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Metis of the Hallways posted:10. Gilmore Girls Fire Emblem Yes 
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Dec 26, 2021 09:59
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I was gonna write something here about the state of the world, but gently caress that- this is a place of celebration. Folks, despite everything, video games. They’re real good.  This year was especially heavy on the retro games, games by Nintendo and Square Enix, and of course, Pokemon. 10 . Pokémon Card GB2: Great Rocket-Dan Sanjō! (Game Boy Color, 2001)  Well, I got bit by the Pokemon card collecting bug real hard this year so checking this out seemed like the logical next step. For some reason this was never released outside of Japan (despite being a late GBC release, there were still several first party games released afterwards) but thankfully there’s an excellent fan translation. It follows the same basic structure as the original, but with much more content, and of course more cards. The big additions are the Team Rocket expansion, along with a bunch of promo, vending, and even game-exclusive cards. Great game, and shout out to the Anbernic RG351V for being a rad little emulation machine that I played this and lots of other retro games on this year. 9 . Final Fantasy III (PSP, 2012)  I think the pixel remasters were announced shortly after I beat this, you’re welcome. Anyway, this was the next step in my journey through the Final Fantasy series, and despite its somewhat mixed reputation, I had a good time with this remake. The polygonal graphics are pretty iffy, but the music’s great, and the job system, while basic, is a joy to experiment with. That being said it’s absolute bullshit you can’t save in the final dungeon. Trust me, suck it up and make multiple trips. 8 . Pokémon Sword DLC: The Isle of Armor & The Crown Tundra (Switch, 2020)  Pokemon Sword/Shield were divisive and felt incomplete at release, but these DLCs are a major step in the right direction, better delivering on the promise of the base game’s wild area. Both Areas are huge spaces with a ton of variety in encounters, and even seem to run at a smoother frame rate. Seeing a massive trade evolution like Rhyperior spawn in the field is awesome and hopefully bodes well for the upcoming Legends Arceus and the future of the series. 7 . Cotton Reboot (PS4, 2021)  Hey, this was a fun surprise. I’ve enjoyed other entries in the “cute-em-up” subgenre such as Parodius and Twinbee, but this was my first experience with the Cotton series, and it’s a blast! Charming, frantic, and there’s a lot of depth to the power-up and scoring systems. The series seems to have experienced a revival, so I’m looking forward to checking out the other Re-releases and the new game that’s in the works. 6 . WarioWare: Get it Together (Switch, 2021)  Classic WarioWare formula, but with a creative character gimmick I really enjoyed. Finding a character that completely invalidates or completes a micro game in an unusual way is hilarious, and playing in co-op is chaotic in the best way. Orbulon is wildly overpowered. 5 . Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS, 2017)  Played in anticipation of Metroid Dread, which I sadly haven’t gotten around to. This one honestly took a little bit to grow on me. I never fully got comfortable with the controls, and I was surprised by how aggressive the enemies are and the difficulty of the game in general. However, when it clicked, it really clicked. Samus eventually becomes powerful and mobile as hell, and the late game boss battles are a real high point. 4 . Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch, 2021)  Look, a remake of an excellent game- even if it doesn’t push the envelope in terms of new additions- is still an excellent game. While I would have loved something more akin to Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, replaying Gen 4 without HMs and the additions of modern conveniences such as the portable PC box has been a great time. The Grand Underground is a lot cooler than it appeared at first glance and does a lot to fix the underwhelming Sinnoh dex. 3 . Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (INTERmission Yuffie DLC) (PS5, 2021)  FF7 Remake was my personal GOTY for last year, and I didn’t expect to see any sort of follow up for years, so this little addition was a nice surprise. Yuffie’s got a bit of a learning curve to her playstyle, but is really enjoyable to control, and Fort Condor absolutely kicks rear end. Also this makes it abundantly clear that Dirge of Cerberus is canon, so I’m gonna have to check that out sometime, against my better judgment. 2 . New Pokemon Snap (Switch, 2021)  About god damned time! The long awaited sequel to Pokemon Snap more than lives up to the original, expanding that all-too-brief experience into something much greater. The game is honestly gorgeous, features hundreds of Pokemon across all generations, and really makes them feel like living creatures. The game encourages you to observe and photograph each monster’s unique behaviors in order to fill out the photodex with different images, which makes revisiting each course multiple times very engaging. There’s even a day and night version of each with their own roster of encounters. New Pokemon Snap is a delight and an absolute love letter to the series. 1 . Actraiser Renaissance (PS4, 2021)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egRkYNE1PRU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4sj5I8ADXE I never in a million years thought I’d see Actraiser again. It’s not a game I grew up with- I fell in love with it via the Wii’s Virtual Console- but it’s an absolute masterpiece and feels almost singularly evocative of that early SNES era of experimental game design. Side scrolling action platformer and god game mixed together, it shouldn’t work and yet it did, masterfully so. 30 years later and they just…shadow dropped a remake/reimagining like I’m emotionally prepared for this on a random Thursday. Actraiser Renaissance expands greatly on the original game in both story and gameplay. The side scrolling segments have additional RPG elements added, and the spells have all been reworked. There’s a lot more nuance here than just spamming the starshower spell until the boss dies. The Lord of Light also has other new tricks such as a back dash and a very satisfying downward slash. The city building segments have seen the most work, with each region feeling more unique in terms of geography and culture. The new hero characters for each region and their stories do a good job of tying the bosses into the narrative and making them feel more cohesive and less like random cool demons to murder. Zeppelin Wolf in Bloodpool being one of the best examples. In general, the writing is very well done, and there’s significantly more dialogue than the original. For better or worse however there’s no voice acting at all. The biggest gameplay addition to these scenarios are the tower defense battles, which have you setting up barriers and commanding heroes to defend the town’s temple or other specific locations. They’re a cool inclusion, even if they pop up a little too often for my liking. A point of contention after the game’s reveal was the graphic style- I, however, love it. It’s as if the devs decided to envision what a hypothetical Saturn Actraiser game would have looked like, rendered on modern hardware. It’s not often that a game’s closest visual analogue is loving Skeleton Warriors but it’s a bold choice and I want to see more of it. All you need to know about the music is yes, they got Yuzo Koshiro back for the remake and it is glorious. Tbh if I’m ever in a coma just play the first 15 seconds or so of Fillmore and if I don’t respond just pull the plug. I’m not sure how well the game did- I’m certain it wasn’t high budget and it reviewed fairly well- but I hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of Quintet’s work. The possibility of an Illusion of Gaia Renaissance fills me with an indescribable joy. Other stuff I played this year: 3D Space Harrier- these super scaler ports are the only games I bother turning on 3D for at this point. Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX- gorgeous remake, but boy did they not sand off any of the rough edges. Thank god they at least added an infinite lives option. Battletoads 2020- this was ok I guess? Probably one of the better Battletoads games but that’s not saying a ton. Clockwork Aquario- Very cool little game I’m glad was brought back from the dead. It’s over in 30 minutes but it’s a fun, audiovisual treat. Donkey Kong 3- fun and not worthy of its poor reputation. Donkey Kong ‘94- It’s remarkable how good this game is and how perfect Mario feels to control. They really took a lot of inspiration from this for Mario 64. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest- Ryuji Sasai writing the Soundtrack for this otherwise average jrpg  Gorogoa- I’m pretty easy to please so I was actually surprised when I really didn’t enjoy this game at all, despite near universal acclaim. The controls were awkward, puzzles unintuitive, and the story was incomprehensible but not in the way I enjoy. Great art though! Pokémon Unite- Never thought I’d ever touch a MOBA, but if Pokemon are involved, I had to give it a shot. It’s actually really fun! Great roster of Pokemon too. I’m just not the sort of person who can focus on only one ongoing game such as this. I’ll probably dip back into it once in a while for fun. Pu-Li-Ru-La- Extremely normal game, nothing to see here  Salamander- Great shmup, hard as hell, not a ton more to say. Streets of Rage 4- I enjoyed this, but not nearly as much as I expected to, based on my love for SoR 1&2. A fun play through but it didn’t really stick with me. I liked River City Girls more which I didn’t expect at all. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels- Snes All-Stars version, and I abused the hell out of save states. I liked it but I’m pretty sure I would have given up on it early on if I was playing legit. Games I bought and would have probably been on my list had I actually enough time to play them: Deltarune Chapter 2 (ok this one was free) Doki Doki Literature Club Plus The Good Life The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles Metroid Dread No More Heroes III Persona 5 Strikers Psychonauts 2 Shin Megami Tensei V Vaporware of the year: Pokemon Sleep  Seriously what happened to this thing and what was it even supposed to be? I’m the exact kind of idiot who would buy it if it ever exists. Most anticipated of 2022: Arkanoid: Eternal Battle Digimon Survive Eiyuden Chronicle Rising Finding out whatever the gently caress Palworld is Kirby and the Forgotten Land Little Nemo & the Nightmare Fiends Pocky & Rocky Reshrined Pokémon Legends Arceus River City Girls 2 Rune Fencer Illyia Sonic Frontiers Steam Deck TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge That free Bugsnax update And most importantly  Someone please set me free from this very specific hell  Summary List for compilation: 1. Actraiser Renaissance 2. New Pokemon Snap 3. FF7 Remake Yuffie DLC 4. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond 5. Metroid: Samus Returns 6. WarioWare: Get It Together 7. Cotton Reboot 8. Pokémon Sword Isle of Armor & Crown Tundra DLC 9. Final Fantasy III 10. Pokémon Card GB2 Panic Restaurant fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Dec 26, 2021 |
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Dec 26, 2021 10:05
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Pokemon Card Game 2 is good, and I would smother Pokemon Snap in its crib if I got a third single player pokemon card game.
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Dec 26, 2021 10:19
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I'm just gonna play Forgotten City, then I'll post my list ok?
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Dec 26, 2021 10:47
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Rarity posted:Yes https://twitter.com/marlowedobbe/status/1347428946120347650 This has all the information you need. It is about an hour-long experience, extremely broken, and very stupid fun.
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Dec 26, 2021 12:06
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Is Michel in it
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Dec 26, 2021 12:11
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Super busy this year and I feel like I didn't really play as many games as I wanted to but I've tried to think of what I did and what I really enjoyed! 5. Super Mario 3D World I never played this on Wii U and finally got the chance to with the Switch remaster. What an absolute joy, just pure fun! I love Mario games and this is honestly just a perfect refinement of 3D Mario. I have not played co-op but I imagine it's pure chaos. Really should do that actually. You should buy this game! 4. The Void Rains Upon Her Heart I never would have expected to get into a bullet hell-ish shmup since I've never found them to be my thing but then this game came along! By changing the formula to just be a series of bosses with an interesting difficulty system giving the player the power to make things more difficult or easier it was surprisingly easy to get into and actually get fairly decent at! I love roguelites/progression based games with lots of interesting things to unlock and I think that Void really succeeds to do well with the formula. It is still a skill based game and the upgrades can make you feel powerful but you don't feel like you're being held back by not having unlocked things yet. I really can't recommend this game enough! 3. Resident Evil Village I loved RE7 quite a lot, then the RE2 remake blew my mind with how tight it played and how much fun it was to speedrun and play over and over. The RE3 remake was also good but definitely a bit of a stepdown so I was hesitant to get too hyped for Village. I was honestly pretty blown away though and although it didn't reach the heights that the 2 remake did for me I really loved this game! The story was very dumb but I enjoyed it all the way through and Ethan is a great character. The variety in enemies and environments compared to 7 was great and I can't wait to see what they pull out for the inevitable RE9. 2. Metroid Dread This was the first Metroid I actually played on release and drat it was amazing! Controls were basically perfect and the game moved at such a fast and fun pace. New upgrades were always just a short moment away and provided some new way to interact with the world that I never felt bored in the time I had with this game. Really hoping we maybe get some dlc or something but at least I think Nintendo knows that the Metroid series still has a strong fanbase and they should put effort into getting more of these out! The cathartic final moments in the game were so satisfying! 1. Monster Hunter Rise I really wanted to get into World when it came out and I tried a whole lot but never found a weapon that fit my groove and something just didn't click with me. My friends played the hell out of it though and so I always kept that interest in the back of my mind. When Rise came out I gave it another shot and quickly became immersed and absorbed by this game. Every moment for a few weeks I would finish work and instantly pick up my Switch and start hunting monsters. I found out that the Hammer is the best weapon and got into the groove of smashing every monster's head very very hard. I will admit that I did burn myself out on it after playing so much but my fondest gaming memories of the year are still the moments I had with this game. I finally get why MonHun rules. Shout out to the goons I played with and all the crazy skilled japanese people's games I joined!  Simple list: 5. Super Mario 3D World 4. The Void Rains Upon Her Heart 3. Resident Evil Village 2. Metroid Dread 1. Monster Hunter Rise I also started reading like crazy this year just before/as I was preparing to move to Japan. Got through about 20 books the past few months and a few of my favourites were: And Then There Were None The Little Prince A Wizard of Earthsea Piranesi Dune Midnight Tides (book 5 of the Malazan series) Now that I have written this I really need to go read everyone else's posts in this thread. You're all awesome and I'm happy to have a place like SA to read and talk about games
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Dec 26, 2021 12:29
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Chairchucker posted:Is Michel in it I played it in January this year which was, of course, a full decade ago so I can't really remember. I don't thiiiink so? Maybe as a cameo but not a playable character.
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Dec 26, 2021 12:58
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here are the 10 best games i played this year 1. dota 2 - i only play this stoned out my face with friends usually at 1 in the morning and largely for these reasons its the most fun i've had playing videogames this year (also probably the most miserable i've been) 2. league of legends - I've really enjoyed taking a few steps into league for the past few weeks, since many of you just don't care about mobas i'll sum it up here as best i can in a few soundbytes - its far far more toxic than dota, its a prettier game, but theres less too it and i probably won't stick it for more than a couple more weeks, Ziggs is super fun though and I wish they had a hero like that in dota 3. rocket league - just fun, you'll either look at it and go "i could have fun with that" or "just doesn't appeal to my taste at all" and I am decidedly in group 1 4. disco elysium - put off playing this after seeing nothing but relenting praise which is usually a red flag but genuinely very clever and the richest voice acting i've heard in games, i absorbed every line, i really hope they take the same structure and apply it to other narratives 5. sekiro - finally got into Sekiro this year on PC after my ps4 died last christmas. I enjoyed it but got frustrated and cheated my way to the end, its a massively rewarding game to others with a lot to master but to me it was just a bit too frustrating to be what i'd call a good time, i'm glad i played it and i'd go back and attempt it legit but it's just not something I enjoy 6. yakuza 6 - swithered with whether to play this after playing the start of 3 cooled down my interest in the series for a bit but its genuinely a hilarious and fantastic game, maybe my favourite yakuza game although i'm not the person to ask given how quickly I seem to batter through them compared to the real super fans. I will forever remember Ono Michio 7. Outer Wilds - not a game i'd have thought i'd be drawn too but there was enough mystery and wonder there to keep me interested, i tried it at launch and felt completely clueless and lost but after seeing so much buzz went back and really tried to focus and yeah its a game that reward attention and thought 8. Hades is great, I don't love it as much as the people who put 100+ hours into it but I really admire games that put a lot into their presentation and Supergiant nail that 9. fallout 4. Finally got round to playing Fallout 4, had a great time with it but only really started it this month so can't comment too much, as a fan of the 3D fallouts it seems like more of the same and that's kinda all i want. 10. Metroid Dread - probably the only full price purchase I made this year during a bored week off work, I enjoyed the little time I put into it but to be perfectly honest i probably should have just replayed fusion or prime
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Dec 26, 2021 13:13
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Metis of the Hallways posted:I played it in January this year which was, of course, a full decade ago so I can't really remember. I don't thiiiink so? Maybe as a cameo but not a playable character. Well that's a drat shame as he is the best
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Dec 26, 2021 14:10
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Describing a game as being far more toxic than Dota 2, is sort of like describing a material as far harder than diamond
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Dec 26, 2021 14:28
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Escobarbarian posted:The few of you posting your lists in ascending order are freaks haven’t you ever heard of SUSPENSE emptyquote!!!!!!!
