed like an odd thing to bring up apropos of nothing (though randomly happening to see a very similar comment you made like 5 months ago probably made it seem like more than a coincidence on my end). like yeah yahtzee is obviously partial to a creme egg, but he's only brought them up like 10ish times in the almost 800 (blimey) episodes of ZP that he's done

[@PigPharmaceuticals]

I absolutely adored citizen sleeper. Something about the worldbuilding and the art design made the setting seem so intimidatingly oppressive. It made the connections you make with the NPCs so much more real, like you’re all just fighting to get by in this cold uncaring dystopia. I do agree that by the endgame you pretty much can’t lose, but I was so deeply invested in all the characters’ stories that I’d have been heartbroken if I’d gotten any bad endings lmao Definitely recommend this one, it’s stuck with me since I played it.

[@strangemobius]

Citizen sleeper is worth it entirely for the opportunity to Grow Vast and Strange.

[@hannahs.7297]

i love citizen sleeper SOOO MUCH i can’t find other people who like it

[@Sleeper_6875]

@@hannahs.7297 the game has a fairly small subreddit, but yeah I can’t find any fan communities really and there’s almost no fanart

[@Medytacjusz]

god I hate this "by the endgame you pretty much can’t lose" thing, and it's in every single RPG I've ever played! Can't somebody design a story-based RPG balanced in a way that I can get some challenge until the very end and can't complete every single quest in a playthrough and have to make hard choices? Even hardcore mode in Disco Elysium didn't do it, because it rewards more XP! I even know the way how to fix it: clock ticking, time-sensitive mechanics(1)! Oh, but whenever anybody mentions time limits, suddenly tons of players get a panic attack. Fine, make it a toggle, make it an optional mode, but do it, make each playthrough unique, dramatic, tense, bittersweet, and let the world *live*! (RPGs are my favourite genre if anyone asks, above problem notwithstanding) (1) both Tyranny and Disco Elysium feature time-sensitive mechanics but they don't get utilised enough and are so lenient they might as well not be there!

[@strangemobius]

@@Medytacjusz you want your slow rolling story heavy/mechanically light RPGs to have bare knuckle difficulty??

[@15oClock]

I didn't expect a review for Bear & Breakfast to end with the phrase "suicide victims," but that's why we go to Yahtzee.

[@necromater6656]

Signalis had everything a piece of media could need, eldritch horror, german-sino communism in space and anime girls.

[@coolsenjoyer]

Not just anime girls but gay robot anime girls

[@Brian-tn4cd]

Aside from omitting the gay part that the other comment made, perfect take

[@Brian-tn4cd]

@Hussain Drees at least this one is German XD

[@Stroggoii]

@@LunamrathP The people who think anime girls can't be in horror or serious situations without it being subversive are the same people who think western adult cartoons all have to be Family Guy. Animation is a medium, not a genre. People who know this get more enjoyment out of more varied media.

[@shirakenpsyop6843]

@@hussaindrees7167No, you did lol. Over-saturation doesn’t matter if your story is subverting the expectations.

[@leeland245607]

i'm honestly surprised yatzee gave thymesia the time of day. i thought that when it came out everyone with eyes went "yep that's shit" and moved on

[@zakanyimen]

I don't think thymesia is shit. It has a nice sekiro bloodborne mixed combat that could be explored further in a potential sequel

[@koheikyouji]

@@zakanyimen Id say Thymesia is actually quite good...despite its short length

[@kurohone]

I was a bit surprised it even came up here since he did mention it earlier in the year... the Neon White review maybe? It was around that time.

[@prcervi]

I thought it was an okay game, gimmick was just a tedious flop and in a year containing some seriously dodgy built games and general snorefests it's squarely okay, not good or bad

[@koheikyouji]

@@prcervi To each his own I suppose I thought the level design was a little bland, but the combat system generally was a step above Sekiro for me (which I already like a lot) Not sure what the 'gimmick' youre talking about is though? The HP bar thing?

[@adambrowne577]

It’s weird that he called the Gaping Dragon by it’s actual name. It was much more fitting when he said “Incomplete Open-heart Surgery Dragon”

[@newsystembad]

Citizen Sleeper really took me by surprise. I don't often get sucked into sci-fi games the way I do with something like Hades, but the quiet, melancholy atmosphere and grounded characters all doing their own thing just absolutely hooked me in. The Eye feels so much like a real place, one that I could explore for a lifetime. After both this and _In Other Waters_, I can't wait to see what Jump Over The Age makes next!

