Best and Worst RPG of 2022 (Votes tallied!)

[PorkyThePaladin]

Dumb question, medicatedpoot. 2022 had pretty much no RPGs worthy of note. The tail end of Covid shutdowns meets general modern mainstream stagnation. All the games people were looking forward to turned out to be shit. Liking Elden Rung that year is kinda like liking Ass Effect in 2009. Some day, future codexers will frown.

 

[OSK]

Some day, future codexers will frown.

Nah, they'll look back on these as the good old days as the RPG of the Year swaps between Call of Duty and FIFA every year.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Best: Elden Ring

Worst: Black Geyser

 

[mediocrepoet]

Dumb question, medicatedpoot. 2022 had pretty much no RPGs worthy of note. The tail end of Covid shutdowns meets general modern mainstream stagnation. All the games people were looking forward to turned out to be shit. Liking Elden Rung that year is kinda like liking Ass Effect in 2009. Some day, future codexers will frown.

Some day, future Codexers will be able to be told to kiss my ass the same way the current and past ones can and were.

Thank you for your feedback, your opinion has been noted in the official tally.

 

[Grauken]

"Most people found normal to be a bit too hard." Not sure if they were children or retarded (or both), but there you go.

Experienced players just really have a very loop-sided view of difficulty vs normal players who don't autistically min-max but just shift icons on the screen to hit bad guys

 

[mediocrepoet]

"Most people found normal to be a bit too hard." Not sure if they were children or retarded (or both), but there you go.

Experienced players just really have a very loop-sided view of difficulty vs normal players who don't autistically min-max but just shift icons on the screen to hit bad guys

Yeah, this is probably the more true and charitable view of it. I know that some of the guys around here make me look like I wear my pants on my head.

 

[Geckabor]

Best potential: KOTC 2
The module editor allows for really cool stuff to be made fairly easily and there already is Hearkenworld which is pretty nice and quite different to Pierre's module. Sadly, the userbase is just so small and the main adventure module is already infamous.

Best area in a game: Elden Ring
This is my second FromSoft game after Dark Souls and the reason I bought it was because it seemed like the RPG aspect was slightly increased with many build options and also abilities one can use depending on playstyle, etc. What really blew me away about the game was Stormveil castle. For me, it is an absolute 5/5 masterpiece in level design. It was so fun to explore every nook and cranny, had diverse enemies and even secret bosses. Also, it probably had the only two bosses that were really enjoyable to fight against. The game overall gets a 4/5, though. It's too big and I really wasn't satisfied with most of the boss fights, so I dropped it after 80 hours. I'll probably pick it up again after some DLC gets released.

ELEX 2 was a disappointment compared to ELEX and probably the worst out of the best bunch of games of 2022 that I played, but I still enjoyed the time I had with it and just generally am a sucker for PB games.

The most mediocre games I probably played from this year were Realms of Magic and Coromon. I don't think many people here played them or care about them, but I suppose I can mention them a bit.
Realms of magic could have some potential of being a sort of more RPG-heavy Terraria but just isn't too exciting at the moment (updates might change that).
Coromon kind of baits you with that nostalgic pixel art and monster taming goodness that some might fondly remember from their childhood, but also reminds you of why you don't really play those games anymore. It makes some good changes to the Pokemon system like streamlining some of the more grindy elements that allow you to customise your monsters a bit, but the game gets tedious very quickly. They also added some puzzles that are extremely boring but go on for ages.

 

[NJClaw]

I wanted to post here, but I didn't really play that many RPGs this year. Of the ones I tried (Elden Ring, Black Geyser, ELEX II, Expeditions: Rome, and King Arthur: Knight's Tale), I only enjoyed the first and the last one. So...

