People start reflecting on the previous calendar year around this point in the year. I’m going to reveal my favorite music of 2022 at the start of December, but I guess I can reflect in other areas of my life.
My video games of the year were Fire Emblem Warriors; Three Hopes, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and Naruto Ninja Storm 4 Road to Boruto. I got the last one a couple days before New Year’s Eve and like making teams based on voice actor references and in-jokes. Examples include Temari with Ino and Sarada, because Temari is played by Tara Platt, Ino is Colleen O’Shaughnessey and Sarada is Laura Bailey. Platt and O’Shaughnessey were also in Three Hopes as Edelgard and Monica, where Monica has a big, obvious crush on Edelgard. Platt also plays Mitsuru and Elizabeth in the Persona series, where Bailey plays Rise Kujikawa, who has interacted with both. I also have Temari team up with Sasuke, who is played by Yuri Lowenthal, Platt’s real-life husband. I recently also found out Liam O’Brien played Gaara, so I team him with Sarada and Kushina Uzumaki, another character Laura Bailey plays, to reference Critical Role and their twin characters in the first campaign.
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax has Bailey, Platt and Lowenthal playing their Persona characters, reprising roles I was introduced to 10 years ago and reminding me of how fun these characters are. Rise, a young pop star trying to prove she’s more than backup, Mitsuru, a CEO trying to rid the world of shadows, Elizabeth, a silly character with powerful magic and Yosuke, an average High Schooler trying to make his way through life. Erin Fitzgerald and Amanda Winn-Lee also do great as Chie and Yukiko, a martial arts film enthusiast and a fire mage and healer who is more powerful than she looks. You also have Troy Baker as Kanji, a muscular young man trying to protect his mom and self-conscious over his love of arts and crafts. The cast does great, the only problem is I got stuck in story mode, however, I do fine in the fighting mode, so I stick to that.
Three Hopes is the most mixed of these three, what it does that Three Houses didn’t, like get me to know Mercedes and Marianne, it does great. However, it does make me miss what I accomplished in the earliest part of the year with Three Houses. The relationships between the new protagonist and Shamir, Lysithea, Marianne, Monica and Edelgard were good and I liked seeing Marianne and Bernadetta spark a friendship, Hubert and Ferdinand get close in Billy Kametz’s swan song and Lysithea and Mercedes cute little supports about making snacks. My only major complaint is I couldn’t get Annette and Edelgard to lunch together like in Three Houses, the two seemed like they could become best friends over their mutual love of sweets and I’d like to think I’m not the only Three Houses fan who feels that way. Caspar and Annette also made an adorable couple that showed someone reassuring a worried person, something also in Edelgard and Byleth’s relationship as well as a thing I often need when facing challenges in life. Still, the final battle was suitably epic and made me extremely excited. If there is a walkthrough to spare Jeralt and Annette, I might even play this again someday.
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