[@goby1764]

The second part of the dlc is out somewhat soon. The story is really great so far

[@Ooknabah]

@@goby1764 It's the last part! Apparently the writing started in mid Jan, so it'll be a bit still I imagine

[@WarehouseWilgus]

loved the bear pancake twist. you had me up to that point and then boom surprise SURPRISE humor. now thats more like it. lol love it and great work to all involved!

[@TomatoBreadOrgasm]

I am completely with you on Soulslike fatigue. Sekiro was exactly the Soulslike I wanted, and I still haven't been able to play more than an hour of Elden Ring.

[@Rasea611]

That's because Sekiro isn't a soulslike. The only souls elements it retains is punishment for death and a bonfire system. The punishment part itself is also pretty lenient because it only saps a percentage of your current skill xp and will never de-level you so dying practically matters very little. Sekiro is just an action game, which explains why you like it but can't get through Elden Ring.

[@TomatoBreadOrgasm]

@@Rasea611 I see what you're saying, but I loved Dark Souls 1 and 2, so that doesn't really track for me.

[@dc8836]

Signalis is a great game but I'm surprised people are saying it's like Silent Hill 2. Like, yeah, it's absolutely got some themes in common and it has some nods to Silent Hill 2 (as Yahtzee indicated, bright red save points, jumping down holes, etc), but in gameplay terms it is most certainly *NOT* Silent Hill - it's Resident Evil. Inventory management wasn't a thing in Silent Hill, Harry, James, and Heather all apparently had Pockets of Holding or something. Meanwhile, rigid inventory management that requires the player to create routes and balance defense-versus-progression is a Resident Evil standby and it's not something that everyone will like.

[@Drunk_Decibel]

I loved Signalis, and I agree. There are virtually no parallels to Silent Hill 2. It is deliberately obtuse, sure. But that is where the similarities end. If anything, it has more in common with sweet home and alone in the dark. The narrative is unreliable, which allows you to focus on the world building, not so much the character you play. This is a violently stark contrast to James Sunderland. What makes SH 2 so incredible is how it causes you to care about him. Signalis doesn’t give a fuck about any of that.

[@williamgreci8219]

Watching Yahtzee discuss that "Case of the Golden Idol" game and the interesting brain teasing puzzle aspect got me to flash back to his review of "Return to Monkey Island" and his frustration with how little effort went into puzzle design.

[@HonkeyKongLive]

I like how this is a list of games that deserve a little shine. Picked up Golden Idol after watching, curious to try it out.

[@pirojfmifhghek566]

It's good for a reviewer to at least acknowledge the "nothing to really phone home about" games. Sometimes the game's flaw is too big to enjoy playing, but not big enough to reveal new undercurrents in the systemic swirling maelstrom of shit that AAA gaming has become.

[@mrrd4444]

My favourite thing to come out of Golden Idol is a running gag among the Drawfee people (a KZbin channel that draws based on silly prompts) where one of the hosts Julia keeps finding increasingly silly ways to make the other host, Nathan, look upon an absolutely horrid little gnome man that was in that game. And once you play Golden Idol you'll know the exact horrid little gnome man. At one point Julia literally sent Nathan an official letter from Georgia to New York, only for it to be a high res photo of the horrid, low-res gnome.

[@jamesverner9132]

I heard civilian sleeper was good from Yahtzee. Before I even finished the video I downloaded and played it. I’m back and can say he’s still got great taste in games Get civilian sleeper it’s good. Also if you don’t want to be good at everything just don’t use upgrades their optional.

[@brez642]

it was refreshing to hear that made it as far into thymesia as i did. i was really looking forward to it and it fell so flat for me. i did however get it bundled with Blasphemous which was phenomenal and staved off the fatigue a little bit.

[@coffeeinhandproductions3238]

Segway into the last game was brilliant. I like how Segnalis got the most attention as it's pretty much Silent Hill 2 in the future with anime girls. Sounds like a winning formula though RE designed inventory makes me already want to cry. Still would love to see a Vampires Hunter review lol.

[@trevorjamieson8892]

To add to the endless requests, I reccomend "a short hike" and "little gator game" for cozy experiences. Can probably even fit them in one episode

[@GmodPlusWoW]

Honestly I gotta agree with Yahtzee being down on only having six inventory slots in Signalis. I understand that the game has a motif of sixes, since six is the number of a certain very relevant card in the Major Arcana, but I feel like having only six slots was taking the motif a bit TOO far. If they wanted to keep up the motif while also not having a ball-crushing inventory limit, the best solution would probably be to have a six-by-six grid inventory, but also having items take up different amounts of space, so the inventory isn't irritatingly ball-crushing but at the same time isn't so expansive as to be borderline inconsequential. Plus it'd sidestep the nonsense of having a Cadbury's Creme Egg take up as much space as a hunting rifle, which tends to crop up in games where you have limited inventory that doesn't account for size or weight. Also, as a side-note, IIRC Signalis was the team's first game, which IMHO is still pretty impressive, even with the flaws presented by being too infatuated with the power of six. If this is what Yuri Stern and Barbara Wittmann came up with on their first official outing, I'm optimistic for whatever they make next. (assuming they do more games, ofc)

[@Criegrrunov]

I see Yahtzee still refuses to even acknowledge the Modern Warfare 2 Remake exists, can't blame him.

