A MANIFESTO FOR ANIMALS 2K23: GAMES OF A YEAR

You’ve been hearing it for months.

“It’s a great year for games”

I suppose it has been a great year to play games. With every other company laying off staff or outright being “embraced” by the hand of foreclosure, it’s been a rough year for the people actually making games. Profits are still high so we all know that the corporate overlords are still sitting in their goose down chairs enjoying themselves with a nice glass of champagne and a hot cigar.

But enough about that. You wanna hear about the sweet, sweet content right? I’ll spare you the rest of my soap-boxing. Let’s talk turkey.

Wait!

I wanna preface this by stating that the Manifesto For Animals is NOT a countdown. I love each of these babies all the same. Let’s have a quick appetizer though before we get into the real meat of it.

Before I talk about games I wanna talk about…

TV

How To With John Wilson

“The only reality show”

There’s a moment in this show’s final episode that had my jaw near permanently agape. I thought to myself that he had surely staged all this. He may very well have. I’ll never know this man’s secrets. If you’re new to John Wilson he goes around the New York area (and beyond) talking with folks, studying how people go about their day-to-day, and in his final season John goes to a vacuum cleaner convention, NYC’s sewage treatment facility, a missile silo, and Burning Man, though you’ll never see him there. Instead you’ll see him in a hotel begging HBO for permission to use the footage. It’s truly the reality show of all time.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

“Scott Pilgrim 4.0: You can (not) date a highschooler”

If you enjoyed Scott Pilgrim as a teen or young adult then you’ve likely already watched this show. It’s just fantastic. It feels like “The Good Ending” to a story that never truly had one in the cards. My only note is that I wish they didn’t leave it open for a second season. Move on.

Music

10,000 Gecs

“Gourmet 1990s MTV”

2023 was the year I “Got” 100 Gecs.

Every track on this album whipped so much ass. Unfortunately I took a bad Delta 8 gummy in May while listening to this with a friend and entered psychosis for three days, so for a while any time I heard “Frog on the Floor” I would actually get a little shiver of fear. Don’t take Delta 8. Shit will make you feel like a bag of Doritos and Fritos.

Knower Forever

“Wildly talented individuals playing music in a cramped hallway”

Every piece in the album is immaculate. Drums, vocals, choir, strings, brass, guitar, bass, keys…gong. You get tracks like “Same Smile, Different Face” that nearly bring you to tears, and tracks like “Do Hot Girls Like Chords” that send you into orbit with their hypnotic progressions.

Film

Asteroid City

“Anderson put his whole Wessy into this film”

My first Wes Anderson film! I unwillingly watched way too many shitty AI trailers based on his work so I figured I actually needed to see one of his movies in the flesh. It was great. I told myself that I was gonna go on a little binge of his filmography but as of writing that hasn’t happened. There’s a scene in this movie involving a child and a cigarette that made me laugh so hard I scared my cat.

Five Nights At Freddy’s

“Baby’s First Horror Movie”

You know, this film was alright for what it was. Way too many people were weird about how tame the violence was, but you gotta understand this is effectively your kid sibling’s first slasher flick. I’ve got a friend who’s a huge lore fiend, and she told me that I “wouldn’t get it.”

What’s not to get? The plot wasn’t written by David Lynch for christ’s sake. If you have a ten year old around, have them watch this. Chances are they already watched it and you’re currently strapped to a chair Clockwork Orange-style watching a 10 hour video about the bite of 87 or some shit.

Books

Until I love Myself

“Helped me figure some shit out”

Poppy Pesuyama’s manga biography is easily one of the most important comics that I have ever read. It helped me figure a lot out about myself. I’ve had this feeling for a long time but I didn’t know exactly how to put it into words. I honestly still don’t, so I’ll rip the bandaid off quickly and get it out there.

I’m Non Binary.