Best: Elden Ring
I can't really say it better than this:

for just finding your way in a hostile land, Elden Ring delivers a great adventure

That's what I look for the most in a videogame, and I'd say ER delivers more often than not. Its flaws are tragic (I don't mind double bosses, but they really went well over the limit with recycled content), but the combat is great, the atmosphere works, the amount of tools at your disposal is unreal, and there are plenty of high moments scattered around (starting with the first descent into the underground and ending with a series of endgame bosses that I absolutely loved). Speaking of bosses, the presentation and execution for most of the main ones are insane (Radagon, Hoarah Loux, Placidusax, Malenia, Rykard, Astel and Morgott above all, but there are many other great ones), and that's a big plus for me.

All things considered, I'd still rate it below almost all of From Software's recent games, but I haven't played anything from this year that comes even close to it.

Worst: Black Geyser
I approached it with very few expectations, but when I played it this game had basically nothing going on for it. Apart from the Codex memes, everything about it is inoffensive at best. I abandoned it pretty early, and I hardly ever leave a game unfinished.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Is Black Geyser really that bad? Beyond it being RTWP, what its main offenses?

 

[mediocrepoet]

Just working on write ups, the results have been compiled.

This "poll" thread actually did fairly well as far as I'm concerned. I was hoping for an actual discussion of not just what people thought were good games from the year, but also their reasoning why a game is good or crap because not everyone likes the same stuff. Some people are still convinced the Disco Elysium is good, for instance. So by filling out some reasoning, you can pretty immediately see whether something might be up your alley or not, much better than simply by having a list of numbers, or trying to trawl your way through the "What you're playing" thread.

I'm also generally curious, in an ongoing manner, what is actually important to people when picking out a game. So someone who loves traditional blobbers might rate Jettatura very highly, while someone who hates those, but likes JRPG school VNs with dungeons might love Persona 5: Royal.

Having to pick one cuts down on the agenda votes and noise to signal ratio, while also allowing you to identify dumb fucks and filter them either from the vote or just from reading through threads, as you see fit. It takes away all the anonymity of "put a number/check on a list" polls and ideally makes the results higher quality in the end.

I'd say this thread delivered in all those ways, and people could express their: I hate Elden Ring THIS much sentiments without necessarily voting that way, or necessarily at all.

And a final thought before I work on my results post, I felt that not voting was a sensible option, not just because it can be hard to get to games in their actual release year, but also because, it was a very weak year overall, despite some stand out titles.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Is Black Geyser really that bad? Beyond it being RTWP, what its main offenses?

It's basically super boring and mediocre like NJClaw was saying. Some people could still find fun with it, but there really are far better titles to spend your time and money on, even in the shit show that was 2022. I'd just give you my copy if I could remove the key from my account.

 

[Serus]

The only 2022 releases I played were Knights of the Chalice 2 and Space Wreck. Both are excellent.

Hey, Space Wreck is in EA, you are cheating!


Best: Knights of the Chalice 2
Worst: Tinyfolks

However those are the only 2 crpgs (Tinyfolks isn't really one but was on GOTY list) I played published in 2022 and Tinyfolks isn't terrible.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Pre-edit edit: Fuck sakes Serus. Added to poll since it's not posted yet. Dick.

And now the moment, no one, not even my mom, was waiting for...

Best and Worst of 2022 Official Unofficial Results

Summary:
Some of you can't count to one and/or don't know how to follow instructions, so... there is a section of honourable mentions where every game that was over the first you mentioned as a best and worst (possibly not in those exact words) was lumped to, so everyone got only one vote. Secondly, if you had a "this game was awesome" and "this game was good, but had X flaw, and wasn't as good as that other game" and no clearly defined bad game, it went in your worst pile. In the immortal words of Ricky Bobby, "If you ain't first, you're last!"

There were 40 users that voted in some manner. These users mentioned 32 games, including everything such as bullshit votes, and over-limit votes.
In the actual counted polling, 36 users mentioned 19 games, after dropping over-limit and troll votes. These will be identified at the bottom. Feel free to re-add them if you're so inclined and/or butthurt.

Generally, the top results tended to agree with the official poll, except there was (arguably) no garbage in it. The worst results had a significantly lower voter turn out (18 vs. 31) which isn't surprising since people tend to bounce off of games they hate and forget about them and they tend not to buy things they think they'll hate.