[@yewtewbstew547]

It's doesn't even really seem to be a remake, that's what I find odd about it. It's mostly a completely new game that just happens to have the same title and characters with the same names and vaguely similar personalities... but not actually same lol.

[@Criegrrunov]

@@yewtewbstew547 Agreed, still its the best way to put it.

[@slenderminion2229]

The nice thing about the Signalis flashlight problem is that, while it absolutely was annoying upon launch, they have since fixed this with an option that lets you carry it and another puzzle-important item without taking up an inventory slot. You can still have it take up inventory space if you choose to for some reason.

[@dillondelaney4347]

Lmao, I recommended pentiment on the community page of Zero Punctuation shamelessly. When I saw that the video ended my jaw dropped and I was a little disappointed, but glad for that ending screen!

[@wallyhackenslacker]

Citizen Sleeper is the best Guillaume Singeling artbook with a free game attached. It is fun, with good music and the writing is phenomenal, but to me it's Singelin's artwork what truly makes the game into S tier indie game territory.

[@sator_project]

The thing I'll say about souls-fatigue is the more SoulsBornes I play, the more I realize I like Fromsoft projects more than Soulsborne games.

[@doctorwhouse3881]

It's a good formula and there's been several projects who've done it well (within their limits), but it's also one that's incredibly easy to "vary" in ways that straight up break.

[@folx2733]

From games were never about being hard, they were about the atmosphere and feeling going hard. That's the difference

[@SolaScientia]

That's the same for me. Hollow Knight does it pretty well, but I started getting annoyed at little things like damage from just touching stuff and some other issues (platforming, because I'm a bit trash at platforming). I put it aside for now. Tunic does it well, but it also takes enough influence from Zelda games that it's easy to separate it from the Soulslike formula. A lot of the non-FromSoft Soulslikes just miss what makes those games work as well as they do. It's far more than just making the game difficult just because they can. Each death in a FromSoft game teaches me to try something different or to just be better prepared. It's the whole environment, interconnected areas, atmosphere, and everything else. It's hard to describe why they work so well, but it's easy to notice when other games don't execute the formula as well.

[@duckdodgers1953]

Devs looked at the soulsborne formula and thought it was the secret sauce. It wasn't, the secret sauce was making really good games If those From Soft games were adapted to select missions from a menu and have simplified progression like Devil May Cry they would still have been good games

[@mattweber2512]

@@folx2733 That might have been true at one time but not anymore. With their latest games Fromsoft have bought entirely into the difficulty memes.

[@TheMisterBerry]

Real shame he didn't get too much further into Signalis, I feel as though it shined strongly at it's brightest when you've witnessed the whole of it start to finish. Either that, or he was trying his hardest not to spoil any of the story beats, which, understandable, it's very good, but very hard to talk about the game without spoiling too much. Overall in my humble opinion, it was my Indie Game of the Year for 2022. It just did so much right, from the aesthetic, to sound, music, gameplay, and story. Admittedly the inventory was very strict, but it was definitely deliberate and on purpose.

[@wuzzems2850]

Woolie and Pat in their Castle Super Beast podcast did a great review/Spoilercast of it. Worth a watch.

[@varsoonhks3211]

I don't know, the plot sort of failed to grip me in any meaningful way and the gameplay was a whoooole lot of wandering around very samey dark environments for tens of hours.

[@Hawkent]

A game held back by intentionally tedious inventory and combat mechanics and a very obtuse albeit interesting story. I really wanted to like it but it just gave me a headache.

[@TheMisterBerry]

​@@varsoonhks3211 I assume the tens is an exaggeration - I took quite a fair amount of time in the game, reading just about everything, exploring a lot, and beat it in 8. It's not that long. In my opinion the plot was simple, but it's the fine details of the how that gripped me and get complex. I liked the surrealistic aspect of it, but there's heavy implications of existentialism, what's actually real and what's not, Who's who (because identity of certain characters gets very muddy partway through), Whether or not all of the endings are canon or not, it's a whole thing. I find that aspect fascinating personally. It might not be everyone's cup of tea because if I'm real here, it is a very artsy game and keeps a ton of the fine details obscured and hard to piece together.