I use masculine pronouns alongside neutral ones, I present and dress masculine. I don’t really have any feminine characteristics except for maybe my inflection, but I am more comfortable playing neither gender than one or the other. It’s not so much that I feel at odds with my body. I love my body for all it’s curves and aches. After seeing Poppy go through the process of healing their trauma I attempted to assess my own, and after the final page I came out a better person because of them. Whether you’re cisgender, trans or gender-nonconforming there’s a lot to learn in this 2 volume series. I met a new self. A self that sees the world in a clearer light.

I uh…didn’t read any other new books this year, so We’ll move onto the games now.

THE 2023 MANIFESTO FOR ANIMALS: THE GAMES OF THE YEAR

Lethal Company

This game may in fact be the cure to loneliness. I hopped onto this game fairly soon after it’s initial launch. A friend gifted it to me. Thanks again Weston.

Lethal Company only exists when my friends want to play it, and for a good while that was twice a week for a month. Holidays and life events have temporarily put the game on the shelf, but I’m sure after new year’s we’ll get back into the swing of things. As far as general progression is concerned, LC’s “loop” simply consists of going to planets, picking loot up, and selling it back at base. If we make quota then more options are available to us. More items, more planets, more opportunities to die hilariously. One of my friends ran straight past a mine on the ground, and when doubling back we made sure to warn him so as to not lose a teammate. The last words we heard were

“Mine? I don’t see any mi-”

Followed by a loud explosion. I cried laughing for a solid five minutes. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long, long, time.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom

I approached this game with two separate mindsets. At launch I played checklist-style. I spent the first ten or so hours of the game activating all the towers, whilst hitting shrines along the way so I could have fast travel spots. Once the map was finished, I started clearing said shrines so I could first max out my stamina, then get a good amount of hearts. My goal was to get one row and call it quits. I didn’t want to make the game too easy for me. Once I got my stamina and hearts I acquired the memories, followed by the Master Sword. With that finished I “started the game”. I cleared the temples, got all the story beats, and fought the big bad evil guy. Once the story was finished and the world was saved I had to do a little role playing.

You see, when you finish a game like Zelda the world doesn’t change once you actually save it. You just get warped right back to the beginning of the final area and that’s it. What I ended up doing is I simply pretended that Zelda was in fact, saved. She’s chilling over in our house.

I go to the house. She’s not there? Maybe she’s getting groceries or something. This works better than it really should because thankfully Zelda hasn’t been missing for that long anyway. Most people don’t even know she’s gone. In fact the world is thriving more than ever. It almost feels at peace despite Ganondorf’s plotting underground. Not that he matters though. I killed him. He’s dead and my good friend Zelda who I share a bed with is out picking flowers just off-screen.

With Zelda saved and Ganon defeated once again, my current play-through is as such:

I’m on vacation.

Look. I can’t afford to travel right now, so every few days or so I boot TotK up, pick a direction, and just start walking. I turn off any late-game features, turn off the HUD, never fast travel, and only cook a few meals at a time. Just enough for me to carry to my picnic spot. Where’s Zelda in all this?

She’s a very busy woman. She’s at the point lookout doing important former princess stuff. I let her have her life. I’m happy if she’s happy, and she’s happy knowing that I’m shoving my body through the roof of a cave.

Final Fantasy XVI

There’s a moment in this game where you “accept the truth” and acquire your first two segments of your limit meter. By hitting L3 and R3 at the same time you break that limit, and experience one of the best moments in gaming this year, if not ever. The music, the energy, the pure anger and rage flowing through Clive’s veins as he literally fights his demons.

FFXVI as a complete package is a roller coaster ride, but it’s sadly not the best. These moments in the game are unfortunately tarnished by some of the most boring mandatory story quests I have ever played. They don’t add much to the plot, and the quests that do could honestly be cutscenes and I wouldn’t even complain. There’s plenty of those to go around after all. An extra few hours couldn’t have hurt.