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Dec 26, 2021 16:47
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Escobarbarian posted:emptyquote!!!!!!! Seriously what's wrong with you people
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Dec 26, 2021 16:58
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Whizzing Wizard posted:Describing a game as being far more toxic than Dota 2, is sort of like describing a material as far harder than diamond Yeah you'll see people get mouthy occasionally if people make game losing mistakes but that's somehow more understandable than bumping an teammate by accident 10 seconds into a rocket league and having them shunt you over the pitch while scoring OGs.
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Dec 26, 2021 17:02
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Only two of these games are new, but that's 2021's fault for being so lovely. I just bought Wildermyth yesterday, I suspect if I had a couple more weeks it might have made the list. If I'd played Deathloop after they cleaned up the abysmal AI instead of right at launch it would probably be on this list too. 5 -Skyrim I hadn't played Skyrim since 2011 so I've never touched the DLC at all until this year. In my memory Skyrim was a pretty good game that I enjoyed but was a bit overhyped. When the anniversary edition came out I picked it up without getting mad, since I've only bought it once in the past, figuring I'd play for an hour or two and get bored, like I do with most games lately. Instead, Skyrim consumed every free moment of my life for the next 3 weeks. I didn't even use any mods or anything, just straight up Skyrim with the broken UI and all. It's got plenty of flaws but the world-building is so good, and even after two full playthroughs there are still huge areas of the world I've never visited and dozens of interesting side quests that I've never seen. Skyrim is a masterpiece and even after games like The Witcher 3 have surpassed it in many respects, there's still nothing that quite matches it. 4 - Hitman 3 It's more Hitman. A game series that has a narrative that takes itself way too seriously while simultaneously letting you do the most ridiculously stupid poo poo I've ever seen in a game. Fantastic level design and the integration of all three games into a single launcher is genius. I'll ignore the Epic Game Store fiasco and all the bullshit that came with it, because this series is the greatest set of murder puzzles ever devised and so wonderfully different from every other tired AA or AAA franchise currently in circulation. 3 - Link to the Past Randomizer In elementary school I was completely obsessed with the Legend of Zelda, even managing to finish Zelda 2 multiple times when I was 7 or 8 years old. The release of LTTP was a huge moment for me and to this day remains my favorite Zelda game, and one which I would have said I knew everything about until I played the randomizer for the first time this year. Playing the randomizer requires extensive knowledge of the game, but paradoxically it made me feel like I was playing LTTP again for the very first time. Though I knew every dungeon, every boss, the location of every critical item, there were a ton of secrets that I didn't know off the top of my head. Not knowing the locations of useless rupee drops and having forgotten the location of probably 1/3 of the heart container pieces, I was forced to thoroughly explore every inch of the world, taking mental notes of where I would need to return once I found the hammer or the hookshot. I look forward to revisiting the randomizer every couple of years once my memory has faded a bit so I can relive the experience again. 2 - Deep Rock Galactic Not sure if I can list a game that was also my top game last year, but I don't care because this is my favorite game so far this decade. The only downside is none of my friends want to play it, so I only get to play with randoms. It's the absolute perfect co-op game and the community is wonderful. Unlike a lot of other games there's no specific mood I need to be in to play this game, if I'm frustrated and want to avoid stress then I can just drop it down to a lower hazard level and shred bugs without any thought. Fighting our way to the drop pod as the timer counts down, then blowing an explosive pack and hitting a ROCK! AND! STONE! right as we take off always puts me in a good mood. 1 - Metroid Dread This was not the Metroid game I wanted. I play Metroid for the exploration and the atmosphere, challenging boss fights have never been part of the equation and forced stealth sequences in action games are my most hated game design element. While talking to friends about the game during my playthrough I bitched repeatedly about how disappointed I was. But, I pushed through and once the game was done I found that I was extremely happy with it. The mechanics and movement in Metroid Dread are possibly the best in the entire genre, and I had forgotten how good it feels to overcome a boss fight that really makes you work for it. The downside is that while I love this game, I suspect it will be one that I don't return to often, like the Soulsbourne games. I have to be in a very specific mood to want to play a game that causes so much frustration, and the current state of the world makes those moods very rare. This was the best surprise of the year in gaming, and I'm very glad that Nintendo took a chance on letting MercurySteam make this game.
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Dec 26, 2021 17:55
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Oh dang was I supposed to stealth at some point in Dread? I just sorta tore rear end through the EMMI areas and hoped for the best and it worked out more often than losing my patience with stealth
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Dec 26, 2021 18:04
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if the games the bottom of my list wanted to be at the top of my post ("the winner's circle)" they should have been better
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Dec 26, 2021 18:28
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Honorable Mentions: 16. Last Epoch A very solid Diablo-esque action game that's still in early access, this compares very favorably to Grim Dawn and Path of Exile and will probably be fantastic once it's fully out. 15. SaGa Frontier Remaster I played the poo poo out of the original and I played the poo poo out of this, Square-Enix did their best to restore content cut from the original version and it's just as off-putting, weird, and compelling as it ever was. It has the typical Kawazu bare-bones storytelling with charming visuals, a great soundtrack, and NO FUTURE. 14. Atelier Ryza 2 I go back and forth on whether I like this one more than the first, but either way it's a solid Atelier entry if you like that sort of thing and I enjoyed getting to hang out with the first game's crew a little more. 13. NieR Replicant I don't think it hits the heights of Automata but I still had a good(?) time with it, emotionally devastating though it could be. 12. Ender Lilies A very solid Metroidvania with some very good minimalist storytelling. 11. AI: the Somnium Files I fell off this at first and came back to it later, and I'm glad I did, because the point I stopped playing originally was right before the point when everything started getting twisty and interesting. This visual novel (with some dream segments with minimal gameplay to break things up) had some genuinely interesting reveals I only barely guessed right before they happened, if I guessed at all. TOP TEN 10. Lost Judgement A squeaker, barely qualifying for this year since I finished it an hour ago, the Yakuza devs have done it again with their second (and possibly final, although I'm hoping the weirdness surrounding the star's likeness will get worked out to ensure some future entries) title in the Judge Eyes (Judgement here in the states) Yakuza offshoot franchise. Slightly more serious than the mainline Yakuza titles but with the same good heart at its core, the tweaks to the formula established in the first game is refined and improved across all areas. My mild criticisms are that Kamurocho feels a little vestigial, since most of the game takes place in Isezaki Ijincho (first debuted in Yakuza: Like a Dragon) and most of the content is located there as well, and that the story mostly hangs together but gets a bit shaggy towards the end. It still mostly works, though, and as always I can't wait for the next thing these folks give us. 9. Ori and the Will of the Wisps Part of my affection for this game is how it wraps up emotional beats established in the first game, but part is also reserved for how much the gameplay was improved. Beautiful environments, responsive controls, a heartfelt story shown rather than told; this game is a gem. 8. Metroid Dread Can you tell I was a little in the mood for Metroidvanias this year? Dread is great to play and replay, and I had a lot of fun the second time through once I knew how things worked and what Samus was capable of in this installment. It's also designed so that a playthrough can be pretty quick if you know what you're doing, which I appreciate more and more these days for the times I'm craving something more bite-sized than a 60 hours JRPG. 7. Final Fantasy 7 R Speaking of which, I started this in 2020 but didn't wrap up my playthrough until this year. The original FF7 is a game I have a complicated relationship with; I had such affection for 4 and 6 growing up that I wasn't quite prepared for what 7 was doing, and though I do appreciate that it's goofier than it's remembered I still find the graphics hard to stomach. The remaster obviously solves that but there's also clearly some affection going into this update, with tantalizing threads that there's something different going on here that I can't wait for the follow-up for. 6. Rimworld I only started playing this in the last week or so but it's already got its hooks in me. There's a lot to appreciate here; the original design as a 'story generator' is enhanced by the two extant expansions, with a myriad of options for generating a random colonist list and ideology to force a different playthrough, but there are also a ton of in-game options to play a specific way if you want to do that, and that's not even touching the existing mods for the game. 5. Brigandine This was a bit of a surprise. I played the PS1 original and remember enjoying it, but I wasn't expecting to like this spiritual sequel as much as I did. The faction and map design fosters interesting strategic and tactical choices and there is enough variety in each faction's starting character set to justify playing as each on at least once. There were a few annoyances (revival stones to get back lost monsters, which are otherwise gone forever, are few and far between on base settings) but ultimately I enjoyed this far more than I was expecting to. 4. Hades Hard to say more about this than has already been said, it's well-crafted on every level and justly deserves all the accolades thrown its way. I mainly don't have it higher because I'm not a huge roguelike fan (although the meta-progression elements in Hades smooth this out for me) and because, well, my top three are also superlative games. 3. Prey I bought Mooncrash at a deep discount in a Steam sale, played through it and enjoyed it but thought, "I really just want to be playing Prey," so I did. Actually I played it three times in succession in different styles and started a fourth on a higher difficulty before moving on. It's the pinnacle of what we've all decided to call the immersive sim, with a number of satisfying and challenging ways to play and things I was still finding after multiple playthroughs. 2. Disco Elysium: the Final Cut I bounced off of this last year as I wasn't quite in the headspace for what it was going for, but I picked it up again this year and blazed through it twice. It's extraordinary, emotional, sublime, funny, tragic, it looks beautiful. I didn't want it to end, and I can't wait for the next thing this team makes. The only reason it's not my game of the year is because it's going up against the heaviest of hitters. 1. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker The most impressive thing to me about this expansion is how it frontloads what we knew it contained going in; promotional materials talked about the Final Fantasy 4 pastiches (the moon, the Tower of Zot, the Magus Sisters), Anima, resolving the Garlemand storyline, and dealing with Zenos and Fandaniel, who were pumped up to be the expansion's villains. Instead, nearly all of that is dealt with by level 85 and the remainder is wholly new, unexpected, and wonderful, giving us hero moments for each of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, establishing a seemingly insurmountable challenge coupled with a difficult philosophical question (how should you live when death is a certainty), and answering that question in the only way it could. It's not really a surprise to me, given the state of the world and the state of Creative Business Unit III itself (Soken, the series composer, revealed his cancer diagnosis during FanFest this year, and Yoshi-P lost another friend recently), that this expansion is so interested in the question of death, but the answer it gives is hopeful but also clear-eyed, and is artfully contained in the game's established universe, cosmology, and metaphysics, so while it does feel like a reaction to the moment it also feels timeless. Speaking of Soken, this expansion features more of his incredible work, including a track in the final area that is stunning both in its final form and the way it builds throughout the zone. This has always been Square's strength, actually, even before they merged with Enix; not just to write a good song or create an interesting visual or a mechanic, but to heighten and refine the presentation to the next level so that all elements are working together to push the player experience and emotional involvement as far as they can. This level of effort is present across most of the expansion content; while Shadowbringers, superlative though it was as a total experience, still had some zones and sections that dragged. Not so here; each new zone, each dungeon, each trial is great, with multiple moments that shocked me or drove me to sobs. There are flaws, of course, but they don't come anywhere near tarnishing the experience for me, and when you're talking about the number one game of the year the intangibles (time spent playing this game, living in this world, love for the dev team, who are clearly working on a project they're passionate about and for a leader who respects them) are what pushes one game or another to the top, at least for me. It's my game of the year; it's the game of this year; it's a miracle that it exists, that I am dearly thankful for.
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Dec 26, 2021 18:33
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5. RE Village: classic resident evil, decent action, some ridiculous bosses, if it has been third person and the mercenaries mode a better it might have been bumped up a couple of spots. 4. Psychonauts 2: a heartfelt story well told with some imaginative level designs and classic platforming. 3. Metroid Dread: more Metroid, doesn't do anything particularly new but it plays well, has fun, challenging bosses and controls well despite seeming a bit finicky at first. 2. Blue Reflection - Second Light: Gust have been on a roll lately in the zero to low budget JRPG space and BR2 finally perfected what they were trying to do with the original. Can't really put my thoughts into words on this one yet but I might come back to this later. 1. FF14 Endwalker: Not just a perfect capstone to a story started almost a decade ago, but one of the most life affirming and positive things I've ever played. Dungeons and bosses are fun and moon bunnies are cute.
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Dec 26, 2021 19:34
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10. The Forgotten City. I was going to take this off my list after seeing the last ending, but it is overall a really entertaining and focused experience that I did enjoy for the most part. 9. Dyson Sphere Project. Made by a small group of indie developers in China, this became an unexpected hit. It is both incredibly detailed and unpolished in the way that only these games can be and I really look forward to how it will look once it's "finished". 8. Valheim  Had a whole lot of fun with this early in the year. Then we ran out of things to do and the people I played with gave up on it, and I think I might never play it again. But I was obsessed with for those weeks that I played it. 7. Halo Infinite Not as big of a leap forward as I, a fair-weather fan of mister Chief, would have wanted, but zipping around the map with the hook-shoot and chaining plasma explosions is a whole lot of fun. The story is the same old non-sense, but a lot better than Halo 5. 6. Judgement. The main character is no Kiryu, but the investigation angle is pretty neat. 5. Yakuza Kiwami 2  The further adventures of Kiryu-chan. More of the same, but it's still really good. Played trough this early in the year so I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but good game. 4. Forza Horizon 5 I'm not a car-person, but this game is a whole lot of fun. It is very much the same game as Horizon 4, which I also really enjoyed, but that's fine by me. The new setting is great and the graphics are phenomenal. 3. Bayonetta.  This game certainly did "Fly me to the moon". In a metaphorical sense, I mean. 2. Metroid Dread Incredible animation and fluid motion. This game has what old games magazines called "good controls". The difficulty is right at the point for me where I would start a boss fight thinking I would never win, then, with every death I would improve just a little bit until I finally prevailed. Here's hoping that Metroid Prime 4 is released at some point in our lifetimes. 1. Final Fantasy IX  A good game. Played the Steam version with the Moguri HD backgrounds mod and smoother framerate, which made the whole game feel a whole lot better. A really comfortable and enjoyable experience, amazing music and nostalgic in way that calls back without feeling like empty imitation.
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Dec 26, 2021 20:59
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Whizzing Wizard posted:1. Final Fantasy IX hey, fellow "FFIX on their top 10 list" friend
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Dec 26, 2021 21:08
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 STOP THE THREAD It has come to my attention that there is a sleeping giant of a game hiding right beneath our noses, and denying us high quality black tar video game satisfaction while we are trimming our ceremonial holiday plants and AFKing in FFXIV. We have gone over a dozen pages possibly without even a single mention (disclaimer: I didn't read every word up until here) of this colossal, big appendage energy omitting sleeper of a game. Unfortunately, my personal high quality list has already been submitted and buried deep into the Earth's crust with a large drill, and no amendments can be made. Therefore, I bring you an official BR Interjection HM: Archvale - Do you like old school Zelda? DO you like challenging but fair games that operate at a high enough pace that your countless deaths never feel frustrating? Do you like dozens of weapon choices to switch between on the fly? What if I told you all of these things exist in a simple, highly accessible package available on almost all platforms including PC and Switch? What we have here is probably most comparable to the roguelite great of a few years back, Enter the Gungeon. However, it plays like a top down action RPG, with several areas to explore barred by nothing other than enemy power level. Why has this gone unmentioned? Well, it's an indie game that has been around a few weeks tops, and we are all busy with other poo poo. If I redid my list, this might be in the top 5, however standards must be upheld. I won't stop other courageous list posters from binging this and squeezing it on theirs, however.
