RPGamer 2023 Awards – Biggest Letdowns

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The Diablo series has endured for over twenty years, with legions of fans dedicated to Diablo II and III. The anticipation for Diablo IV was palpable, and the game was generally well-received at launch. With great scores and lots of concurrent players at launch, the game had to be a smash, right? Diablo IV was not going to be a day one for many, especially with where it fell on the calendar, but plenty were excited to get to it on the backlog. However, after all the chatter about the game at launch, something curious happened: people just stopped talking about it, because they had stopped playing it.

The end-game grind had become too much, with fleeting or inconsequential rewards. The season pass model was daunting and confusingly priced with a poorly-received first season, and incredible prices for cosmetic micro-transactions had sucked some of the fun out of what was already a pricey game at launch. Others balked at having to create a new seasonal character. The best part of Diablo is playing with friends — but when everyone has left the game behind? That’s the biggest disappointment of all.

 

 

Fire Emblem Engage should have been a slam dunk for the franchise. It sports fantastic tactical gameplay that feels top tier, but is marred by a bunch of silly design choices. From its bland protagonist, to its nonsensical story and even its hub area, there is so much going on, but with little substance. Although still a decent enough title, what should have been a celebration for the series ends up being such a letdown as the game’s overall cheesiness just isn’t endearing.

Even self-admitted gacha haters were likely curious, if still a bit skeptical, of Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis when it was announced in 2021. The game has the key elements of great graphics and music with decent combat, but it is still such a disappointment because of the inherent nature. It rears its head quickly in-game, and the headache-inducing home screen constantly trying to get your attention (and money) is an immersion-breaking reminder of what the game really is. Some people love these games, even during this era of blink-and-miss-it life cycles. But could we get a premium version without the major distractions instead?

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We offer a tweak to one of past dubious categories to better reflect the nature of it and criteria behind it. The sheer number of releases means the RPGamer staff is often able to just skip over truly miserable experiences, meaning this award focuses on those that have somehow enticed multiple staff members to them but then failed to impress any of them.

To wrestling fans, the thought of taking the larger than life characters and making a grand adventure out of them has always been enticing. Then WrestleQuest came along and the stars looked to have aligned finally. Unfortunately, a few issues mar this attempt at bringing this dream to life. The story dashes from one protagonist to the other just as players get settled in for the story, which just heightens how one-noted they feel and makes the characters feels like caricatures. The combat quickly becomes repetitive and takes far longer than most turn-based fare, while also being more difficult at times because player’s are trapped without ways to level up or prepare properly. This makes a somewhat admirable effort to combine the greatness of RPGs with wrestling that just falls apart after the initial novelty wears off.

 

 

With the combination of dungeon crawling, survival, cooking, tactical RPG, and roguelike mechanics, Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook can make the claim of being a unique experience. Unfortunately, this mixture doesn’t make for a tasty dish as the execution of these ideas leave a frustratingly bad aftertaste. Novelty can only go so far with monotonous combat, as well as difficulty balancing that feels less dependent on the player’s ingenuity and more dependent on luck being on their side during a run, especially when it comes to the bosses that bookend each section of the game. The lack of a driving narrative would already have been a deterrent for a significant chunk of players, but the other issues only further limits the appeal. It was ultimately not to our taste.

Cosy life sims have been on a renaissance over the past few years. Palia is just one of the latest entries in that space, looking to differentiate itself with MMO elements and a world where humanity is a species of the past. Unfortunately, the game just doesn’t have the enchantment of its brethren. The base gameplay elements are there, but the game feels lacking in both mechanics and writing. The game also isn’t helped by its nebulous release status; the game is clearly not at the full level of its intended experience and content. There is potential for Palia still to rise to greatness, but the experience is currently lacking.

 

by Paul Shkreli, Sam Wachter, Ryan Costa, Ryan McCarthy, and Alex Fuller