[@TheMisterBerry]

@@Hawkent I thought the combat mechanics were fine. I do think the inventory system while, yes, it was trying to emulate resource scarcity and what's truly important in inventory, I agree with you that it is a fair bit tedious. Towards the end of the game there is a lot of back and forth to storage, and that's not that great. It is more forgiving in the beginning. I think it could have saved itself a bit by having compounding "keys" to stack in some sections. The story I believe is it's strongest point, but it's very specific in it's delivery in that, it doesn't obscure the simplicity of the core story, which makes it fairly easy to follow. However, the very fine details surrounding the 'how' or 'what' or 'who is who' starts getting really muddy surrounding the core story. You can get a good story out of the center piece, but it definitely requires digging for the rest of the finer details (which in my opinion are far more interesting than the core story) but that's ... very easily, not everyone's cup of tea. It is a very artsy and surrealist approach which makes it obtuse, yes. But personally, for me, I loved this game. I'll be picking up the physical release on Switch later on when that comes out for sure. I played it on Steam with a controller. (I could not honestly imagine playing with Keyboard and Mouse, I feel like that would make things a bit too finnicky, a personal criticism of mine.)

[@kirillsasin]

3:55 Italicus is a bergamot liqueur, not a rose petal liqueur. It is very good though.

[@takihara23]

Signalis is incredible, but I couldn't agree more on the inventory. Had to mod the inventory up to 8 slots in the end just to get through it.

[@cammyshill3099]

I didn't mind the 6 slots, but one of my favourite games ever is RE1 remake, so I guess I'm just used to that sort of stuff. I don't think they had to increase the number of usable slots, but maybe make it so equipped items didn't take a slot, like stun batons?

[@xXYannuschXx]

I honestly dont know what you people are doing, never had problems with the inventory, except for 2 small occasions.

[@shreksolosgoku]

@@xXYannuschXx I'm guessing a lot of players are more familiar with the recent RE remakes which let you upgrade your inventory space, or maybe the classic Silent Hill titles that don't have a limit on what items you can bring with you. Glad the game stuck to its RE1 Chris Redfield 6 space inventory direction tho. It places a greater emphasis on making the player decide which items they should bring with them upon reaching a save room's item box.

[@KeyvanHedayati]

Yahtzee have you played Starstruck Vagabond? From the looks of it, it could be interesting...

[@Powoga]

1:51 How big does that dog have to be before it stops being a faux pas?

[@magentaformula025]

Signalis reminded me more of games like the early resident evil games. Puzzle filled environments fighting zombie like enemies that can get back up if not burned on the ground.

[@AdryanConsalter]

That was a great roundup! Wish there was one of these every year

[@PewPewBeets]

Wait, Yahtzee is going to review 2,022 games? Talk about dedication.

[@piclemaniscool]

Shout out to Terry's chocolate orange. very tasty and I like the novelty of smashing a solid ball of chocolate against a countertop and being rewarded for it.

[@CaptainIcebeard]

I feel the same way about Soulslikes trying to outperform each other, and the first thing they always go for is making it harder. Even FromSoft suffers from this, to the point where I think they've taken it too far in the later bits of Elden Ring.

[@Hawkent]

I agree. Loved Elden Ring overall, but it was very inconsistent and the 2nd half of the game really drops off in quality and skyrockets in difficulty after Leyndell.

[@CaptainIcebeard]

@@MysteriousStranger50 you seriously think we haven't thought of that? Or read any of the thousands of comments saying what you're saying? I had well over 40 vigor, which was way more than any previous game required of us. And yeah, no shit we hit our skill ceilings, that's literally the point of my comment. The games keep increasing the difficulty and people are reaching their skill ceilings. There was nothing wrong with the difficulty of DS3. I love how hard DS3 is, and I didn't need bosses that heal massive chunks of HP with every hit, and I didn't need every boss in the fucking game having delayed attacks. In terms of soulslikes, I think FromSoft peaked with DS3. Elden Ring is a much better adventure, but a worse soulslike.

[@Hawkent]

@@MysteriousStranger50 Leveling your HP doesn't matter for shit during the endgame and you know it. You go from dying in 1-2 hits to 2-3 hits at 40 vigor, and when you hit Mountaintop and Haligtree HP might as well not even matter. The balancing towards the latter half of the game was heavily skewed because the game is very long and they needed to scale the enemies with the player's power, but as a consequence every enemy has a million HP and does a million damage with long-chain combos to boot. This is a well-documented issue with the latter half of the game and dismissing it by saying "lol just level ur HP cope" shows a complete lack of willingness to acknowledge that Elden Ring has flaws.