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Dec 26, 2021 23:07
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Archvale is also on gamepass, and you make a compelling argument BR. If it appears on my 2022 list it's all your fault.
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Dec 26, 2021 23:14
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I’m going to be honest, Gilmore Girls Fire Emblem is the most interesting game nominated so far
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Dec 26, 2021 23:22
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I’ve been playing Prodeus for the last few days and now I’m wishing I had waited longer to make my list because this very well might be my GOTY
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Dec 26, 2021 23:23
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I decided there were games I actually want to talk about, so here's an actual list of some cool poo poo. 6. Griftlands: This is a fun title that only came to the Switch this year. It's yet another game riding on the success and popularity of Slay the Spire, and it fuses deckbuilding with both a roguelike and an RPG. The game is long enough that a single run can easily take 5 hours or so and the 3 main characters each have 2 story branches so there's plenty of replay value though I haven't aunk as much time with it as Slay the Spire. 5. Ace Attorney Trilogy : Technically I played this last year, though I only made it past the second game. My son played the first game earlier this year, and we both have a desire to finish it. So now we are both playing it together, and it's great being able to share this experience with him on the big screen. As a bonus, he got me the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles so I have that to look forward to as well. 4. AI: The Somnium Files: Again, this is here because of my son. I introduced him to this game over the summer and it was an absolute joy to hear all of his theories and ideas as the story progressed. Also he fell in love with the end credits dance and used that to work out and lose weight all summer. He had his grandmother pre-order the special edition of the sequel being released next year and that's going to be another VN we can share. If you don't mind anime and like murder mysteries and smart mouth AI then give this a look. 3. Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse: I've basically lived under a rock for about a decade as far as video games go. When I did get back into the hobby I missed the old point and click adventure games that Sierra and Lucas Arts put out in the 90's. I honestly thought the genre was dead, but this game has proven me wrong and I've found several more as well. It's a great modern day mystery about an art heist that takes you from post-WWI Spain to modern day Paris and London and beyond. 2. The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa : It's an open world high school life sim with gorgeous backgrounds and kunio kun sprites. It's also a beat em up with 3 distinct fighting styles you can learn. Get a job, talk to girls, play ping pong and pool and video game poker and help your friends with their problems. It's a difficult game for many people to like, because the game truly is about your friends and their lives. 1. Slay the Spire: I already talked about it earlier, but Slay the Spire is probably the single best deckbuilder out there right now. It's won numerous awards for good reason, and it's a game everyone should play if your even mildly interested in deckbuilders or roguelikes. Well over half of my gaming on the Switch this year was this game and I'll probably put in another 300 hours next year. Game good, play it.
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Dec 26, 2021 23:55
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FlowerRhythmREMIX posted:I’m going to be honest, Gilmore Girls Fire Emblem is the most interesting game nominated so far I'm getting the urge to play it again so I can answer people's questions about it better.
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Dec 27, 2021 00:41
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you can edit your list, as long as you make a post aying so so rarity knows to update her tallies
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Dec 27, 2021 00:52
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Apologies for the length of this list. I love to post about games I love.  I have ranked these games by 'Feel'. What I mean to say is I experienced many highs playing all these games and this is how I structured this list. I do know for a fact that some of these games are considered better than others from purely objective standings, but in the end how I felt in my heart is how I travelled this path. So, before 2021 I would complete maybe, at most, of 3-4 games a year. I mean, I would start tens of tens more, but I have an inability to focus and concentrate and would jump and flitter and bounce around no matter what the game. There are a thousand games on my steam list with '15 minutes played' and I feel bad about it because many of them are probably great as proven by what I played this year. It turns out, I desperately need structure and I need rules in place to ever have a chance of finishing games. Streaming my play sessions gave me the structure I craved and I owe this discovery entirely to the PlayStation thread goons and Bloodborne. If I had not streamed Bloodborne last year, then I have no idea what this year would have been like for me. It was never really a big plan, just a quick stream session to show the goons how much trouble I was having with the game and hope for maybe a few tips on getting good, but mostly just to laugh at my incompetence. It was supposed to be a quick hour long thing and then we would all move on. If this is your first GOTY thread then welcome because that is not what happened.  What actually happened was me playing far better and having fun due to the fact that I was gaming with friends. I proceeded to play, and mostly get carried via summons, through the rest of the game over a few weeks. It was exhilarating and culminated with me beating the last three bosses Mergo, Gerhman, Moon Presence in a row. Finally I was honestly able to say I had beaten a FromSoftware game. The floodgates had opened and I wanted more Souls Likes. This was right before December which was mostly taken up with my wedding and the 2020 GOTY thread, so I only streamed once or twice and played alone at times I could. Bloodborne was my GOTY and Dark Souls was in 6th place (despite not finishing it) and after wrapping up the GOTY thread results I resumed playing Dark Souls again in January. This was when it all flipped. I decided that Bloodborne was not enough and that I would work my way through all Souls games. I would play Dark Souls 1-3, then Sekiro and then (if lucky enough to nab a fabled PlayStation 5) the Demons Souls remake. I vowed to do them on stream since we had a fun little thing going and I set a schedule so that people knew when I would be around and could drop in to see some silly gaming. To be very honest I was thinking I would stop after the last Souls game because that was the whole reason for streaming in the first place. A fun journey through some of the toughest games of all time just to see if I can; a game player who only ever chose easy for every game they ever played. After I beat Sekiro I was unable to get the Demons Souls remake. A few of the PS goons urged me to play something else until I could get to it and two years previously I had dabbled a little by streaming the last few Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus and a bit of The Last Guardian. So we chose to stream and complete the Last Guardian for true closure. It was while having an incredible time with that I hit upon a nefarious plan that would only impact myself: quote:I would play Games that many posters in this forum could consider the GOTY in an attempt to confuse and paralyse myself for my eventual GOTY post. Not only would I get to play the very best games I had missed for being bad at choosing games, but I would then have to figure out how I would rank them and what criteria I could possibly use but also to think long and thoughtfully about what I have played. This mission was a success. I have played, to completion AND on stream, 24 full games. They have been utterly amazing and have leant this to being the greatest year of gaming in my whole life. I have been spoiled and I am not sure how 2022 and the years to come will be able to top this. I am excited for them to try. That is the future though, and this is the now. Seriously not one of these games was anything less than great and I am blessed to have played them. So here we go. (I will spoiler many things but they will be behind tags)  Devil May Cry V This was my first Devil May Cry game, so I was quite confused about what was happening, though that soon subsided and I let the sheer bonkers nature of everything sweep me up with it. In terms of style and control it was incredibly slick and easy to get into. By the end I was doing my best to get those ranks up and when I was able to press the buttons correctly, hearing 'Sick Nasty' was always an endorphin boost! Plus Nico is the best character in the game!  Dark Souls Maybe this is a little unfair to Dark Souls 1, but I played this very early in my growth and I had just come off Bloodborne, which is head and tails the better game. I like it a lot but I think it is weaker than all of the other modern fromsoft games. It does have some of the greatest bosses in all of the souls games: Artorias, Bed of Chaos, and Lord Gwyn. When I play through the series again next year, I think I will enjoy it more.  Until Dawn This was a glorious little Horror Movie of a game. I got LVG to make all the choices while I did the controlling. There were a couple of moments where she would pick something left field that I definitely would not have, but it made everything funny and silly and the eventual ending memorable. Plenty of great jumpscares and it still looks utterly great. Hannah and Beth were done dirty by all of them except Chris and Josh. Felt tremendously sorry for them the whole way through! Just wish we had been able to save Josh and Chris.  What Remains of Edith Finch This was my first 'walking sim' genre game and it was a doozy. It was short and sweet with a really engaging story that was divulged to us in visuals matching the subject we were learning about. I really appreciated the effort that had gone into the way they chose to release the information. So much of it was truly heartbreaking and I would say that if I did believe in curses, then the Finch family was no doubt cursed. How can so many bad events happen to such a tight knit family? A couple were incredibly dark and one of them resonated so hard with me and my own previous mental health situations that it has stayed with me since.  Deathloop This is a current year release that I gave a chance on. I wanted to be a part of the discourse and the action, as a game mechanic is your friends invading you and putting a stop to your plans. I wanted to be as green at the game as everyone else. (Also Prey was my 2019 GOTY. So how could I not play an Arkane game on release?) I also had a suspicion it would be a product of the time sort of game and I can confirm this. The time I spent playing it was ace. Having goons trying to take me down made me so much better at it (especially as I was worried about controlling an FPS on a console as a KBM predominant) and it was always fun to see a familiar PSN name pop up on the screen. While I was better at defending from invasions than I was at invading, it was a great little snippet of gaming companionship I am glad to be a part of. The powers, the visual look, the voice acting is allll top notch and it was one of the best releases of the year - I need to play Dishonoured thanks to how much fun this was!  Return of the Obra Dinn I love puzzow games and this is one of the most unique in the genre, both in what you are doing and how it looks visually. Being an insurance investigator for a ship where the entire crew has passed away is a setting I would never have dreamed of and yet I want more of it. Piecing together events via an old timey watch and walking through a literal door into the past, leading me to noting down similarities between figures, positions, audio cues and death scenes was a welcome change of pace compared to what most games offer. It kept my mind working overtime and the sense of satisfaction from getting everything correct was overwhelming.  Resident Evil Village I am an oddball who has only played the early 'Tank Controls' resident evil series (1,2,3, Code Veronica) as well as the two new remakes. I tried, but never got into 4 or 5 or 6 or much of 7 - genuinely not sure why. I thought as part of Spooktober I would change all that and jump right in with Village. It was an absolute blast. Again, it was an FPS on a controller and I have so little confidence in my ability to aim and turn but the game is very generous when it comes to those with lower abilities (or so I feel). I ended up having a way better time than I expected. You do not need to have played Resident Evil VII to enjoy Village and each of the four sections was superbly inventive and mixed up the game. It did not wear out its welcome and it was quite a challenge the whole way through - second quarter considerably. Originally I was a bit annoyed at the end; I got stuck in a situation where my wallet was stuffed to the brim but the shop no longer had anything they could sell me that I needed - coupled with being at a point where I was down to only being able to be attacked once before death. Bad saving on my part! It looks wonderful, has the over the top acting from the villains that you always hope for. Not to mention it is legitimately creepy and scary in the places it needs to be. A very good game and a great Resident Evil.  Returnal This is one of Sony's best exclusives and probably the game that best takes full advantage of every facet of the PlayStation 5's unique hardware. The haptic use in the controller is present in ways that will make you wish every game had them, it sounds phenomenal in both the 3D audio sense and design of every enemy and location and weapon, and to cap it off the visuals are blistering and pounding and stark and helpful. As a game it grabs you and shakes you around until you learn the patterns and become one with the movement. Not content with just that, it also tells an intimate and emotional story via interspersed events between the gameplay loop. This game is no walk in the park and the enemies are relentless - their attacks can at times fill the screen with colours and particles and you cannot stop moving for just one second. It rewards your focus and concentration and when everything clicks you the reward is feeling so powerful that nothing can stop you. If you have ever liked a Housemarque game then you will like this. If not, but you wanted a game that takes elements of Sekiro and Binding of Isaac and puts them in a 3D version of Nex Machina then you might fall in love with Returnal.  It Takes Two This is the official game of the year according to the Geoff Keighley Evening of Fun. (Out of the 2021 games that I had played I have no problem with this winning that accolade.) What I expected was a spirited little co-op romp that Lady Videogames and I could play together, full of split screen platforming and mirth. What we actually got was a game about a pair of awful parents who have lost their love for themselves and each other, do not realise how much it is affecting their child and are self absorbed to the point of affecting every little thing in their world, with split screen platforming, mirth and horror. It is not a long game, in fact I would say it is exactly the kind of length it should be. It is split into multiple sections, where each one apes a popular game type (3D brawler, isometric dungeon crawler, 2.5D platformer, final fantasy minigame) but always with its own game relevant spin. Most importantly it requires each player to work in harmony to complete each section which ties in wonderfully to the themes the game is tackling - can a marriage as broken as this one be repaired with serious work? When I say horror up above I mean it. There are some incredibly dark moments and I am quite shocked it won best family game. It is not a game I would let younger children play alone. I would hope an adult would be present to explain some of the quite intense and upsetting events. The very first one that got us was the forcing of a living vacuum cleaner to 'kill' itself by moving its heavy powered suction 'arms' into its own eye sockets. LVG and I were certainly NOT prepared for that. A definite must play.  Alien Isolation I love to be scared by media of all kinds. As such, I deliberately went for games I knew (or hoped) would give me a fright this October. Until Dawn had a few jumpscares, Resident Evil Village had more, but it was Alien Isolation that brought the A game and whipped me into a fearful frenzy. There is a constant sense of unease and dread that permeates throughout the game all of which is enhanced by how true it stays to the aesthetic and sound of the very first Alien movie. and it has some of the most extreme peaks I have experienced in a scary game. There were moments when I could almost feel the breath of the Xenomorph on my neck as I was playing. Medbay springs to mind as one of the most panic-inducing of the whole escapade. In fact, I made noises during this game that I never have done before. The story was extremely entertaining and as a real piece of Alien Franchise media it is better than a number of the existing films. The lead character is totally believable as what you could picture the child of Ripley being and there were some great plot moments and world building that did nothing to sully the time in between the first and second films. It was very respectful of the original media and I got a kick out of hearing some of the actors voice leftover dialogue, not to mention the music being a pitch perfect addition to Jerry Goldsmith's original score. The moment where I came face to face with the realisation that there were facehuggers, coupled with the eventual meeting of them is hands down the most terrifying moment I have experienced in a game. It sent my phobia into overdrive and the entire last section from probing deeper in the ships engine to the shuttle ending was relentless against me and that just meant beating it felt even sweeter.  Night in the Woods Throughout the whole of this game I could never figure out what kind of game it was or wanted to be. I still cannot. This is not a negative point at all and somehow I think Mae would appreciate my sense of confusion. I was enthralled throughout the game and in becoming friends with Mae, Bea, Gregg, Angus and Germ got to experience the full range of emotions that learning about someone's depth might bring. So many conversations between these wonderful anthropomorphs had me thinking about my own life being caught in the reflections of theirs, or how thoughts that had clouded my own days were being represented by members of this tight knit group. It was the video game equivalent of realising that while the world can seem bleak and the future bleaker, having a group of friends that accept you for who you are can make it bearable and maybe if all of you just band together, you can support each other until your dying days. Yes, life can be monotonous and repetitive and it can seriously affect your mood, but support structures and proper care (both medical and emotional) for yourself and from those around you is the path to winning. The one line that stands out the most and the one I think I will always come back to when I think about this will be "I believe in a universe that doesn’t care, and people who do." - Angus. It was the overarching message that called to me and one that I wholeheartedly believe. I think I would like to replay this and possibly spend a little more time involved in the lives of everyone. It certainly feels like there is a lot of depth hidden behind the paths I did not choose and this is worthy of at least one more replay.  The Last of Us I had put off playing this game for a long while for a silly reason. I had yet to play the Uncharted games and I knew that Naughty Dog had refined their formula so much by the time they made this, that I did not want it to be too difficult to get into them - and so I never got round to it because I never started Uncharted 2 due to not really feeling it after beating Uncharted. I am so glad I decided to ignore this worry, listen to the PlayStation goons and just get on with it. This game is as breathtaking and engrossing as the reputation it has built up over the years. It is one of the most complex video game stories I have absorbed and exploring the connections humans make during extreme circumstances of post apocalyptia had me from start to the end. I was warned that there would be some very dark moments and that playing this and the sequel back to back might be too emotionally draining for me. However I think choosing to treat them as one massive two part game was the absolute best thing I could have done. This served as an awesome foundation for my experience with the sequel. Throughout this game I grew to love Ellie and Joel as they battled the demons of their personalities, the world and each other. Also, the Factions multiplayer has been a constant Tuesday night event that I and multiple PlayStation thread goons come together to play a few rounds of and it is one of my most looked forward to gaming events each week. Tourism.  Metro Exodus I should have kept this game for spooktober because of all the games played this year, this one had the most frightening sections of all. I get ahead of myself though. I am not a metro player - 2033 and Last Light are both in my library but untouched - but I could not ignore the repeated insistence that this game was a fantastic one and whenever a goon makes an impassioned case on a game I cannot help but note it down for future play. This was the game I chose to end the year on and it made the perfect end point for a year of incredible fun. A partially open world FPS full of characters doing their best in a wasteland, Metro Exodus requires you to sort of forget how you would normally act in these kinds of games. There is an overriding sense of hope in this utterly horrendous version of Russia that radiates from one of the best supporting crews I have met. The story of Artyom, Anna, Miller and the Order (Duke, Sam, Damir, Tokarev, Aloysha) and the people they meet along their exodus is not just a rote apocalyptic tale, but one of self sacrifice and the desire to connect with others. This is not a 'guns blazing' game, even though you can approach it as such. It has an extremely detailed and lore rich world that if you take the time to immerse yourself in you will be enriched also. There is so much more going on than the surface shows and thinking like a human rather than a soldier is what will win the day. In terms of fear, I have a massive, massive phobia of slugs of which there is a section of the game where I had to deal with a great amount of them and I very nearly could not. I came so very close to putting it down. Seeing the end of the game though made everything I went through worth it and then some. An extreme high to end a year of gaming on.  The Last Guardian This is probably the third most emotionally charged game I played this whole year and the first one I encountered. I am not sure exactly how Team Ico did it, but in Trico they created something so incredibly believable, lovable, fearful and admirable that it almost defies the known logic that it is simply code running on a console. I have played games where there are animals that do their own thing before - Fable II comes to mind - but this is on another level entirely. The conceit of this whole game, the emotional core and everything you experience within it rests entirely on the connection you the person playing and the connection that you make with Trico. This is a level of uniqueness that only a game of this kind can make work. It could have been a massive dud, it so easily could have failed to work but they pulled it off and I am not sure if anyone else would ever try to do something as ambitious as this. This is not to say it will work for everyone - you certainly need a specific mood and mindset going in but if you have cats of your own, then I think it is much easier to warm up to Trico. Getting them (cats) to do anything, absolutely anything, can be a struggle and oftentimes asking Trico to stand or to come over or jump would result in the same pleading cries I have made to my own pets. I would forget while playing that Trico was not real, as silly as that sounds. His animation, his eyes, his cries and squawks, and his everlasting care for the young boy who rescued him from captivity shine throughout the lush world you both journey to. I will always remember the defining moment I fell in love with my little Catbird: I was running desperately along a shaking scaffold. Trico stood atop a pillar right in front of me. I was desperately running to catch up with him as the scaffold fell to the depths behind me. Reaching the end, I jump into the air to try and make the huge distance to the pillar. I am not going to make it. He lunges to grab me with his beak and ever so slightly misses grabbing me as I tumble to my death. Suddenly, from behind the pillar his tail whips out and straight up into me and I latch onto it, saved in the nick of time. Both LVG and I jumped and cried with joy at that moment - it makes me smile to remember our reactions. Of all games played this year, this is extremely special to me. ---- OK! My next post will be the games that count towards the points!