Best RPGs of 2022

Explanation of table columns

Votes column is self explanatory, as is Best. Rank and % is where it ranks on this poll. Due to the small voter size and free-form nature of the poll, there is a huge tie at 1 vote.
KKK Rank and % is where this game ranks on felipepepe's excellent Official RPG Codex poll and is interesting to see where there are significant contrasts.
The % columns are basically a numerical indicator of how close to the top of the poll this title is, so 100% is literally #1 and 8% is pretty much rock bottom. For reference, there are 158 titles ranked in the Official poll.

Votes	Best	Rank	%	KKK Rank	KKK %
10​	Elden Ring	1​	100%​	1​	100%​
8​	Knights of the Chalice 2	2​	92%​	2​	99%​
4​	King Arthur: Knight's Quest	3​	83%​	3​	99%​
2​	Persona 5: Royal	4​	75%​	4​	98%​
1​	Real Trolls Endzeit	5​	67%​	N/A	N/A
1​	Zorbus	5​	67%​	9​	95%​
1​	Expeditions: Rome	5​	67%​	28​	83%​
1​	Elex 2	5​	67%​	146​	8%​
1​	Weird West	5​	67%​	147​	8%​
1​	Jettatura	5​	67%​	21​	87%​
1​	Memoirs of a Battle Brothel	5​	67%​	15​	91%​
1​	Potato Flowers in Full Bloom	5​	67%​	24​	85%​

Some general comments:

• Real Trolls Endzeit is a real game, it's an RPG Maker thing written in the German language apparently.
• Of note is that despite Elex 2 being disappointing and Weird West not necessarily finding a home with most people, these titles can still be enjoyable if you're in the niche it caters to.
• Some of these are games I wouldn't consider an RPG, but they're listed as them or are listed on the official poll, so whatever.

Worst RPGs of 2022

Explanation of table columns

Votes column is self explanatory, as is Worst. Rank and % is where it ranks on this poll. Due to the small voter size and free-form nature of the poll, there are huge ties at 2 and 3 votes, respectively.
KKK Rank and % is where this game ranks on felipepepe's excellent Official RPG Codex poll and is interesting to see where there are significant contrasts.
The % columns are basically a numerical indicator of how close to the top of the poll this title is, so 100% is literally #1 and 8% is pretty much rock bottom. For reference, there are 158 titles ranked in the Official poll.

Votes	Worst	Rank	%	KKK Rank	KKK %
3​	Elex 2	1​	100%​	146​	8%​
2​	Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga	2​	92%​	12​	93%​
2​	Elden Ring	2​	92%​	1​	100%​
2​	Monster Hunter: Rise	2​	92%​	45​	72%​
2​	Expeditions: Rome	2​	92%​	28​	83%​
2​	Black Geyser	2​	92%​	127​	20%​
1​	Dying Light 2	3​	83%​	158​	1%​
1​	Vampire the Masquerade Swansong	3​	83%​	N/A	N/A
1​	Realms of Magic	3​	83%​	36​	78%​
1​	Knights of the Chalice 2	3​	83%​	2​	99%​
1​	Tinyfolks	3​	83%​	93​	42%​
1​	Weird West	3​	83%​	147​	8%​

Some general comments:

• Vampire the Masquerade Swansong is listed as an RPG, but seems like it was an EGS exclusive maybe? Anyway, it wasn't on the Official poll.
• A lot of people were pissed about Elex 2, which isn't all that surprising since the first game was so well regarded among a certain group.
• Some of these are games I wouldn't consider an RPG, but they're listed as them or are listed on the official poll, so whatever.
• What the hell is Tinyfolks?

Honourable Mentions aka RTFM

Explanation of table columns

Votes column is self explanatory, as is Worst and Best. These were not ranked in this poll.
KKK Rank and % is where this game ranks on felipepepe's excellent Official RPG Codex poll and is interesting to see where they are on that.
The % column is basically a numerical indicator of how close to the top of the poll this title is, so 100% is literally #1 and 8% is pretty much rock bottom. For reference, there are 158 titles ranked in the Official poll.