[@CyrusBluebird]

"Rose petal liqueur + Sloe Gin" Why not dash some lavender bitters in while you're at it, make it really perfumey.

[@chadkreutzer1552]

Gameplay-wise, I found Citizen Sleeper to be super easy--almost too easy, but it didn't really matter since I found myself being there for the story.

[@MrNoPro]

Same, two playthroughs and I've never ever dropped below half health or failed one of the time sensitive objectives

[@dmman33]

These micro indie reviews are great!

[@TheRyderShotgunn]

citizen sleeper was good. it made me feel things. as a gamer of many games, sarcastic as that sounds, I often think I'm past feeling things in videogames. I've certainly not felt things in games where I can tell I'm supposed to, with the dying best friend character groaning his sad last words while sad music plays and rain pelts on the window outside. but in citizen sleeper, with the words read in my head, and soft techno music playing over simple graphics, I...well, I felt it. I felt it and I liked it.

[@michaelandrews117]

Citizen Sleeper was my joint game of the year last year. Absolutely lovely little game.

[@ReinBelmont]

1:47 you made me remember RE2 Remake making the bracelet use an inventory slot, how dare you.

[@mattcouture2579]

I've heard good things about Citizen Sleeper; specifically, the studio that made Spiritfarer put out a "Games We Played In 2022" retrospective that spoke highly of it. I figured a narrative-based game that they liked must be pretty good. Based on that and Yahtzee's comments here, I'll probably end up checking it out. Sounds like it's on the short side at least.

[@bananasean5145]

As someone who has reading comprehension problems including dyslexia, I was so captivated by the story I couldn't put it down until the very end which they are still continuing so I'm kind of left in limbo. Good news is the DLC should be arriving very soon. Couldn't recommend this game more.

[@AelundTwitch]

I picked up Citizen Sleeper a while ago on a friend's recommendation. I was so engrossed in the story I finished it all in one sitting, as well as by accident figured out what order to do the endings in(and reload after) to see them all on one playthrough. One of the endings was particularly emotional, haven't been hit in the feels that way for a while. I highly recommend it if you're into mostly story based games delivered through text and visuals. If you're curious about how long it takes to finish, was around 10 hours last May when I played it. Not sure if anything's been added since yet.

[@bananasean5145]

@@AelundTwitch dude they added DLC in July and December and a new one very soon.

[@AelundTwitch]

@@bananasean5145 Are they additions to the main story or different stories? Might go check them out soon either way.

[@bananasean5145]

@@AelundTwitch it continues the main story

[@dryued6874]

I'm literally playing Signalis right now, and I like everything about it, except for the fucking inventory.

[@mattweber2512]

It really is horrible. Do equipped items need to take up inventory space? Does a keycard need to take up the same amount of space as a shotgun?

[@davidhill2020]

No Orc Massage? That's a shame.

[@johndrumm9914]

Wait until he finds out that nearly EVERY boss in Thymesia has multiple phases. In contrast, Steelrisings final boss felt like it was going to have a second phase and it simply didnt.

[@diegosaez4885]

Steelrising's final boss was well done for the game's shortcomings, but once they die and the cinematic started it felt... anticlimatic? It gave that feeling of "wait, that's it?".

[@diegosaez4885]

As for Thymesia, I still don't grt the appeal of the game. Once tried all charm gets lost. In regards to bosses, how easy they are (except for two of them, one being the first boss) but how much of some damage sponges they are, specially the final boss. It feels as if the fights drag for way longer than they should, when most of them don't have actual changes between phases (again, specially the final boss, that feels near identical).

[@johndrumm9914]

Same here, the final boss can be parried so easily compared to earlier fights

[@diegosaez4885]

@@johndrumm9914 and is the most predictable boss of the game, which makes kiting them too easy. Dare I say too cheeseable.

[@SnarkyLesbian]

Signalis takes a lot more from SH1 than SH2, why did all of you only play that one game in the series?

[@0NoName9]

The one thing I hated in Signalis was the six slot inventory. It does nothing to improve the game and it's just a needless annoyance. Yet another page it could have taken from SH2 should have been the infinite inventory.

[@Wandergirl108]

Funny thing: I had never heard the word "twat" used before watching Zero Punctuation, and so, despite being American, hearing it pronounced "twot" just sounds weird to me. It was actually my mom who "corrected" me on the pronunciation (I said it unaware that it was a dirty word), but I will always want to pronounce it Yahtzee's way.