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Dec 27, 2021 02:01
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 Forgotten City This was a wonderful little gem that deserves a wide, wide audience. The PS5 thread had a few posters talking it up and convincing others to have a go also, who then talked it up some more. After finishing Night in the Woods I was a little lost on what to choose next, especially as I was aware I was reaching December and wanted to make sure I finished all the games I had started. Forgotten City was sold to me as a small but engaging Skyrim Mod turned into a fully fledged game. It certainly is that, but oh my word is it so much more. Goodness this was a treat of a game and that a small team made this while teaching themselves how to code, how to animate, how to create a full game AND that it came out so well made is a sheer testament to the drive behind it. I will spoil the rest of my thoughts because people deserve to play this excellent game without any knowledge of what is going on. The promise it makes at the start is 100% paid off by the ending. A MUST play. As it is a time loop game, you have to repeat some tasks over and over. As you start you can tell friendly farmer Galerius to perform all of them for you and he will, which allows you to focus on learning new things and performing even more tasks. I thought this was just a really smart Quality of Life upgrade but it is so much more. Having Galerius be the one to do these tasks means he is visible as the saviour to a lot of folk who then vote for him as the city's new Magistrate. What I thought was a clever way of circumventing boredom with a neat game mechanic ended up being integral to the plot of the game. Not only that, but a lot of the game involves dialogue with others, and so many times things I desperately wanted to say were an option after I had mentioned it. It felt like the writer catered for my thought patterns and knowing how complex the behind the scenes for the game would have to be considering how open it is blows my mind. And it goes even further. By saving these people it makes the true end (which can be accessed without going through these motions) even more impactful, and boy, did this ending resonate with me and fill my heart with joy. I am a sucker for a certain kind of heartstring tug and this had that. It was immensely satisfying to learn all that I could about these people and then have my own thoughts validated and welcomed. You do not often get endings to games this earnest and 'happy' and I think this is a refreshing change of pace. There are 4 endings. I got 2 and 4. 4 is the ultimate one, the truest ending and if you want to see a competently made game by an incredibly small team end with one of the sweetest moments then please make sure you get number 4. I could not have been happier once my time in the Forgotten city was done.  Dark Souls 3 https://clips.twitch.tv/AdventurousShyNostrilFreakinStinkin-Q0GP-8B3FkJ4vn2H Mechanically DS3 is the Dark Souls closest to Bloodborne and because of this it excels. Bloodborne's speed mixed with Dark Souls' aesthetic is proven, in this game, to be the absolute best of both worlds. This game is fast and brutal and contains some of their all time greatest bosses. It is a wonderfully fitting end to a trilogy that surpasses all other video game trilogies. Visually the souls trilogy peaks here also. It being properly next gen compared to 1 and 2 means it has all the power behind it of the PS4 era. Being 60fps right off the bat with those lovely visuals means you can finally see into the gross and decrepit nature of the Souls universe (much the same way as you could Yarnham). Everything is appropriately gross and fantastical and worn down and burnt and all such. It is the most punishing of the three games and also contains the best DLC bosses in Sister Friede, The Demon Princes, and Slave Knight Gael(my very favourite boss of the trilogy). This is mostly due to the increased focus on faster swordplay compared to the slower pace of the first two. DS3 contains all the classic tropes that From are known for and if you had played it after spending years replaying DS1 and DS2 over and over I could see how it might not register as anything more than a 'Best of' game. I feel that what it is attempting to do, is to put to bed the idea of a Dark Souls and that this is FromSoftware bringing an end to the Souls universe once and for all. That this mishmash of bits from past games is in service to the main theme that 'This Must End'. I wrote a very long post about Dark Souls 1-3 earlier in the year, so I will not go over all of it again - other than to say this felt like the most fitting of an ending to what has been a groundbreaking game trilogy and I am happy that FromSoftware can make whatever game they wish to from now on. They earned it bigtime.  Dark Souls II https://clips.twitch.tv/AnnoyingMildReindeerTwitchRaid-Pa2-w-5v9mOzGf0v I know I said DS3 was the best of the Souls trilogy and while I think that is true, it is Dark Souls II that I had the absolute best time playing. For this I will always favour it above the other two games and know for a fact that my experience was not the norm. Bloodborne is where FromSoftware games clicked for me, but Dark Souls II is where Souls games clicked the most. I summoned a lot in Bloodborne and Dark Souls 1. I understood the games, sure, but I still needed a lot of help. Dark Souls II was where I started to rely on myself and believe in my own abilities. I still summoned a few times (Fume Knight, The First Scholar, Sinh the Slumbering) but for a LOT of the main bosses I went at it alone and I beat them by myself. It was this game that felt ever so slightly off from the first Dark Souls, where I truly fell in love with them all. I went out into the world with my great club and faced off against all manner of weird beasties and started to show that I had gotten gud with several of the bosses I one shot (like Burnt Ivory King). I had silly fun during one gaming session where I was repeatedly invaded by a guy called TheCoolSmelt who would toy with me and use chameleon to disguise himself and would change up his attire constantly. (Turns out he was a random person stream sniping and actually stayed with me for the rest of the day until I actually beat the very last boss - though really he was the true boss of DSII). More things I really enjoyed that elevated it above 1 and 3: - Power stancing with dual great clubs. - Being chased around by Percy, who was a very fun Mr X. type. - Majula is gorgeous with dreamy music and this makes it the best hub area. - Pharros Lockstones are a great mechanic even though I never got trapped in the Rat Waterways due to playing the game well after popularity. - Lucatiel's storyline. It is really exemplary in being the whole point of the games' theme. - Beating the DarkLurker - one of the best gaming moments of my life and the moment I started to really believe in myself. - Iron Keep elevator which is an amazing bit of memory trickery and why the theme of memory loss is so good and appropriate for a souls game. Basically it was not one thing specifically, but the sum of all these fantastic things that made the whole package for me. I struggled with enjoying Dark Souls 1 after Bloodborne, but Dark Souls II was exactly what I needed to 'get' these games and keep the whole journey going. Without it, I might never have gotten to DS3, Sekiro and...  Demons Souls https://clips.twitch.tv/VictoriousCrunchyParrotDendiFace-NhrQ7WD2lHfUHn8b (For context, chat had just informed me that there was an achievement for blowing out every candle in the Nexus. As I had just played Astro's playroom and this has a blow into the controller mechanic, I was trolled successfully.) I love the Dark Souls trilogy, however I love Demons Souls even more. Some might call Demons Souls a prototype, but I am not sure if I agree. It felt to me, as I played, that Demons Souls was a specific kind of game that had to be changed in small ways in order to fit into what Dark Souls could be. While Dark Souls II feels like Dark Souls only 3 degrees off, Demons Souls feels like you are trying to recall in detail the Souls trilogy thirty years down the line. In Demons Souls, the run from 'bonfire' to boss is the true gauntlet and the bosses, by the structure of the world, are a little easier than a boss in a Souls game might be. I missed this approach when I started to get into this game. In a way it could be classed as more unfair and more difficult due to the fact that some runs from worldstone to boss can be quite long and need you to focus more than if in a souls game, but I dug it. I had just come off Sekiro so I felt powerful and able. I completed this whole game without summoning once! Even with a cheeky boss like the Maneater, which was a frustration, I overcame it. While I found Demons Souls an easier time than every other FromSoftware game, which I think was due to having played them all right before with Sekiro being the one directly beforehand, there were areas in which the game is made tougher by various choices FromSoftware made. The healing items having a carry weight was one such thing and inventory management is essential in this whereas it was dropped by all subsequent games. There is a decent mix of bosses between straight up fights and gimmick that I really dig. I always enjoyed the gimmick fights in the others and I like that this game mixes things up more equally - it feels like it is trying to be more than just a simple hack and slash game but rewarding you with little puzzles too. For example, the best boss in the game is the Storm King and while at first it is daunting, once the gimmick is located your subsequent fight is one of the most beautifully rendered fights on the PS5. I should mention that I am talking about the remake this whole time. I never played the PS3 version, but the way the PS5 remake utilises the power of the PS5 made controlling it a joy. The haptics, the visuals, the sound, all of it, much like Returnal, are a package that made it worth the money spent. When you hit an enemy the controller responds as such and you can feel the thud and connections. The crackle of magic electrifies down the small speaker contained within and helps you feel as though you are casting that bolt. This is a game that does not feel dated in the slightest. That it manages to stand above the Souls Trilogy is a testament to just how correct FromSoftware got the formula right the very first time.  The Witness https://clips.twitch.tv/GleamingShakingCasetteWow-flH1gFBOn1jC9Byo (This game caused me to come up with ever increasingly convoluted name schemes for puzzle solving.) Puzzows are my thing. I know Johnathan Blow is a menace and not a great guy, but this game he is responsible for is something that infected my mind for the whole time I was playing it. I would see puzzles everywhere and I would smile and think back to one that was causing me problems in the game. The premise of this game is so remarkably simple and easy, and yet taken to complex extremes that stretch your very grey matter. All of the hundreds of puzzles in this game are solved by taking a line from one spot on a grid to the other. That is it. The whole game. Describing it like that sounds like the dullest thing ever but actually playing the game is like nothing I had prepared myself for. It starts so gently, getting the line through the small grid but as you progress through the island, completely isolated too, the puzzles add more rules to their required solutions. Some puzzles require you to use colour coding to separate pictures on squares, some require you to listen to sounds and match waveforms and some require you to make shapes that are identical to the ones imprinted on the panel. My most favourite are the pillar puzzles, where the panel is wrapped around a column and you have to unfold the puzzle in your own mind. Then there are the secret puzzles that when my mind finally discovered them it broke in two. It turned the game from a fun puzzle solving marathon into an obsession with finding as many as I could. I needed to solve every puzzow right there and then. I think by the end of the game I got about 90% of everything possible which is great, but most importantly, I completed The Gauntlet, which is a series of puzzles so fiendish that I have to explain how it works. You are given a record player and turning it on plays a very peaceful piece of classical music (Edvard Grieg - "Anitra's Dance”) and lights up three panels. Solving these three lights up more, all the while this piece plays in the background. As the music comes to the end, a second piece of music plays and it is In The Hall of The Mountain King. Not a peaceful tune at all. Once that finishes, the record switches off. Now, as these two tracks were playing you have a number of puzzles to complete that are only possible while the record player is on. Once it switches off, if you have not finished all of these puzzles, then they also switch off. These two pieces give you 6 minutes and 30 seconds of solving time. These are not simple puzzles either and they use all of the different types you have seen earlier. Not to mention that every single one of them is random. Once they switch back on, they are entirely different puzzles to be solved. There are 14 in total and each section has varying numbers and amounts of randomness to them and require you to pay close attention to how you solved earlier ones. It is tough and compelling and completing it was the best moment of all moments in this utterly excellent game. It is one of my few platinumed games. Why are there so few games like this? Issa puzzow!  Outer Wilds https://clips.twitch.tv/RespectfulSmoggyYamTBTacoLeft-Os226Imj4QCIGM0B How to talk about Outer Wilds without crumbling? This game is one of the greatest ever made and by the very end of the full experience (not counting the Echoes of the Eye DLC as I have not played it) I was in bits. It connected with me on a deeply human basis and left me both full of hope and tremendously empty inside. The ideas that I conjured up during play were proven over and over to be flawed and incorrect. As everything slowly unfolded, the truth about what the game was saying to me was revealed with a matter of factness that showed it had always been that way and that the universe is a strange, majestic place where fairness and destiny and fate are concepts that we create that it has no need for. Outer Wilds is a deeply affecting piece of media and to talk about what exactly got to me means I have to go behind spoiler tags. Like Forgotten City up above, play this game blind. It deserves you to. It is one of the most finely crafted video gaming experiences you can ever be a part of and allowing it to show you what it has to offer is infinitely more rewarding than reading my words. I really genuinely thought I could save everyone. This is what goes through my mind first of all when I think back to my time with the game. Most video games tease you with things and the eventual win condition is to make that thing teased either not happen or to find a loophole around it. I thought that learning about the supernova of the star was the turning point where I would then spend the rest of the game trying to figure out how to save all of the Hearthians in 22 minutes. Outer Wilds is not that game. And it is all the more magnificent for not being that game. It is a game about acceptance and finality and continuity and it excels at what it wants to be. When I truly learned that not only could I not save the Hearthians, that I could never have saved them, and it is only by sheer random chance that I was even aware of the supernova, that was when the grimness of what it means to be alive in a universe without such concepts of 'fairness' set in. I remember thinking about the young Hearthians playing hide and seek at the start of the game. That they had only 22 minutes of life before the whole of existence ceased. That it was not fair they never got to live and be who they wanted to be. It sits with me how much of a reflection of our own chaotic existence this game is. Exploring the small section universe was a ton of fun and I never quite got the hang of the ship due to my own incompetence. Finding out that there was never any change to the setup of the planets, just that you learned more with each life and that technically if you knew it from the start you could have gone straight to the end is a pretty big selling point. Mobius Digital had full faith in every player to uncover the truth however they wanted and that the game resonates with so many is the truth behind their expert crafting of the game. Most games fail to stick their endings (not really been a problem for me this year with all these wonderful experiences) but Outer Wilds does not even dare let you finish without thoroughly following through with what it sets out to do. The result is a sendoff that is so hauntingly beautiful that just hearing that music is enough to bring me to tears of joy and sadness. Like I said earlier: this is a game about finality, about the end of existence itself and of hope in the face of said nothingness. I was sad I only got to experience 22 minutes with my Heathian colleague and my Nomai friend, but together we helped usher in an entirely new existence for another set of lifeforms. While we no longer breathe, perhaps in these new stars the strands of our existence still reside. Please, please, please, play Outer Wilds. Please.  