Votes	Best	KKK Rank	%
2​	Elden Ring	1​	100%​
1​	Warsim: The Realm of Aslona	30​	82%​
1​	Black Geyser	127​	20%​
1​	Infernax	23​	86%​
1​	King Arthur: Knight's Quest	3​	99%​
1​	Knights of the Chalice 2	2​	99%​
1​	Space Wreck	N/A	N/A
1​	Elex 2	146​	8%​
1​	Bannerlord	10​	94%​
1​	Fear and Hunger 2	6​	97%​

Some general comments:

• Space Wreck might be cool. It's currently in Early Access, so I wouldn't actually consider it to be released and I suspect neither did the Official poll.
• These are just from people who listed more than one game, I think they're all sincerely enjoyed games.

Votes	Worst	KKK Rank	%
1​	Citizen Sleeper	25​	85%​
1​	Coromon	138​	13%​
1​	Expeditions: Rome	28​	83%​

Some general comments:

• These are just from people who listed more than one game, I think they're all sincerely disliked games.
• It's interesting that Citizen Sleeper and Expeditions: Rome are as divisive as they apparenty are.

The List of Shame aka Facepalm Brigade

You guys Some of you guys are better than this. Shame! Shame!

Votes	Cast out votes - Best	User and/or Reason
1​	Super Lesbian Animal RPG	Vlajdermen: haha funny. Piss off.
1​	Realms of Arkania HD	ERYFKRAD (obviously): sigh
2​	Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous	Please vote last year.
Votes	Cast out votes - Worst	User and/or Reason
1​	God of War: Ragnarok	RPGs?
1​	Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous	Please vote last year.

And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this more than I did.

NO REFUNDS!

See below if you're interested in general themes of the commentary on the games listed.

 

[Zombra]

Oh, I liked Citizen Sleeper a lot. Kinda forgot about it because I didn't play it 'til this year. I totally get why people would downvote it though.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Oh, I liked Citizen Sleeper a lot. Kinda forgot about it because I didn't play it 'til this year. I totally get why people would downvote it though.

Well, because of the unusual nature of this particular poll, you'd have to read the posts for context. I was going to summarize the overall opinions to pick out themes and/or reasons (and I might still), but it's entirely possible that a person played two games and one was better and one was worse, hence my worst game of 2022.

It wasn't quite what I was going for, but with how things came in, I didn't bother trying to separate the nuance. Perhaps if I do this again, I'll try and be more clear that like: if you played two games and liked both, list one as your best and nothing as your worst. Save worst for things you hated or were disappointing. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Super Lesbian Animal RPG

No link?

 

[Tyranicon]

Super Lesbian Animal RPG

No link?

Plus, it's the actual codex GOTY, by official decree.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Super Lesbian Animal RPG

No link?

Plus, it's the actual codex GOTY, by official decree.

Just because the Codex has been seized by the unholy Alliance of masturbatory cretins and sewer trolls doesn't mean that we will submit!

 

[Tyranicon]

Super Lesbian Animal RPG

No link?

Plus, it's the actual codex GOTY, by official decree.

Just because the Codex has been seized by the unholy Alliance of masturbatory cretins and sewer trolls doesn't mean that we will submit!

Uh, actually...

I may like it like that. I wholeheartedly welcome the new regime change.

 

[Vlajdermen]

Super Lesbian Animal RPG

No link?

Plus, it's the actual codex GOTY, by official decree.

Just because the Codex has been seized by the unholy Alliance of masturbatory cretins and sewer trolls doesn't mean that we will submit!

Uh, actually...

I may like it like that. I wholeheartedly welcome the new regime change.

Hey, better that than Elden Boring. Amirite?