[@svenbtb]

So the plot is: you heard yahtzee use a word that you didn't know before, and decided to test-drive said word around your mom, of all people?

[@bluemcneil5883]

Is a robot putting a flashlight in its mouth the equivalent of performing cunnulingus on a small dog Is incredible prose

[@TheShadesOfBlack]

I absolutely adored Bear and Breakfast as a cozy little visual novel / business sim... but then about 2/3rds in I found myself constantly running back and forth between hotels cuz hotel A needed more Food and Hotel B needs more Firewood and suddenly just playing the game felt like a chore. So I sadly put it down and havent picked it back up.

[@fullfull99990000]

Hello Yathzee! Signalis got an update for inventory space selection option, and flashlight doesn't take space anymore!

[@sedathecat]

I had the exact same experience with Thymesia. Combat was fine, the minibosses were interesting, the first level's pretty meh but I had high hopes for the rest, and then the first boss came along and I bounced off the game incredibly hard. I even tried to give it a chance and do something I rarely do in soulslikes - vary my build - but I just couldn't click with it.

[@SolaScientia]

I'd been hearing that about it as well. I watched Ian over at Eurogamer play up to the first boss and while it was interesting, I wasn't sold on it and he made a point of discussing that first boss. Apparently the game gets easier after that first boss, to the point that it gets almost too easy in the second half (particularly with the final boss).

[@diegosaez4885]

@@SolaScientia the worst outliners are the two gimmick bosses and the final boss. One of the former two is Dragon God 2.0 and the other doesn't fit the game playability-wise so it throws you off because of it. The latter is one of the laziest final bosses I've experienced recently, up to the point that on top of the giant health bar (and the Wound system to functionally double it) has a second phase that's near identical to the previous one. And yet, is such a dimwit that's cheeseable, but a beefy one that you barely tickle, so the end result is a fight that's uninteresting and dragged off for more than it should.

[@SolaScientia]

@@diegosaez4885 That sounds annoying and is disappointing. I'm used to gimmick bosses in FromSoft games, but they're not usually too bad, at least in the more recent games. The wound system looks very interesting and it might have worked if they'd tweaked how it's implemented. As it is, having to hit enemies with special attacks to make sure they stay down seems like it'd get old after a while. At least in FromSoftware games I can just smack them with a weapon if I haven't quite killed them (tiny sliver of health left) rather than having to break out a special weapon to make sure they're dead. A boss with multiple phases but they're damn near identical just sounds lazy. Like they were rushed or ran out of ideas or something. I'm used to multi-phase fights either having the phases be obvious even within the same health bar (Gael, Pontiff Sulyvahn, etc) or have distinct health bars (Abyss Watchers, Friede, etc). Soul of Cinder being an exception with changing up forms in phase 1 and then having phase 2 be a homage to Gwyn.

[@diegosaez4885]

@@SolaScientia once I realize how the Wound system works in practice, appeal for it was lost. The greatest reasons for this are the amount of enemies that are damage sponges without accounting said system, and that the hit-and-run playpattern the game encourage you to engage with is punished by the system as the slightest mistake to drive you into healing or spacing from an enemy will have you lose half of the damage you dealt at bare minimum, all of it at worst. It ain't impossible to play against these odds, but it certaintly isn't fun.

[@diegosaez4885]

@@SolaScientia and don't get me wrong, only two bosses in the game (one of them the first boss) are hard, yet ironically are the best ones. The rest are easy, but the three I mentioned are but annoying to deal with regardless.

[@Gigaheart]

Signalis was interesting. It was alright. But goshdang did the inventory space become a problem in the latter half of the game.

[@CJojo_13_]

Y'all better not sleep on Citizen Sleeper.

[@Helik4888]

Sloe Gin, sparking water, lavender liquor, touch of lime. Try it

[@GATESOFKELL]

As a fan of Citizen Sleeper, this mini review is all I could ask for.

[@jeremyrichard2722]

If you search for a game called "The White Chamber" from an old group called "Studio Tophis" you should be able to find it online without many problems. I sort of felt Signalis was mostly just an updated attempt to do that, though to be fair Signalis is a far more advanced game.

[@trrerid]

I you don't want to play a game building the suicide hotels chain. But a game as the woodland critters cleaning the aftermath of suicide victims sounds like the kind of post-dad game you'd love.

[@aldotorres5249]

I literally just started Thymesia less than 24 hrs ago and absolutely love it! I have played very few souls games so this was amazing, but to be fair, I did not die once until the first actual boss, while it is an amazing fight, the absolutely insane dificulty spike came out of nowhere with that one, but beating him really made me feel like a badass. Will finish it, but I understand Yahtzee not putting himself through that. If they release a second one with a slighty more polished parry system it will be crazy good.