The Last of Us II I played this back to back with TLOU and in every way possible this is the better game but only because of the foundation provided by the first game. Having seen the full story and learned all that it wants to tell me; I am stunned. Somehow, despite being a mod of a busy Games forum, I was unaware of anything that happened in this game or the first. I am truly glad for that because the narrative I experienced has been one of the most emotionally puncturing, resounding, distressing and hopeful that I have ever experienced. If the TLOU was about learning to reconnect then TLOUII was the opposite and learning to let go. It is a revenge tale but one with protagonists who are not cliches and can both be excused and understood for their actions due to 'The Sins of the Father'. Ellie and Abby are victims of their father figures whose misdeeds and mistakes spur both on horrible quests in an effort to atone for things neither had a part of. This game is a tragedy and it is told phenomenally. TLOU was great, but it ended in such a way that I genuinely could not conceive of what a sequel could be. I thought the stories told were at a satisfactory end and I was content with that. Looking at the box art, all I could ascertain about Part II was that Ellie looked extremely angry. Returning to it after the fact, I can see more than just anger in her face. I see the anguish and pain and I see her hopelessness. To discuss the visuals; the game looks phenomenal. At various points in time I feel like I am watching real life. The attention to detail in both the look of the game and animation is unsurpassed. From start to finish I had my breath taken away by the visuals. Every aspect of the game is ND pushing the system to the limits. This does also mean that when it is brutal, it is harrowing. So many times I was taken by surprise and had to look away from the screen. All the way to the end I was gasping and half closing my eyes at what might happen next. This is an affecting game but as mentioned earlier, the story is where everything truly has the greatest impact. The ending of this game left me unable to properly render words. I stammered and short circuited because I was overwhelmed. Very few games stick a landing so hard where I feel such a strong sense of completion, and here I experienced a powerful story with a lot to say that fully resonated. I would place it alongside Nier:Automata in that it is something I only ever wish to experience once and have that playthrough as my ultimate memory of the game. Even if they release a TLOU III I will not go back to either this or the first game. Ellie, after Left Behind, was my favourite female protagonist. Maybe my favourite protagonist ever. Going into this, she remained that way all the way up to a certain point and can I just say I have never been so worried for a fictitious character as I was her. I was happy to leave it in the farm house. She had a life and love and she was on the road to starting to get better. Then Tommy comes along and knowing how much she is struggling with a deep loss, guilt and PTSD puts her sense of loyalty towards the one person who saved her over the world and uses them to make her give up everything she had somehow won. I got so angry at him and so upset for her. I was genuinely worried. Someone on stream asked me 'Is Ellie redeemable' and obviously I like to believe everyone is and can be. There was a caveat though: If she killed Abby then she would have fully crossed a line that would have hurt me, especially after Abby let her go twice. Up to the end of Day 3 everything that Ellie and Abby went through was understandable from both their points of views. They were both victims doing the wrong things because the world in which they were born into is a hideous mess of war and murder. Joel, Tommy and Jerry were born before the infection. All three of them should know better and let them down drastically. Joel via his fatherly love for Ellie but dooming of finding a cure, Jerry by ignoring his hippocratic oath out of a desire to be the saviour of mankind and Tommy by preying on a young girl's severely damaged mental state. Goodness. You get why Joel and Jerry did what they did, even if you might oppose it. In this horrendous world these kinds of things happen. A desire to save everyone and a desire to save just one. They are mistakes made while hoping to do good. Tommy though. Yikes. He came in and broke up a happy family for spite and revenge and continuing this destructive cycle that had claimed so many lives. Switching the game to Abby midway through originally made me feel like the story had suddenly lurched back to the start but I have to say, the way it made me replay those three days and grow to find her to be just as compelling as Ellie was a risky move that worked out phenomenally. I originally did not want to play as her. Seeing what she did to Joel and how upset she made Ellie made me feel just as taken in as Joel must have near the end of his segment. I did not want to 'be' her and I wanted to see Ellie's story through. As I played through Abby's story though, everything slowly fell into place and you come to understand that in another time these two could have been good friends. Abby is not the monster Ellie sees, she has just done a monstrous thing for personal reasons just like Ellie. I really grew to love Abby and felt so awful for her as the days went on. She essentially mirrors Joel from the first game in destroying an entire group just to save a loved one. She also grew to understand the fact that revenge does not make things better and this is why she twice left Ellie alive and even at the very end, emaciated and still trying to save Lev, she was going to let Ellie kill her. I mean man. The moments where you, as Abby, were hunted by Ellie really hit home how much of a vengeful demon Ellie had truly become. She was terrifying and her unbridled anger issues were something Joel mentioned during the museum scene. I was so, so happy that Ellie let Abby go. It was the right thing to do. She should never have been there in the first place, but she saved Abby and Lev without realising it. She let go of Joel and the painful memory and she was reminded of the good memory. Abby took her chance at a reconciliation away from Joel but there is nothing more Ellie can do to bring that back. It is gone forever and killing Abby does nothing to change that. Her only choice is to let go of Joel and let go of Abby. Yes, this is a bleak game, but not all of the time and there are some truly joyous emotional beats that rival the Giraffe scene from the first game. The acoustic version of A-ha's Take on Me was stunning and when it clicked what she was singing I was over the moon. The museum scene is THE greatest scene in this game. Hands down from start to finish it is perfect. Every last section of the museum and dialogue of that event is a masterpiece. Ashley and Troy knock it out of the stratosphere and I feel enriched for being able to take part in it (as weird as that may sound). Abby got the most intense action set pieces though, the royal rat authority scene had my heart pounding and me flailing around. The horseback through Haven scene as well was a mix of worry and awe at the surrounding area - some serious standouts in terms of visual prowess with the way that fire moved. Then there is the epilogue. Ellie tries to play the guitar again and she cannot. She can, however, finally think of Joel as something other than a battered and bleeding mess. That last memory with Joel where they both agree they will try to get past his choice I am just in awe and love with it. So much said with so little. Firstly if they had ended it after Ellie said 'Okay' with an upbeat tone I would have loved it in an incredible mirror to the first games 'Okay'. Secondly that she went years before properly talking to him, making that last moment with him positive (despite what happens to him the next day final) was sorely needed. It provided the smallest bit of closure for me. Thirdly I knew he would not be an awful homophobic dad. I said it as much way earlier in the game when they were looking for guitar strings that she should tell Joel and he would be OK with it. I knew it. Fourthly when he says he would do it all over again that is when it truly hit me just how much of a Dad he is to Ellie. That is also the moment when she realises too. She wanted to die and wanted to mean something and Joel stating to her face for the first time she is properly speaking to him in years that what he did hurt her, and that him doing it led to where they are, and that he still confidently says he would do it again. Goodness. She gets it, we get it, he always got it. He might as well be her Dad. I am so, so glad I played these back to back. In a way they are not really sequels, they are one long story and it is one that suckered me in wholly. I shall be thinking of this game a lot in the years to come and the impact both have had have left an indelible mark on my heart.  Final Fantasy VII https://clips.twitch.tv/EnergeticBenevolentDurianDendiFace--v0oNF17gJQ_VSRO (Thanks Rarity.) I would never in a million years have expected to put a jRPG, let alone a 24 year old jRPG, into my list of games played. That it is this high in the list is the most surprising thing of all, but it turns out that when something is called a classic, then it has that descriptor for a very good reason. The entire time I spent with this game was captivating. Aside from knowing probably the biggest spoiler for a video game ever, I had zero idea of what to expect and where the story would take me. That I was able to experience the whole thing so long after the fact and still have a fantastic time is a testament to how solid of a story this game has and how greatly it is told. The music for this is some of my most favourite in all video games and since playing it I hum to myself a huge number of those tunes that just love to get stuck in your head: JENOVA, Costa Del Sol, the Battle Theme, Aerith's theme and too many others. There is something about the music that is iconic as soon as you hear it. It lodges there straight up and all these years later stands up to much more produced work. Those melodies are powerful. Thanks to this being the PS4 port I was able to turn off random battles for a bit as I climatised to the way jRPGs play. By the end of the game everything was being done and played exactly how the game wanted me to do. I did everything I could find (both sidequests, minigames and conversations) to my level of satisfaction and on the urging of the stream, I bred Chocobos and got the Knights of the Round summon. That was a blast to use, even if it took the same length of time as an episode of network TV Amazingly my chocobo breeding showed off my ‘Real Life Luck Elemental abilities’ (™) as I bred exactly the correct chocobos first time without any missteps. I need to find a way to bottle this ability and use it when it would be super helpful, like asking for a raise at work. LVG and I performed voices for all the characters for the whole stream as well because we love to goof around and I found voicing Hojo (high pitched manic greasy), Sephiroth (calm and assured rumble) and Red XIII (sean connery style) the most fun. Definitely not a full on triple AAA production, but I think reading everything aloud was what caused me to properly immerse myself in the story more than if I had just read the text in my mind. Not to mention it meant everyone watching could laugh at our ridiculousness. The big spoiler was blocked by Square, sadly, which surprised everyone watching as I think I was the only person alive who had not seen it. Ahead of time I was informed by another goon that the entire end of the game was also blocked from direct streaming. Not wanting a repeat of this, I streamed my PC streaming the game from my PS5 to get around it and it worked a treat. To mention the story again, it was completely bonkers but I was engrossed for every single minute. It went places I thought you could only find in wild fan theories and with every new bit of information piled on top of the out there stuff I had already taken in, I grew more and more invested in Cloud and the gang and once the game was over I desperately craved more. Next year I am playing Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X and as many other jRPGs as I can (Xenogears, Chronotrigger, Suikoden to name a few) and it is all thanks to my experience with this excellent bit of retro gaming. I have a new gametype to consume and it is partly due to this wonderful and truly classic experience. If you now tell me to play a jRPG, I am THERE.  Sekiro Every person has, at one point, felt themselves the equivalent of a god and Sekiro gave me that moment. This is the scene: I have just spent an hour fighting Genichiro, slowly learning and improving and absorbing his general moveset. I know the stories of this boss, this is one of the moments where people put the game down; oftentimes forever. I am in the second phase and doing better than ever before. There have been many failures but this time looks like THE time and with a final few swings of my blade I beat it. I get happy. I see a brief cutscene and then suddenly it is a secret phase 3. I am not prepared for this. I have 4 heals left in my gourd and through a miracle I still have a resurrection, but it was only through an exhausting few hours that I had gotten here in the first place. Just at that moment I spot the lightning behind Genichiro and I remember there is a special lightning reversal move. I know this is going to come in handy but I CANNOT remember how to do the move. I quickly pause the game and check the moveset in my menu to remind myself how to do it. This clip picks up from that moment: https://clips.twitch.tv/FriendlySpikyVultureTakeNRG-5LOQ-5PvcbAPPSXO This is a screenshot of the chat during that fight.  I will never do something like this again. A moment in a game famed for being one of the most punishing, most unrelenting, most soul destroying, where everything that could possibly happen aligns and I am bathed in the 'zone' and it all works out perfectly. I did not get hit, I did not need my heals and I finished him on my favourite move of all time: the Mirikiri. That was my greatest moment and I cannot believe I have the ability to rewatch it whenever I wish. Of all six major modern FromSoftware titles, Sekiro is at their very peak. They are making a game devoid of the Souls legacy and utilising aspects they wish. This is not a souls game, though it shares many similarities. It is a wild offshoot that knows exactly what it wants to be and excels in every single area it touches. Sekiro is tuned and perfected via the mechanics FromSoft put into it. There is no need for them to spend ages balancing weapon sets and magic spells and armour sets. You have one weapon, one outfit and some accessories that alter your basic attacks. This is it. This narrow focus allowed FromSoftware to direct all their energies into creating the absolute best combat system present in a video game. There is no way to proceed in Sekiro without learning how to control The Wolf. There are simply tough enemies who will punish you if you hesitate. You are the Shinobi and you control the flow of combat. This game relies on you far far more than their others. In the Souls and Bloodborne, you could go grind for a while and buy levels, or find armour/weapons and come back to problem point, or get a friend to join in and wail on that boss causing issues together. Sekiro does not allow any of that. If you want to get past a boss, or an area, it comes down to you improving and besting your ownself. The biggest killer in Sekiro is not lack of health or damage, it is lack of self confidence. Once you know you have the moveset down, you can beat the game from the very first moment. This is part of its beauty. Everything is so incredibly controlled that this game gives the most rewarding feeling from beating bosses that I have ever experienced - to know you beat Genichiro, a Horse Riding General or Owl #2 and that you did it because you performed those moves the right way. There was a boss that broke me. Of all bosses in all FromSoftware games, this was the boss that gave me the most trouble and actually had me doubt I would ever make it past. I am talking about Guardian Ape. I could not focus, I could not see the moves and I could not trust my skill. I felt as though this whole journey would come to a crushing end and I would give up. With no summoning it was down to me, and me alone, to get past the Ape. When I eventually did I felt in kind of a stupor and sadly it never quite felt like I had bested ape or myself, mostly that I had done something that I should have been able to do 9 hours earlier. It remains my only weird feeling in beating a FromSoftware boss and I think my exhaustion and anger at myself making so many silly mistakes for the whole day lead me to not really getting the joy I should have. When I play this game again I look forward to taking on my nemesis a second time. I shall savour winning. Some people make the point that this lack of diversity means you cannot replay the game in varied ways, like say an all magic run or an all great club run and this is 100% true. You do not need to, however. The combat is so good that I want to keep playing Sekiro because I want to get even better at what it offers. It is a game where I truly believe I am capable of improving so much that I could do a whole run of the game with no hits and I would want to. That there is no DLC is extremely sad to me and I hope after Elden Ring (which I am very much looking forward to) they get a chance to return to making an extremely precise and limited game again. I have gushed about the combat a lot, because it is so great, but I cannot ignore just how fluid the animations and moving is. Skeiro is a joy to control. The levels have such a great depth to them - verticality abounds - that you are able to get around the environment almost faster than you can keep up. Sekiro zips between ground and roof, cliff face and bridge, tree branch and wall. He speeds between spaces on the screen and coupled with just how good the areas you fight in look, you never lose track even if your enemies do. There are some truly beautiful looking areas in the game and all look period appropriate, reminding you of all those stylistic Wuxia films. The music, by longtime FromSoftware composer Yuka Kitamura, punctuates throughout the game in the most understated tones. Of all the FromSoftware games, this is the one I think about most of all. I want to replay it all the time. Bloodborne had a good run as my favourite FromSoftware game, but Sekiro came along and respectfully surpassed it. This is the best game they have made and hopefully Elden Ring can live up to the incredibly high bar that they themselves have set.  