 

[mediocrepoet]

Themes of the Poll

For games that have no commentary from the voter or where the comment amounts to: "dis gud" and its congruent with the vote (e.g. it's voted as best with that comment), I will not bother providing anything. However, where titles are divisive, a comment helps give context, or it's possible that good games got lumped into "worst" because of how I evaluated the results, I'll try and provide their commentary here. Otherwise, go to the specific thread and/or ask them what their malfunction is here.

For the voter list, this isn't perfect, but I was sorting through how best to make this readable over here without doing much work on it. I think this should be serviceable.

See mini-reviews below, YMMV. I'm officially done with this shit. For anything else, read the thread.

Voter list

Game	Vote	User
Bannerlord	B	thesecret1
Black Geyser	B	GloomFrost
Black Geyser	W	Zed Duke of Banville
Black Geyser	W	NJClaw
Citizen Sleeper	W	thesecret1
Coromon	W	Geckabor
Dying Light 2	W	Tyranicon
Elden Ring	B	Strange Fellow
Elden Ring	B	Bester
Elden Ring	B	mediocrepoet
Elden Ring	B	Cat Headed Eagle
Elden Ring	B	SDG
Elden Ring	B	ELEXmakesMeHard
Elden Ring	B	cruel
Elden Ring	B	Elttharion
Elden Ring	B	Zed Duke of Banville
Elden Ring	B	NJClaw
Elden Ring	B	thesecret1
Elden Ring	B	Geckabor
Elden Ring	W	Strange Fellow
Elden Ring	W	Tavar
Elex 2	B	Tyrion8338
Elex 2	B	Geckabor
Elex 2	W	ELEXmakesMeHard
Elex 2	W	GloomFrost
Elex 2	W	cruel
Everything else	W	Humbaba
Expeditions: Rome	B	Theodora
Expeditions: Rome	W	Nortar
Expeditions: Rome	W	The_Mask
Expeditions: Rome	W	GloomFrost
Fear and Hunger 2	B	thesecret1
God of War: Ragnarok	W	Falksi
Infernax	B	thesecret1
Jettatura	B	Grauken
King Arthur: Knight's Quest	B	Harthwain
King Arthur: Knight's Quest	B	Nortar
King Arthur: Knight's Quest	B	The_Mask
King Arthur: Knight's Quest	B	Aarwolf
King Arthur: Knight's Quest	B	GloomFrost
Knights of the Chalice 2	B	ItsChon
Knights of the Chalice 2	B	Dorateen
Knights of the Chalice 2	B	luj1
Knights of the Chalice 2	B	JarlFrank
Knights of the Chalice 2	B	0sacred
Knights of the Chalice 2	B	GloomFrost
Knights of the Chalice 2	B	Geckabor
Knights of the Chalice 2	B	Serus
Knights of the Chalice 2	B	Aemar
Knights of the Chalice 2	W	Bester
Memoirs of a Battle Brothel	B	Zombra
Monster Hunter: Rise	W	SDG
Monster Hunter: Rise	W	Elttharion
Persona 5: Royal	B	Falksi
Persona 5: Royal	B	Tavar
Potato Flowers in Full Bloom	B	thesecret1
Real Trolls Endzeit	B	Lord of Riva
Realms of Magic	W	Geckabor
Space Wreck	B	JarlFrank
Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga	W	mediocrepoet
Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga	W	thesecret1
Tinyfolks	W	Serus
Vampire the Masquerade Swansong	W	Zombra
Warsim: The Realm of Aslona	B	Theodora
Weird West	B	Nifft Batuff
Weird West	W	Tyrion8338
Zorbus	B	Aemar

Themes in voting opinions list

Black Geyser
A divisive game, the best vote thought it was underrated while the worst vote thought it was uninspired, uninteresting trash. That latter thought seems to track with the wider "Konsensus."

Citizen Sleeper
Apparently it's a woke visual novel with fake choices that fits into a category I call "not a game", so if those things don't appeal to you, probably not much is going to interest you here.

Coromon
It has nostalgic pixel art and monster taming gameplay like Pokemon with some good changes over that, but it gets repetitive and tedious quickly and the puzzles are long and boring.