[@Stroggoii]

Have you checked out Asterigos? It cured my Souls fatigue with it's more Monster Hunter-like combat. Giving "dude in armor" and "eldritch dude in armor" a rest for enemy design also helped.

[@ericquiabazza2608]

Golden idol: -Like story -Like mistery -Like ideas -Notes can be handle better. -DISLIKE ART DESIGN. Well, just my thing!

[@japanimater777]

I guess Vampire Survivors will end up in the 2023 edition at this rate.

[@cate01a]

I mean with sunday gold you can easily manage your hp and ap when in combat as if you have one weak enemy left you can let the heroes recharge and have the healer heal people. So you can leave combat still all freshened up

[@nonyabidness8676]

3:53 You might have better luck with elderflower liquor and sloe gin. It turns out that elderflower has a taste that goes with a lot of stuff really nicely.

[@nonyabidness8676]

Update: I gave it a shot, just 1:1 sloe gin and elderflower liquor. It was pretty good. Maybe I'd use a bit less elderflower liqueur in the future, because it was pretty sweet. I might experiment with finding a spirit I can add to it as well, since sloe gin is more of a liqueur in strength.

[@nerdicorgi]

I thought Yahtz was talking about "Bear's Restaraunt" for a moment when he described the game as "cozy as cozy can get" I felt my eyes involuntarily widen like... "Did... Did he not get very far into it?!"

[@samleheny1429]

I've refrained from ever mentioning the difficulty "arms race" in Souls games mentioned in this video because being on the receiving end of the "gitgud" culture is not fun. But it's nice to know I'm not imagining it.

[@lowrider993]

I always thought you picked games by what you wanted to play or make fun of, also I never even heard of these games

[@theelike4302]

Grow Song of the Evertree is my favorite comfy game atm but I doubt Yahtzee would like it. You sometimes have to do randomly generated sidequests that suck but the growing/harvesting and townbuilding are both fun and relaxing.

[@CalciumChief]

Oh? Saving up Vampire Survivors? That's neat. I wasn't gonna get it cause I actually don't have pixel nostalgia and like my HD sprites, but it was so cheap too and I did get it in the end. It's straight to the point, fun and short enough to just play for the sake of playing.

[@tyclips4155]

Was the Gaping Dragon reference just for the innuendo? Cause that was the only DS boss I beat first try without being massively overleveled.

[@tomashernandez828]

The sausage bit...LOL!! @ 0:35

[@fatrobin72]

Damn it... That sausage roll joke caused me to laugh uncontrollably for 5 minutes, did I miss anything?

[@erikschumann706]

"Arbeit macht Waifus" what the actual

[@samwill7259]

Damn, I really thought that bear one would get his thumbs up then again with Yahtzee you never can count on that

[@pirojfmifhghek566]

He did seem to like it until the part where it began to suck and he started to rely too heavily on the bear essentials.

[@samwill7259]

@@pirojfmifhghek566 ...Proud of yourself, buddy? Should be

[@undergnomes6248]

Really felt you in that thesmyia one tried it gave up at the first real optional boss cause he was just way too much and it had already been pushing it's luck before that

[@OMFGNuts]

I fucking spilled all the cherries once I heard that automated voice, that's somehow so much on point

[@Mito383]

Yhatzee should play Potionomics because it’s similar to Potionomics. A criminally underplayed deck builder/shop management indie game.

[@superspider64]

I can't help but feel a bit sad for Yahtzee at the end of the Thymesia mini-review

[@joao20able]

I get what he means though getting sick of souls like games trying to out-hard eachother

[@SolaScientia]

@@joao20able Same. It also greatly depends on the atmosphere. I have Soulslike fatigue as well, but it's to do with the Soulslikes not made by FromSoftware. A lot of them miss the point of what makes those games click and feel good. They try to be difficult for the sake of being difficult without always letting the player actually learn from their mistakes. I might be hitting myself against the wall that is the Research Hall in Bloodborne, or the Grand Archives and Archdragon Peak in Dark Souls 3, but I have fun doing that. With each attempt I realize how I'm screwing up and how to better approach the issue. I don't always get the same feeling from others that try the same thing.

[@duckdodgers1953]

Such a shame, Thymesia was the closest thing that approached being able to fill that Sekiro void The devs clearly understood what made Sekiro great

[@diegosaez4885]

@@duckdodgers1953 they had a surface level undestanding of what makes Sekiro and Bloodborne work gameplay-wise, and made an uncompromised mesh to either in turn. And there are questionable design choices that felt too deliberate to consider them shortsights.