Final Fantasy VII Remake https://clips.twitch.tv/PleasantQuaintPeafowlShazBotstix-VNqigNFgBrmzqAYI Elden Ring is coming out next year. Final Fantasy Remake VII 2 at some other point in the future. If I was told you can only ever play one of those two games I would choose FFVIIR2 without hesitating. A ton of games this year took swings at Portal 2, which has been my most favourite game of all time since I played it in 2012. Many of the previous entries listed here stood face to face with Valve's best game and tried to claim that number one spot for themself. Of all of them, only Final Fantasy VII Remake made it flinch. I will be honest. As you could tell from entry 3 I was not a jRPG player before this year. I had attempted to play so many of them over the years - pretty much from the moment I got a NES. I borrowed games over the years, I bought games, I rented games and the results were always the same. I tried to enjoy what I call 'wait gaming'. Somehow it never quite clicked. I could not quite handle the battle system of jRPGs and stopped trying. Because I have no nostalgia whatsoever for the original Final Fantasy VII. It was only a game I knew had grabbed an entire console generation and that it had one of the most well known video game spoilers of all time. That was it. Literally a complete ignoramus in regards to what FFVII was about and who was in it. FFVIIremake was heavily lauded last year and myself, in yet another attempt to be able to experience something with my friends, tried the demo out. Holy moly, the demo was great and I was surprised. This was not wait gaming at all! This was some strange method of attacking and then after you filled a bar with this, you could choose to do some seriously cool things. I could not believe this. I might somehow get to play a Final Fantasy game and enjoy myself! I bought the full game when it was released on PS4 and proceeded to play it for about sixish hours and then I fell off. I forget where and why but I did. Yet again another casualty of my difficulty in keeping myself aligned without a schedule. Then I got a PS5 and I heard that FFVIIremake was due to get both an upgrade as well as some DLC and I figured just maybe it would be fun to stream and then I can say I have beaten a final fantasy - a little bit like last year's Bloodborne. And, just like Bloodborne, this game did the impossible: It got me enthused to play an entire genre of game that I had never had an interest in. Bloodborne got me into FromSoft, FFVII remake got me into jRPGs. As I was playing this game, I loved it SO much that I began the original in my own free time and not on stream. This is not a thing that happens to me very often. I played the original right up to before the plate drop and me realising how much of a great time I was having helped me to understand what I owed to this game. A whole universe of game experiences talked about by goons across the forums were now something I might actually be able to share with them. For this alone it deserves the number one spot but there is SO much more. So let me start at the beginning. I replayed the first few hours and slid neatly back into the combat. This combat is superb by the way and near the start of the game I remember saying that if all combat in jRPGs was like this then I would play all jRPGs. What I did not get was that this was a very smart system designed to engage exactly with people like me who struggled with the idea of turn based waiting so prevalent in the series. They rightly assumed that between each action we felt a bit helpless and by giving us the ability to have our characters run around and perform smaller actions that it would make us feel more in control. We would slowly, over the course of the game, realise that actually, the actions you could select once your metre had fully risen were the most powerful things you could do ingame, and the idea would be to constantly switch between your characters (each characters metre rises faster when you are not in control) to get to those actions. They eased me into turn based action battling without me even realising it. By the time I was at the end of the game and fighting Sephiroth I had completely eschewed the regular hack and slash stuff and was managing my party with the actions instead. I was playing the game as a standard jRPG - I had been conditioned into it. It made playing FFVIIoriginal a joy. (Also at this point I nearly beat the spoilered boss without any proper materia selected in my party through the action menu stuff because a) I am SUCH a luck elemental and b) the battle system when you truly get into it is SO good.) The idea of materia and how it works to enhance and give you spells and linking and stuff is a super fun system here (and a lot more fun in the original but only because the game is bigger). Knowing what to slot where and how it will affect the makeup of your party was something I seriously enjoyed doing in both games - in fact there is a lot of crossover in what I love and the reason this is higher is because once I finished the original it caused everything in this game to make more sense. The story here is only a fraction of FFVIIoriginal. Having now played the original, it has many similar story beats but shown in ways that completely differ. I can only assume for those who played the original back in 97 and then tried to play this two decades later it would be the equivalent of a memory being slightly off. In fact there were many times where I did not get what was being shown to me, only to play the original and see a moment which would make a cutscene or dialogue suddenly click and my love for this game would jump even more. While there is only a section of the first game on offer, what IS here is so involved and in depth that if this was the only game they made then it could be classed as a fully contained story. It has these yellow flowers of great prominence, and whenever they show up then so do these dementor-like spirits. People think they are the flow of time and fate and at one point you drastically change the flow of the original game - you even beat a boss called Fate in order to break through dimensions on the urging of Aerith and Sephiroth. This means anything goes, and two characters appearing in the last few cutscenes now mean whatever happens in FFVIIremake Part II it will not be anything we have seen before. The second best thing in this game is the music. It is probably my second favourite Video Game OST after Nier:Automata. Every track here is an enhanced and faithful recreation of the original and some are remixes mashed together. You can even find, in game, records of older tracks just so you can hear them again here in this one. I have completely gravitated to this soundtrack and listen to it on spotify constantly. My favourite of all being (J E N O V A - Quickening) which starts off bombastic and over the top with a full orchestra and vocals creating a huge surge of worry within. Then about two thirds of the way in, that melody drops and oh my word. It is something that hits me very hard emotionally and I wish I could grasp why exactly. Not a second musically is wasted throughout the whole game. It is top tier forever. The VERY best thing in this game is the cast. Cloud and the gang are people I fell head over heels in love with, more than any other game this year and more than any other game since Portal 2. Every single one of them is a fully fleshed out, realised person and whatever they felt throughout I was right alongside them. Over the course of about 50 hours I got to know every single one of them inside and out and preconceptions were tested and broken. They were a treasure to be around and the game very cleverly changes up your party constantly so that you get time with everyone. (Rather than FFVIIoriginal where I did not really pick specific characters). Everyone has multiple moments where they get to shine and when they do, they are brighter than anything else. Even side characters are fully formed thanks to the expansion of the side quests and of the sector seven slums. I grew so attached to Jessie, Wedge and Biggs, that during the plate moment I was extremely cut up about Jessie and Biggs dying. That was very tough for me. As was dropping a whole plate on innocents. That VERY much angered me. However, it was the moment during the cutscene where Wedge, (who was rallied into action to save the sector seven slums people by Aerith, which was an amazing moment), was caught under falling debris trying to save cats. His face was so sad and resigned that it just destroyed me. That was a Friday evening and I went to bed utterly shattered and broken. That session had started so happily and ended with me a wreck. I spent the first part of Sunday's session in a similar state. When Barrett spoke about the sector and the loss of life it continued to wreck me. Nothing wrecked me as much as that moment underneath the slums when I found Wedge. I thought it was a trick - I am getting emotional just writing about it - and that it was not really him. To find out he was alive and I lost myself with joy and determination to save him and battle all the beasties I adore these characters, and those are just side ones. The main core cast are even more realised and picking out favourites cannot be done. They have so much dialogue, voiced beautifully, alongside emotive animations that capture the essence of what the original was attempting to do with basic polygons. This game is stuffed with moments that run the entire gamut of human feelings. I cannot even say that a particular relationship is well developed because all of them are; Cloud and Barret, Cloud and Aerith, Cloud and Tifa, Tifa and Aerith, Tifa and Barret…every single combo and trio gets more than enough time to simmer and boil over with exploration into who these people are to each other and it is richer for doing so. The DLC too is phenomenal, building on the great combat but focusing on one singular character who fast became my favourite. Yuffie controls the best, has the most interesting moveset and her story did not feature at all in the original, but feels so integral to the experience of the remake. It puts away the idea that Remake was just luck and solidifies the belief I have that Remake Part II is going to continue exactly what they started and will not let me down. Also at the end of the DLC you see the main cast again having fun where we left them at the end of the main game and I cannot tell you just how incredibly overjoyed and brought to tears I was to see them all again. It felt like seeing long lost family members. All for a game based on a beloved franchise entry that I had never experienced before this year. I have wanted to talk and talk and talk about this game since I finished it, but have been saving it up for this thread. I fell super hard for this game. Portal 2 is a perfect game and now FFVIIremake stands right at its side in the VG Hall of Fame. Dah dah duh dun, dun dun du da dah!
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Dec 27, 2021 02:15
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Hell yeah, veeg
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Dec 27, 2021 02:30
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Amazing list VG! Just amazing
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Dec 27, 2021 02:32
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Extremely fun read Veeg! I only dipped my toes into watching your streams live (thank you for rolling into candles in Bloodborne at my insistence by the way, all destructible environment stuff must be destroyed in Souls games imo) but it’s been a blast reading about your exploits. One of your top ten is about to make me rewrite my own list, by the way, and I think it’s actually gonna make it to number one. It’s a Christmas miracle!
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Dec 27, 2021 02:39
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Incredible list, Veeg. It’s been amazing following your insane year of gaming. I’m happy that I got so many predictions right gonna post them below for everyone’s perusal. congrats to the winner who I don’t know if they even know they won yet so I don’t want to spoil it! 01. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - ACTUALLY 2 02. The Last of Us Part II - ACTUALLY 4 03. Final Fantasy VII Remake + Intergrade - ACTUALLY 1 04. Outer Wilds - ACTUALLY 5 05. The Last Guardian - ACTUALLY 11 06. The Witness - GOT CORRECT 07. Dark Souls III - ACTUALLY 9 08. Night in the Woods - ACTUALLY 14 09. It Takes Two - ACTUALLY 16 10. Demon’s Souls (2020) - ACTUALLY 7
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Dec 27, 2021 02:47
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~Punk Rebel Ecks Mega-Top Ten List: 1st Part~ ***The GIFS have sound. Right click the gif and click on "Show Controls" and then click the volume icon to turn the sound on.*** EDIT - For some stupid reason the forums keeps messing up the URL links so they don't wrap around the text. The link work find if you click on them but you aren't suppose to see the links typed out. Oh well. 10. Popful Mail  This is a game I’ve tried many times to get into but couldn’t. It has a lot of things that I love. Falcom. Pixel art. RPG elements. Ambitious from another time. Etc. But at the end of the day the game was just too drat hard! Until I found something out. Apparently when Working Designs translated the game they also changed the difficulty settings so that enemies took twice the amount of hits and the protagonists took twice the damage. Luckily, some talented people at [url=”https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=23436.0%93]romhacking.net[/url] began taking out the bullshit difficulty changes Working Designs made, making the game playable in its intended form. As such I will be reviewing this “hack” version of the game which isn’t really hack but a “dehack”? The way I’ll approach this is if Working Designs simply just localized the game without touching the gameplay (which is what they should have done) and refer to this as the true version of “Popful Mail”. During the 1990s CDs were all the rage. This may be difficult for someone in Gen Z to understand, but physical media, especially for games, used to have a lot of limitations. Imagine a world where digital distribution didn’t exist and modern games had to be packed with a NVME SSD that you plug into your console. Games of average length would need a $30 drive to just run on alone, while something big and meaty would require a $60 drive or more. It was common to see storage mediums take up a quarter to a third or more of the total game’s price. Developers had to really cut corners in order to get their games to fit on the tiniest carts possible. Then CDs came out. Unlike carts they held far more space at a fraction of a price. Sure, there was the pesky issue of.............loading, but consumers and developers were more than willing to trade waiting a dozen or so seconds for far CD quality sound and music, as well as far more content. And thus, a gold rush occurred as every console manufacturer produced a CD add-on for their system (yes, even Nintendo). Unfortunately, outside of the PC Engine CD-ROM in Japan, these add-ons bombed. The best performing add-on outside of Japan was the Sega/Mega CD which sold over 2 million units, which was less than 10% of the total Genesis/Megadrive console sales. Over the years the add-on has gotten a lot of poo poo as it became the posterchild of lovely live action interactive movie games. But in reality, the Sega CD had much more to offer than that. The best version of Final Fight at the time, along with the interesting Sonic CD, as well as Hideo Kojima’s cult classic Snatcher are some of the titles that make the platform a must get for any Genesis owner. One game that is amongst these “must have” titles is “Popful Mail”. The best way to describe Popful Mail is that it is more or less Falcom’s take on Wonder Boy. It is an exploration side-scrolling action platformer with RPG elements. https://i.imgur.com/XotbT2o.mp4 (If you're a 16-bit fan this will scratch an itch.) What makes the game stand out are things that are of Falcom’s specialty. The combat is simple yet satisfying. The story is simple, but enough to keep you engage. The character’s fall into tightly defined tropes, but are still very appealing. And the music is, as always, incredible. All these things combined give this game a very “blue sky” feel. It makes you feel like a kid again watching a Saturday morning cartoon. The locations are very colorful and memorable. And the game’s set pieces, despite being from old hardware, still stand out today. You can just show me a character portrait or play a music sample from the OST, and I will recall the time I was playing that area. While the bosses are enjoyable and entertaining, outside of the final boss, they are also a bit too easy. And the length of the game is a little on the short side, at least doesn’t over stay its welcome. I have little to complain about Falcom’s contributions to the game. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to Working Designs contributions. I’ve already mentioned how they completely messed up the difficulty, so I should now mention the translation job. Now before continue one must understand that Working Designs was a product of their time. They didn’t start out as some professional translation branch of a major publisher. They were an independent publisher focused on translating super niche Japanese games. This was at a time when most of these games didn’t even receive a release. And when they were translated...well let’s just say even Google translate does a better job. The fact that the characters in the game spoke coherent English and sounded like they looked like made Working Designs the top video game translator outside of Ted Woosley. Working Designs deserves at least some respect for their legacy. Unfortunately, out of everything in this game the only thing that has aged...is the translation. Now the voice acting is perfectly fine. The characters match up and sound perfectly with their voices. The acting also isn’t that bad. The NPC text is both informative enough and natural enough to not be distracting. Unfortunately, the issues come with all of the ways Working Designs tried to “spicin’ up” the script. Constant pop culture references to things like The Terminator are very distracting. There is one character who even speaks just like Arnold Schwarzenegger. It really distracts from the game when an antagonist says “I’m no Kindergarten Cop!”. https://i.imgur.com/PrsaKVD.mp4 (...Why!?) I can understand if localizers want to take liberties, and I understand that translation shouldn’t be 1:1. But the purpose of a localization is to translate over the intent of the creator into another nation’s viewpoint. Outside of that Fist of the North Star reference in Trails the 3rd, I can’t think of any Falcom game that has blatant pop culture references. At the end of the day, it isn’t districting enough to stop the game from being great. “Popful Mail” is a game of a different time. Sure, many games have aped its design since then, but the title still holds its own on its own merits. Playing it on a real Sega Genesis complete with a PVM in the dark warped me back to 1995. If this sounds appealing to you, I recommend seeking this game out if you can afford it. Or get it by...other means... But either way, it’s a must play title both in the Genesis library and Falcom’s gameography. I should also add that Falcom was interested in turning the show into an anime, but studios shut the pitch down. All that remains of the initial anime pitch is this promotional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrQNZe8wz0U (Oh what could have been...) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. Animal Crossing: New Horizons  Let’s get this out of the way, I’m not an Animal Crossing “diehard”. It’s not a game I put hundreds of hours into. What Animal Crossing was to me this year was a title that I played by myself in my bed for half an hour late at night right before I sleep for around two months. Coming off more bombastic titles I played the year prior, the game was a nice pallet cleanser. Instead of punching all the townspeople in the face, casting magic spells on them, or performing headshots, I instead had casual conversations with them. Instead of my goal being that of saving the town from an apocalypse or shadow governments, it became about doing mundane city planning and keeping the townspeople happy. Instead of my character’s free time consisting of saving townspeople from baddies or engaging in cooky crazy adventures, they were instead digging up fossils or fishing. Unlike most other titles, Animal Crossing isn’t about living out some sort of power fantasy. It’s about living your life in this little town, with your achievements being small mundane things that you could do in real-life. https://i.imgur.com/cirQWaM.mp4 (Fishing in a digital world is so relaxing.) After the credits rolled, I only stuck around for an hour or two longer, before shrugging my shoulders and moving on to a new game. But while the ride lasted it was definitely a cathartic experience. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 8. Final Fantasy XI  As someone who joined the MMO genre last year, I keep hearing how the genres best days are behind it. [url=”https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3866404%93I mean look no further than one of the biggest threads in this very forum’s MMO board.