This game could’ve had a solid ten hours of gameplay cut out or set aside as optional content and it would be for the better. Instead of a thrilling ride from end to end someone just had to have thrown up in the front seat, and you’re left with bile and undigested hot dog meat splattered on your shirt.

Quick aside: The characters in Final Fantasy XVI are brilliantly written, but even in a game where characters are literally fucking the game feels almost sexless at times. It’s basically a sick form of edging.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R

I like to consider myself somewhat versed in the Star Ocean Franchise. I’ve played nearly every entry with the only outliers being Second Story and Blue Sphere. Thankfully this year I was able to play Square and Gemdrops’ remake of the series’ second entry. What began as a simple RPG quickly became a sort of Football Manager simulation. I would spend nearly as much time in menus as I would in battle. I loved it.

By the end of my play-through I wasn’t getting into battles much at all, due to the game’s many approaches to endgame level grinding. I managed to unlock a feature called Bodyguard where party members would randomly run towards lower level enemies– killing them without engaging in the battle scene. I would still get experience points and currency meaning that I would still level up despite not actually fighting.

Once I managed to outclass the monsters the game turned into a light version of Vampire Survivors. I would literally sit still and grind levels by just…existing in the game world. Bodyguard could be leveled up allowing party members to more frequently activate the ability, and soon I just kind of walked up to the final area and molly-whopped the final boss execution-style.

Actually, boss fights still had to be engaged with traditionally, and by the time I hit the final boss I nearly forgot how to play the game. I died a few times before remembering the rotation.

Armored Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon

I was a little late to the party on this one. It nearly slipped through the cracks but thankfully my friends preached the gospel just enough to get me to play it. The buttery-smooth flow of preamble, customization,battle, cutscene, repeat had me locked in almost immediately. I wanted to dedicate my free time to this game so bad I actually took up meal prepping.

I figured if I made a big batch of ground turkey and rice and froze it in seven portions I wouldn’t need to worry about cooking every day. I could have more time for Armored Core. It’s healthier too. I imagined myself as the silent protagonist, munching on turkey and rice bowls every day alongside protein shakes and peanut butter, taking walks around the barracks (my neighborhood) and gearing up for battle every night.

Armored Core helped me lose ten pounds.

Street Fighter 6

My favorite thing about this game is that the looming threat seems to almost be diminished. I know there’s probably some evil force pulling strings in the single player mode but I’m gonna be honest with you.

I played about an hour of World Tour and quit.

Instead, I let SF6’s story tell itself through its soundtrack. Take Ryu’s theme for example.

If you listen closely his old SF2 theme is still in there, but now the most prominent emotional response I’m getting isn’t one of struggle and strife but one of joy. Ryu’s story is over. He conquered his demons and is now at peace with himself. Street Fighter 6 is a celebration of the franchise, and the community as a whole. The games, the knowledge passed between players, the art, the love. It’s real. It’s a genuine movement. Even if you think you’re bad at the genre, the fighting game community has something for you.

“Fighting games are something so great.”

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Epilogue

This originally started as a list of ten, then five, and now I have crossed into this weird third kind of list where I got real indecisive and go with six. The truth is I played a lot of fantastic games this year that I want to talk about at a later date. The games above were simply just the ones I played this year. I played plenty of other 2023 games too. I played Starfield. It was alright. I played Baldur’s Gate 3. I got information overload and took a break from it. I played Pizza Tower. It felt like a game that your friend would own and let you borrow for a week. It’s great, but it never felt like my own thing.

What will 2024 hold?

PrivatelyAttack turns 5 this year. I’m going to take a little break but I’ll return in February with an update on things and hopefully a few pieces in the oven. As for new games I’m mostly keeping an ear out for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth but I think the days of getting hyped for new releases are nearly over with. I’ve eaten so good these last few years. Dragon Quest, FF, Resident Evil…the list goes on. For now It’s Tekken 8 at the end of January, FFVII in February, and we’ll see where the wind takes me. Take care of yourselves, and each other.

-PA

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