[@Thisisthegreatestatofalltime]

@@SolaScientiaTbf even Elden Ring has that issue a bit with both Waterfowl and Elden Stars being kinda unfair.

[@michaeldunleavy3868]

Vampire Survivors is a confusing phenomenon. It's a fun little game with a cool gimmick of auto fire, but the way people are banging on about it you'd swear its the next Undertale, or whatever. Once you max out a character you basically just wait to die or the game to decide to spawn an unbeatable enemy to end your session. I dunno, I don't get the hype.

[@TehCakeIzALie1]

I think in the current state of the industry, the fact that it's both playable and not riddled with microtransactions puts it ahead of 90% of triple-A games at least. That said, I haven't played it nor do I particularly intend to.

[@Mordrevious]

It’s fine and even quite fun in a brainless way for a while. How long that while lasts is heavily dependent on how susceptible you are to ‘numbers go up gives dopamine boost ’ gameplay loops. Most of its successors like 20 Minutes Until Dawn or Brotato are probably better games overall from a gameplay perspective.

[@michaeldunleavy3868]

@@TehCakeIzALie1 yeah that’s a good point. It was cheap and it is good considering it’s only £3 or something. The hype surrounding it is a little overblown though.

[@michaeldunleavy3868]

@@Mordrevious I definitely had some fun with it and the devs seem decent enough so I’m not bitter about it or anything. Skillup had me believing it was a must play game or something so I was probably expecting too much from it.

[@Hawkent]

It was developed by someone who has a lot of experience as a programmer in the gambling industry, which really made things make sense as to why it's so popular -- it's a dopamine treadmill, barely even qualifies as a game imo.

[@gigaganon]

silent hill 2 is a huge influence on signalis, but there's way more than just that in it, lots of influence but it managed to made it its own and succeeded imo, completely different than some shit like bloober team put out

[@artfulscruff]

Citizen Sleeper: You know a game is good when even Yahtzee can't find much bad to say about it :D

[@najwan3672]

i'm very surprised how many times return of the obra dinn shows up in ZP reviews considering it's not as well known as it should've been despite being very well received. kinda shows the impact that game left on yahtz

[@mandolinistry3207]

If you want to play a game about a bear making human food, try Bears Restaurant.

[@flaco3462]

Honestly there's more games from many years back that I want Yahtzee to review rather than current games. And I'm not talking about super old ones I'm talking stuff from like 2013. Like Bit.Trip Runner 2 and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze.

[@ebbderelict]

I remember years ago there was a video where Yahtzee was talking about describing games as "God of War, but..." and this kind of reminded me of that.

[@WarlordM]

"Ah geez the light fittings were right there, guy." is very funny.

[@gcwoodhead4180]

Yahtzee, have you heard of Minesweeper?

[@averagejoe5145]

I've thought about trying out Citizen Sleeper, but first I have to get my hands on a Nintendo Switch. I'd like to try Thymesia as well, but I'd have to get either a PS5 or Xbox One X as well since the Switch version REQUIRES an internet connection. The Nintendo Switch is what I plan to get first so I'll likely get to play Citizen Sleeper before Thymesia unless one, the other, or both are ported to PS4. I'm not exactly holding my breath on the possibility of a PS4 port for either game though.

[@lukasfogel7892]

Slamming your face into brick walls in video games loses its luster when you have children to care for in real life. For what is child rearing but metaphorical slamming your face into brick walls. Every tenth attempt or you may make some progress. Source: Samsies bro.

[@Kevin-cf9nl]

I have children to care for and still loved Getting Over It, which is sort of the epitome of slamming your face into a brick wall in a lot of ways. But it's also a game you can play where you have spare moments, I guess, which appeals.

[@anomalocaris2593]

Speaking about games to fill the schedule, have you heard of Blue Fire? It is pretty much Hollow Knight in 3d and is pretty fun platformer/metroidvania

[@a_level_70_elite_raccoon]

I'm really surprised that people asked whether or not you've played those games, because it was really obvious to anyone who even briefly glances at the post-ZP streams.

[@SpartanXVII]

Oh Bear and Breakfast is that game. I was so confused when I saw Bear Restaraunt recently and I was like" I'm sure that game already came out.

[@ashuggtube]

So, Citizen Sleeper - worth a look

[@goby1764]

Sleeper citizen was genuinely a world i fell in love with. Thanks to gamepass i was able to play it and the setting and story were incredibly atmospheric and weighty. I loved every second of it despite its relatively simple gameplay and inherent issues