[/url] Rumblings about how the genre didn’t just have cooperation, but required it. Instead of working with others being a “feature” it was what the entire genre revolved around. Not only did completing quests require working with others, but just venturing out in the world in general required a group, well unless you wanted to certain death. Looking for a MMO that offered such an experience, Final Fantasy XI seemed to check all the boxes and more. It’s an old school, still active and supported, and is Final Fantasy. Not to mention twelve-year-old me REALLY wanted to play the game when it was announced but I didn’t have funds for a membership. So, 19 years after the game’s initial release, I finally dove in. Final Fantasy XI is a really great game that clearly has its roots anchored in a different time that has none the less had many attempt to Frankenstein it for a more modern era. For starters the game used to require you to party up with other people to do almost anything. Today that's pretty much just limited to long travels to new destinations as you can just use trusts for everything which are just A.I. party members. Apparently, teleports used to be limited within the cities back in the day, but today there are teleports throughout the world and you have a "return ring" that takes you back to your home teleport at any time. Still the game has very memorable moments, and definitely some magical "classic MMO" moments you will encounter. Yes, you can relieve the experience of having no idea what to do while someone chaperones you across the continent to get from point A to point B in a literal two-and-a-half-hour journey. Yes, you can travel from one continent to the other by 20 minutes boat rides. Yes, you can do a dungeon with multiple party members that takes around three hour or more to do. The game also doesn't hold your hand as instead of there being giant markers on the map telling you where quests are and how to progress, you have to find them yourselves. It takes a lot longer and can be tedious but it is so much more rewarding. If I had to explain how the game is different from Final Fantasy XIV. I'd describe Final Fantasy XIV as the ultimate Final Fantasy game. It's like being subscribed to a service that gives you new additions to the epic single player story mode via piece meal, with a bunch of other modes you can play. There is a dungeon challenge mode (dungeons/raids), open world grinding mode (Eureka/Bozjna), boss rush mode (trials), etc. There are more traditional MMO things to do in Final Fantasy XIV such as blue mage quests, treasure hunting, FATES, and hunt logs. But as a whole Final Fantasy XIV is Final Fantasy: Live Service with a ton of quality content. Final Fantasy XI on the other hand is a Final Fantasy: Simulator. There is a story in the game but you yourself aren't special at all for dozens of hours. The role your character plays in the story? You know how in Final Fantasy XIV the Warrior of Light may be accompanied by random Eorzorean Soldier #45637? Yeah, that's you. On the other hand, that makes the game more immersive as you have to make a name for yourself. The game rarely gives you guidance and things are obtuse at times (sometimes WAY too much) so you have to ask other players in the world what to do and where to go. So far this simulates the Final Fantasy experience completely. You are a no named adventurer who explores the city to find a way to make a name for yourself. You do that by registering to work for the palace/capitol and getting quests, and to complete those quests you speak with townspeople (other players in the game) which some may help you by being in your party (other players in the game). It eventually clicks and when it does its magical. https://i.imgur.com/hSuqrE5.mp4 (Want to find your quest? Well you best explore) Unfortunately, the game isn't perfect. For one it can be just way too obtuse not to know what to do next to the point when you figure it out you go "How the gently caress was I supposed to figure that out!?" It's to the point when you ask other players half the time, they'll just tell you to run the game in windowed mode with the game on one half of the screen and a wiki on the other. The game also becomes a bit repetitive some time through it. It really is kind of formulaic with "go to persona A and do: fetch quests, kill monster X times and collect Y pellets, and go through dungeon to kill monster X times and collect Y pellets, which results in you having to travel across the continent to meet with person B and rinse and repeat. It also takes way too long to do certain things. Item drops from enemies are absolutely ridiculously low some times. "Oh, I need to collect 4 bunny ears from all the bunnies in this forest? I guess just kill 4 of them and be done?" Well, no, because when accounting for RNG it's more like 40...on average. Final Fantasy XI is a fun and unique game to play in this day of age, as long as you are willing to overlook some of its flaws. It scratches that "freedom!" itch to a degree that so many MMOs are lacking these days, but it also reminds you why such tenets of the genre have been abandoned. I'd love for a modern "update" the game's mechanics but with Final Fantasy XIV becoming the biggest MMO currently, that seems unlikely. Also, if I managed to get this game when it came out, I probably would have failed all of my classes due to playing it every living second of my life, so I guess it’s good that I never got it as a kid. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. No More Heroes III  No More Heroes III is almost exactly what I’ve been expecting and waiting for the past thirteen years. My initial impressions of the first title were negative but after doing an immediate replay it gradually became one of my favorite video games of all-time. The game’s simply but satisfying action-combat and the general avant-garde weirdness of it all really appealed to me and my teenage mind. The game was like nothing else out there as it mixed several genres through mini-games you can find in the overworld, and a general style and aesthetics that were just so out there. Then two years later, the sequel came out which was very disappointing. It ditched the “open-world overworld” with a level-based selection, and the boss battles were much more hit or miss. I enjoyed my time with it, but it was nowhere near as good as the first entry. Like others, once the credits rolled I waited for the next addition to the series. And waited...and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited. Until not the Wii’s successor’s reveal conference but the successor to its successor’s reveal conference this was shown: https://www.inverse.com/article/26409-no-more-heroes-suda51-nintendo-switch-motion-control-violence After over a decade No More Heroes was getting another entry. I was so pumped for the release! And then it came out and was the worst game I played that year and was the biggest disappointments for me in gaming. The less I say about No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again, the better. But one of the reason why the game turned me off is kind of what the plot is about. A big reason why the original No More Heroes stood out so much when it came out was because there weren’t really any games that dared to not only be weird and experimental, but embraced it with such confidence. With the rise of indie games, such titles are a dime a dozen. Just browser the “New & Trending” section on Steam and you will find something that as every bit as “avant-garde” as the original No More Heroes. This made Travis Strikes Again seem less like a title that “pushes gaming” and more like some random first effort indie game created by some talentless nobodies during their free time. So, after completing Travis Strikes Again and seeing a teaser for a full-fledged sequel, with a formal announcement occurring a few months later, I had mixed feelings. On one hand it seemed to be the game I was waiting for more than a decade, on the other with Travis Strikes Again being so disappointing what chance will it have of even being good? The answer is yes, it does have a chance of being good, and it will be. No More Heroes III is a game that is as nearly as good as it possibly could be. The game’s “open-world overworld” makes a return. The combat is refined. Most of the old favorite characters return, as well as getting some memorable new ones. The mini-games are fun and simple enough. And the game retains the whole “it’s bad but in a good way” feel that the first two games were known for. https://i.imgur.com/GyxKQ8Y.mp4 (That's some smooth combat.) The theme of “superheroes/aliens” seems strange and first but fits the game absolutely perfectly and is strangely the correct way the series should have headed. Throughout the game things change up frequently, especially past the first few boss battles. As the game will switch from being third person action to first person survival horror or a traditional JRPG or a rhythm based musical chairs simulator or Super Smash Bros. While it is true that the game isn’t as relatively “trippy” as the original was for its time, it still is one of the strangest feeling games I’ve played. With plenty of strange reoccurring segments such as Travis and a friend shooting to poo poo about Japanese director Takashi Miike or the 70’s art-house style intro and outro credits. It’s all so very strange, yet doesn’t feel out of place. No More Heroes III is the game that I’ve wanted over thirteen years, so why is the game ranked on the bottom half of my list? Well for starters this year had insane competition. If it were a lesser year the game would have easily fit snuggly in the top three. The other is that No More Heroes III failed to leave as that much of an impression on me. With the original title, I can remember so many segments of the game in vivid detail all these years later. Most boss fights, levels, even lines said by the enemies. The pitching screams of “AAAHHHHHHH!” as you slice an enemy in half is iconic. But what about No More Heroes III? I recall three boss battles, the credits intro and outros, the “secret ending”, and... not really much else unless I really put my mind at focus. Don’t get me wrong, the game isn’t “forgettable”, it just isn’t something that’s likely to stay with you years and years after setting down the controller. I feel that part of it is, as mentioned before, that No More Heroes relies much on “trippy” and “weird’ aesthetics and that just isn’t that much of a selling point anymore, and the other part is that the game didn’t fully achieve its vision. Remember those TV intros and outros I mentioned earlier? Before each ranked assassin you need to kill a not-Netflix logo appears that is followed by a cutscene and TV intro. After that the player plays the game and upon defeating the boss a credit outro appears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDcyi1LjE4I (You'll be seeing this a lot. Which is good.) It’s very clear that Suda-51 intended the game to feel like watching a TV show of sorts, but doesn’t really succeed. Manly because the time to clear an assassin segment of the game goes beyond a single sitting, which makes the whole “netseries format" seem strange. It may seem like a minor complaint, but I feel it is major since it turns the “TV show” into being a trippy theme rather than it being the format of the game. Rather than the game taking an avantgarde form and message to pacing, it instead uses it as a decoration, which is what I think is a major thing that holds the game back. All in all, No More Heroes III is what I wanted all these years. A true sequel to the original that does the series justice. The game pretty much states, as well as Suda-51 himself, that this will be the last entry to the series, and with the turbulent history the series has had I can’t help but feel a bit relieved at that. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Metroid Dread  Metroid Dread is the best Metroidvania I’ve ever played. Think of how much of a tall order that is to fulfill. Since the dawn of the indie scene (Cave Story) one genre in particular has absolutely dominated the genre, at that is Metroidvania. Make a “Top 100 indie games of all-time" list and I will guarantee you that Metroidvania would be the most popular genre on that list. Hollow Knight, Shantae, Ori, Guacamelee, Owl Boy, The Messenger, La Mulana, the list just doesn’t end. The Metroidvania genre has absolutely blown up the past decade plus. And it’s a good thing to as the titular franchises that the namesake comes from have been dormant. Despite having a very successful netseries, Castlevania has been essentially retired because the IP holder doesn’t really make games anymore. While Metroid had a very disappointing entry before lying dormant. People were wondering whether or not it even mattered. So many titles have picked up the mantle with so many quality developers who have added their own spin to the genre, that would a new entry in these franchises stand out? The previous titles came out before the indie scene really went underway. Well, in 2019 the creator of Castlevania shattered all doubts with the game “Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night”. Literally Castlevania in all but name, the game managed to turn a lot of heads with both good critical and commercial performance. It didn’t add anything new to the genre, but polished up the existing formula and gave a full double digit hour run-time. The title cementing But what of “Metroid”? Many fans were convinced that the series was retired after no new entry after the...charged reception from “Metroid: Other M”. Then in 2017 Nintendo along with Spanish developer Mercury Steam released “Metroid: Samus Returns” for the 3DS which was a remake of Metroid 2 for the Game Boy. The game was well received, but the issue was that nobody really cared since it came out for the 3DS in 2017. So, it explains why earlier this summer when a brand new, non-remake, chronological sequel of the series would be coming this fall with the name “Metroid Dread”, and rumored entry in the series since the early days of the Nintendo DS (and no that is not a typo, I did not forget to add the “3”), fans were salivating. The final product was a game everybody was clamoring for the past...really decades at this point. “Metroid: Dread” feels like a true sequel to Super Metroid. It is not just a Metroidvania, but one with a huge budget behind it. It really has one taken aback seeing the production values for the game as most the genre seems to be stuck in at beast 32-bit presentation due to budget limitations on both graphics and production. The entire game looks very sleek. The graphics, despite being on the Switch, look top notch. The animation is smooth with huge attention to detail. The map is both large and lush with tons of avenues and outlets. The few cutscene animations there are have a highly cinematic and clean presentation. Nintendo and Mercury Steam didn’t just simply make high quality models and HD’d them and called it a day, they used every ounce of the Switch’s power to push what was possible. If there was one word to describe it all, it would “professional”. Indie games are great but for better or worse you can feel that they were crafted by a small group of individuals. They are endearing but at the same time are also filled with limitations, if not cut corners. Metroid: Dread just doesn’t lack cut corners, but the developers have added décor to them. At no point of the game does the word “filler” or “rushed” come to mind. https://i.imgur.com/V5ZGRAF.mp4 (Pure Metroidvania perfection.) And that’s really what stands out with the game. It’s just an extremely good Metroidvania game. The map is the perfect size. The major boss battles are all varied and engaging. The route to progress isn’t spelled out for you but the game gives you enough context clues to almost always know where to go. And it just feels good to control. Like there are literally gifs selling people on this game just showing how Samus moves and smooth it is. But possibly the most important thing to point out is that the title ignores the two cardinal sins of the Metroidvania genre: difficulty and length. For some ridiculous reason Metroidvanias are plagued by being easy to the point of only dying due to gross negligence. Games are often ridiculously easy as it takes too few hits to kill enemies and far too much hits to kill you. The other cardinal sin is length. If your total play-time reaches ten hours, then congratulations, you spent more time trying to beat the game than most Metroidvanias. Most Metroidvanias struggle to get past the six-hour mark. Metroid Dread avoids both of these. The difficulty is notable not just for the genre, but for modern games as a whole. Mercury Steam won’t give From Software a run for their money, but you will die playing their game. It’s difficult enough to push you to get better, but not difficult enough that you will be swearing at your TV for hours at end. As for the play-time. Well, I don’t know about everyone else but I certainly reached double digit hours. For some reason the game doesn’t track cutscenes, the in-game map, your deaths, and other things as your play-time so your final run-time in the game will be substantially shorter than your actual play-time. So, if you are looking at sites like howlongtobeat.com just keep in mind your true run-time will be longer. Now I’m about to end with my final thoughts, but I’m forgetting what makes the game unique, the entire stalking mechanics. The “dread” from “Metroid: Dread” comes from these robots that hunt Samus down that she cannot kill. When transitioning between areas the player must transverse through these “no go” zones where these killer robots roam. Samus must get to the door as they scout and chase her, or else she gets captured. The game gives a hidden QTE you can’t see which results in a 1 in 25 chances to escape. It seems cheap but it works. https://i.imgur.com/u3sdqwt.mp4 (Tension!) And that’s basically “Metroid: Dread”. It’s the best Metroidvania of all-time. So why isn’t it ranked near or at the top? Well, because while it is the best Metroidvania, it isn’t my favorite. There are other games in the genre I do enjoy more (Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse). Nevertheless, “Metroid: Dread” a drat fine game, and is absolutely the quintessential Metroidvania. A must play for any fan of the genre. