20 Best Video Games Of 2023 - RANKED

8. Final Fantasy XVI

One of 2023's most divisive releases, what Final Fantasy XVI lost in turn-based battles or party building, it gained in sheer spectacle, a powerful thematic throughline of saving your fellow human, phenomenal visuals across the board, and the most kitchen sink-throwing boss battles of the year.

FF XVI's bosses are nothing short of mind-blowing, especially because we're talking about a Final Fantasy game here. Never before has the series taken its iconic summons and written an entire Game of Thrones-influenced story around them, meaning characters double as hulking skyscraper-sized kaijus, doing battle for houses and causes alike, leading to a certain fight in space itself, that's an easy moment of the year.

Yes, side quests focus on fetching items or talking to three people in a row, but that's entirely the point. Final Fantasy's lifeblood as an IP has always been pure environmentalism, and humanism. Taking that identity and filtering it through interstellar duels between gods ALONGSIDE the plight of a peasant needing better farmland, is something only Final Fantasy could ever do in the first place.