Elden Ring
A divisive game. The people who love it usually really love it and the people who don't really don't.
Highlights of the positives include Souls-like gameplay with what felt like more RPG elements, Legacy dungeon design, and adventuring atmosphere.
Some of the negatives include that it's a ridiculously long game (true), and that they found the open world to be boring and formulaic and just too much. (Arguably true, I can definitely see where this type of criticism comes from.)

Elex 2
Generally this seemed disappointing to both people who were counted as voting it best and worst. The later game was thought to be relatively empty and even more of a letdown than the rest of the game. However, its place on this particular poll may be somewhat misleading since at least one of the "W" votes was noted in my list as being "second best", so YMMV.

Expeditions: Rome
The single best vote praises the game's novelty and appreciation of realistically negative reactions from NPCs for playing a woman, as per historical attitudes that felt earned.
The theme of the negative votes seem to be concerns about how woke it is and simply that it was disappointing after the earlier Expeditions titles.

Fear and Hunger 2
Punishing in an enjoyable way with lots of replayability.

Infernax
Well made Metroidvania style game. Short, but very enjoyable.

Jettatura
Wizardry 1-3 ++.

King Arthur
No negative votes. We love challenging tactics gameplay in the old world THIS much. The game has some replayability with different alignments and factions. It also has an extended endgame if you want to keep playing.

Knights of the Chalice 2
This is the Pierrest game of all the Pierre games, for better or worse. Key positives are about the module editor and D&D style gameplay, but the associated negative is with the low player base, re: seeing anything made with it and/or seeing anyone play what you've made with it.

Monster Hunter: Rise
Good game, but the DLCs and microtransactions are shit. It's also ugly in comparison to Monster Hunter World (note that Rise is a Switch port) and whether you enjoy it will partially hinge on whether the core Monster Hunter gameplay loop appeals to you.

Persona 5: Royal
It feels modern and really impressed the voter with how good it is.

Potato Flowers in Full Bloom
A simple, but enjoyable blobber that is well designed.

Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga
The systems work well and are well designed, but the actual game content is shit and boring due to being ridiculously easy. The story sucks to boot.

Tinyfolks
Not actually terrible, but not an RPG and the worse of two games played.

Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong
Enjoyed the game, but got a dead man walking status due to missing a pixel hunt early on. Never completed.

Weird West
Cool setting, but repetitive gameplay that lacked polish.

 

[Zombra]

Citizen Sleeper
Apparently it's a woke visual novel with fake choices that fits into a category I call "not a game", so if those things don't appeal to you, probably not much is going to interest you here.

This is a gross distortion of how the game actually works, completely ignoring the resource management aspect and substantial, hard decisions to be made.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Citizen Sleeper
Apparently it's a woke visual novel with fake choices that fits into a category I call "not a game", so if those things don't appeal to you, probably not much is going to interest you here.

This is a gross distortion of how the game actually works, completely ignoring the resource management aspect and substantial, hard decisions to be made.

Hey thesecret1, Zombra says you're full of shit.

 

[thesecret1]

This is a gross distortion of how the game actually works, completely ignoring the resource management aspect and substantial, hard decisions to be made.

The resource management that is so trivial as to be virutally impossible to lose? You can grind as much of whatever currency you need as you'd like, there's no limit on that shit, so what management, even? And what hard fucking decisions? I gave it a solid attempt (5 or 6 hours?) and there hasn't been a single one. Virtually all the decisions were either fake, or inconsequential. Do you scrap the shipwreck, or explore it? Who cares? It literally doesn't matter. Do you help the commie get back at some corpo dude? Well you can't not help him, so take a guess. How do you handle the bounty hunter? Doesn't matter. Nothing I've seen in those five or six hours mattered in the least, I was railroaded every-fucking-where, and I was swimming in money throughout. I had so much intel to sell that I'd need to spend like 15 minutes just repeating the sale action to convert all that shit to money, that's how difficult the "resource management" was.

 

[Crispy]

I was going to vote for Solasta but it was released in 2020? Hee heee. Heee.

What year is it right now?