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles I & II  Before I start this review, I have a bit of a confession to make. I technically haven’t finished this game yet. I’ve completed the first pack in game and am halfway through the second. But being that the first pack in game would land in this spot, and the game being “episodic” to boot, I’ve decided to still “count it”. Being a teenager with a Nintendo DS, if you would ask me what my favorite franchise that was on the system I would instantly respond with “Ace Attorney”. The series that revolve with a rookie Japanese lawyer trying to defend his clients in the The tried-and-true gameplay loop of picking about witness testimonies with detective work in-between was always satisfying and strangely never got old through all the games in the series. It’s a strange series when try to explain it, but when actually played, it is very entertaining. However, one fault that occurred over-time is that the series quality just stopped feeling as “special” or “fresh” as it once did. Ever since the fourth entry something felt “off” about the series. It was still good, but not as good as before. The new characters made things more convoluted, the clients less memorable, and just so much of what defined the series just wasn’t as up to par as before. To point where the only episode that could be compared in quality to the original trilogy was hidden as DLC for the fifth entry. It turns out there was a reason for this. The original team behind the original trilogy decided to take a break from working on Ace Attorney to instead work on Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Later they would sort of return to Ace Attorney in the title “Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney” that was a collaborative work with Level-5 as it was a marriage between the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney franchises. Meanwhile, the Ace Attorney series was being worked on by the B-Team which was previously regulated to the Ace Attorney spinoffs such as “Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth”. This led the mainline series to continue but just feel that something was off in quality. Then in 2015, it was announced that a new game in the Ace Attorney series would be coming, but this time it was going to be done by the old team. “The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures” would take place in Great Britain during the Victorian Era. It would focus on Japanese expats who were determined to change Japan’s legal system. This sounded like the perfect way to make the series fresher and more fun than ever. There was just one problem. The game wouldn’t be released outside of Japan. Which would sting even more when a sequel would arrive there just two years later, which once again didn’t leave Japanese shores. This is why it came to such a surprise when earlier this year the game was announced to release this summer on all modern systems, except Xbox since Ace Attorney [url=”https://www.reddit.com/r/AceAttorney/comments/k5gz44/so_we_got_the_sales_numbers_for_the_ace_attorney/%94]sells terribly on there.[/url] After finally playing these titles, all I can say is that they have surpassed my expectations. Not only are they up to the quality of the original trilogy, but they arguably surpass it. The setting of London in 1890 is absolutely perfect, as the city is arguably the best character in the game. Every background, character wardrobe, and item just screams “Victorian!” and it does so much to immerse you into the world. What’s more is that the cast is very enjoyable. Ryunoske makes for a great protagonist and Susato makes for a great assistant. Sherlock Holmes is a perfect companion and Baron van Zieks is the perfect prosecutor. The setting and characters are such an improvement to the point that I don’t even want another game that takes place in modern Jamerica. The setting, atmosphere, and cast is just so much better in The Great Ace Attorney than it is in Ace Attorney. https://i.imgur.com/kZyvzgb.mp4 (Just a normal day in the courtroom. Yessir.) To add to that, the cases are also very interesting, and keeps the player hooked on what’s coming next. It is never a complete mystery what happens to the point where you feel lost, but is never obvious enough that you know exactly what happens. So, when mysteries unfold, they have your undivided attention. Like other games in the series, the title adds a new gimmick. This time with the “Witness Summation” which lets the defense council try to change the juries mind after they’ve agreed on a guilty verdict. It essentially boils down to pitting what one juror believes against another. To find a “contradiction” to their statements/beliefs. Besides that, the gameplay is Ace Attorney through and through. And honestly, it’s for the best. The core gameplay is solid and it’s what is built around it that makes an Ace Attorney title stand out. And “The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles” are solid structures built around a solid foundation. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Yakuza: Like a Dragon  Last year I was a bit upset that “Yakuza: Like A Dragon” wouldn’t make my game of the year list. It easily one of the most engrossing games I’ve played not just of that year but well ever. Unfortunately, it was also a very long game and while the end of the game was in sight, I wasn’t quite finished with it. A little over a week later the credits rolled. Making this list I’ve discovered that so many games I’ve played, including some in this very list, I struggled to remember whether or not I played the game this year. Yet, despite that being almost one full year since writing this, I still remember “Yakuza: Like a Dragon” vividly. There was absolutely no mistake that I played the game this year, that’s how much of an impact it had. While this latest entry in the Yakuza series does things to shake up the beloved franchise, truth be told what makes it standout isn’t so much that it does things new. At the end of the day the basic gameplay loop is the same. You are in a small, but highly detailed open world that you explore where you come across strange and captivating characters as you engage in vignette style side-quests, all the while you try to complete the classic ‘90s style Japanese crime drama story quest. This by and large has not changed in this entry. What has is how exceptionally well the game does these things. The main story is the most captivating in any Yakuza title I’ve played. The side-quests are the most memorable in any Yakuza game I’ve played. The cast, both primary and side, are the most memorable in any Yakuza game I’ve played. The set-pieces, city design, music, etc. Virtually everything is top notch in regards to the series. The concept of extreme refinement alone would put the game on this list. But the few things what the game does are new are also major and equal in quality. For starters the entire cast is different. With only less than a handful of characters returning. The game is filled with new characters each of whom are very memorable both in personality, looks, and backstories. Replacing Kiryu, aka Tokyo Superman, is a tall order but Ichiban does a great job. Not quite as level-headed, strong, or even heroic, Ichiban makes up for his shortcomings in charisma, optimism, and playfulness. While Kiryu is a “classic” character, he isn’t very much a fun one. What makes Yakuza entertaining is seeing such a straight shooter like Kiryu react to the circus of a world around him. In contrast Ichiban fits right in to the circus, being such a character himself. Technically it is even a theme of the game, but I don’t want to explain too m uch in fear of spoilers. The rest of the cast is just as memorable. I will admit that outside of the second entry, I struggle to name on secondary or tertiary characters off hand. But with the seventh entry even some of the most minor characters stand out. It seems that almost everyone you meet servers some sort of purpose to comment on the game’s overall theme of the city’s underbelly being filled with outcasts and misfits. There is a reason the game goes this route. It’s because it has to. Unlike previous Yakuza titles which are open-world adventure games meets a 3D beat-em-up with RPG elements, “Yakuza: Like a Dragon” is a straight up JRPG. Down to the even having a party that follows you around and engage with the player in a traditional (for the most part) styled turn-based battle system. That’s right, Yakuza no longer has real-time action combat, it’s straight up turn based this time around. It’s not like the game tries to hide this fact either. In fact, it gloats about it every change it gets. With the protagonist stating that his crew is part of one big JRPG party in game, as well as several references, even a side-quest, referencing Dragon Quest. From the sound of it, this is a tragedy. Yakuza prides it’s beat-em-up combat as a homage to Sega’s roots. Before the recent renaissance of the genre, people often even claimed that Yakuza was a “modernization” of the beat-em-up. However, the turn-based combat surprisingly fits the game like a glove. It not only adds to the surreal aspect of the game, but also makes for more strategic fights. I can’t rarely recall too many boss battles in previous Yakuza titles due to the engagement itself, but I remember several from Like a Dragon. https://i.imgur.com/lAoAy5y.mp4 (Initially highly controversial, this battle system has become widely praised by fans.) In turn, this makes “Yakuza: Like a Dragon” a stand out in the RPG genre in general. Being a JRPG through and through its modern crime setting make it like no other game. What other JRPGs take place in a “modern” setting? The closest one could get would be Persona or Mother (Earthbound), but even then, they aren’t grounded at all. Persona revolves around...the supernatural while Mother is so far out there its Americana theme is strictly in the background. Yakuza may be very comical and outright strange at times, but it never presents anything that isn’t possible. It’s setting and story are firmly rooted in real-life, down to the areas being virtually 1:1 creations of the cities they’re based on. It makes the game stand out in a genre surrounded with fire breathing dragons, giant mechs, and cat girls. This may be a controversial statement, but I’ve always felt that the Yakuza series can be a bit overrated. While the series is enjoyable, the titles are rarely anything that could be worthy as a game of the year contender. I often find the open world while enjoyable, to be too small in scope and limiting in freedom. And while I can understand those design decisions are primarily due to the characterization of both the protagonist and the city itself, I find that those things don’t outweigh those flaws to an extent of the Yakuza titles getting the praise they get. I often find the series to be good “comfort food”. It’s not the best meal you’ll ever have, not even the best of the week. But you know it and you enjoy it, and that’s all that matters. “Yakuza: Like a Dragon” is different though. The game steps it up a notch and masters its craft to the point where it does in fact become one of the best experiences out there. With the game being the entry that drops the numbers entirely as it is intended to help newcomers jump onboard, there is no better time to start the series. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. killer7  Are video games art? This is a question that seems a bit strange to ask now as there seems to be a new title every month or doing it's best to pull heartstrings or push the medium in new directions, but mid-way through 2000s this is a topic that seemed to come up a lot. It was an entry in a University of Michigan journal. Roger Ebert commented that video games shouldn't be considered art. And surprisingly Hideo Kojima agreed with him. Kojima stating that due to video games being an interactive medium, they are closer to being a car than like a feature film, and Ebert saying the same thing but adding that they are also just time wasting fluff. Obviously, gamers came to the defense and listed all the games they knew that should be considered art. One game that frequently popped up was "killer 7". "killer7" was a Suda-51 game and the first Suda-51 game released outside of Japan. Now reading that you think you have the game all figured out. And that is true to a degree. killer7 does have all the wacky, hyperviolence, unapologetically nerd tropes that is present in all Suda's titles, but killer7 is a bit different. While titles like "No More Heroes" feel like a rebellious take on a largely established genre, "killer7" feels like an arthouse film version of a game through and through. Instead of being a collage of random gaming genres thrown into a pot, "killer7" knows exactly what it wants to be and sticks with it. The presentation is always consistent with its vision with only maybe the art-style during cutscenes changing at times. The game doesn’t change genres and only changes tones on the occasion. This results in the game actually feeling much more “whole” than other Suda works. Now typically this would be the end of explaining such a title, but honestly the gameplay of “killer7” deserves a lot of praise. It’s boils down to a traditional light gun game only the player can choose where to go and when to engage enemies. When the player enters a level, they choose which direction their character can go and press the “A” button to move forward and the “B” button to to turn around. If the player wants their character to shoot, they let go of the “A” button and press a “trigger” button to enter a first-person mode and then they can start blasting away. While the player explores the map there are puzzles in-between that the player can solve either by using their wit or finding items in other areas to use. Similar to say a “Resident Evil” title. The player can also switch between seven assassins during this time, each that use a different weapon, have different stats, and have different abilities. This adds an extra layer of strategy of the game, and can make puzzles more interesting. Though outside of the game’s last segment it is limited who you can choose to play as during a level. The core gameplay is so tight and it’s just baffling how no other developer decided to build on to it. It’s such an obvious way to evolve the lightgun genre. Imagine a modern take of House of the Dead, Time Crisis, or Virtua Cop in killer7 fashion? It is also baffling why a game on the Wii wasn’t made in the same vein. The button combination works perfectly as you don’t even use an analog stick. https://i.imgur.com/l9znJvE.mp4 (This type of gameplay should be seen more often.) There are some issues with the game however. While I appreciate the game trying to get political, especially for its time, it just comes across as mostly nonsense. The story has something to do with Japan militarization increasing or...something. It’s too difficult to make out, and not in a good way. There’s also the fact that some of the puzzles can be a bit too confusing, as it can take some time just to figure out what to do. At the end of the day the game’s shortcoming come nowhere near to outweigh its strengths. “killer7” was way ahead of its time. It was basically the first fully formed “indie game” before there were indie games. It had an outlandish experimental idea and set to execute it the best it could, it did so almost perfectly. Two decades later and the game has barely aged a day. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ punk rebel ecks fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Dec 27, 2021 |
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~Punk Rebel Ecks Mega-Top Ten List: 2nd Part~ ***Not all images are GIFS*** I felt that the number one spot could have gone to either of these top two titles, so I guess they're worthy of their own post (plus I ran out of room). 2. Kenshi  Here are some excerpts that happened while playing Kenshi. * My entire party, except one member were kidnapped by religious cult robots who tortured them in a ritual by skinning them alive and repairing their bodies over and over again, slowly killing all of them but the leader. The leader was saved by the single member, who was left alone because they were a robot like the cultists, who managed to get help by hiring mercenaries in a nearby town to raid the cult compound and save the human leader by turning her into a full into an android. * My party was attacked by a group of clinically insane wandering bandits who shriek gibberish at people. Once defeated my party played dead as a nearby Taliban-like government attacked the gang of bandits. Once the government left, my party attacked the bandit leader, kidnapped them, and turned their bounty into the government...only to find out that the government assigned the bandit leader to be a slave for life. So, the party ran into the slave compound, kidnapped the leader again and freed her just to get knocked out by a guard. Only for there to be another slave breakout happening at random, which the drivers turned their attention to leaving my entire party to bleed to death on the ground. Except that the bandit leader gains consciousness and rescues my party, takes them to a hiding spot and becomes their new mentor. * A previous treasure hunter distraught at losing all of her companions has nowhere to turn. So, she is taken in by a monk commune that prides itself in peace, discipline, equality, and the way of martial arts. The treasure hunter is so enamored with the group that she joins and achieves a series of tasks to get the highest ranking possible. Being so impressed by this the charismatic treasure hunter, many people begin to follow her which has her leading a splinter group that is dedicated to liberating the world from oppressive governments and instituting secular Buddhist Communism as they assassinate leaders and raid capitols around the world, taking over the cities for themselves and thus the people. During all the events I listed there wasn’t a single cutscene, choice prompt, or quest. Everything occurred organically. To elaborate, RPGs are extremely diverse in their nature and are hard to group amongst each other. However, people tend to be split RPGs into two camps stylistically. On one camp you have games that follow the Japanese model (also referred to as the console model) of grandiose stories where the player controls either a few or handful of party members. As the party undergoes their perilous journey the player does their best to manage their stats and battle strategy to overcome their foes in a linear gameplay fashion. On the other camp you have the Western model (also referred to as the computer model) of more grounded stories exploring lore where the player typically controls only a single character as they “live in the world”. These games tend to focus on a collection of smaller quests in addition to one main quest, in which each individual may not be too important, but as a whole really paint a lush world. But what makes these games stand out is the choices they give you. Unlike their Japanese counterparts, these quests practice branch pathing, in which throughout quests, the game presents players with choices to choose from. For example, say that you are in a part of a game where a character you care about has been held captive by bandits. In Japanese styled game, the game would simply have you run up to their compound, have you fight the guards and then have you fight their boss to free them. But with Western styled game things would work a bit differently.  The Western styled game would likely give the player the option to sneak passed the guards and upon surprising the boss give the chance for the player to sweet talk their way to having their friend be released. Or they could just punch their way out of the situation. However, at the end of the day the player is limited to the branch pathing the developers laid out. Everything is already predetermined, it just has you choose which path to take. At best these games are a little more than a choose your own adventure book, at worst they are a linear novel only where your choices may result in easter eggs of extra dialogue. Kenshi, however is very different. Kenshi has hardly any set branch paths in it, because there are no branches to take. The game is what you call a “sandbox RPG”. The developers simply give the player as many options and tools as they can in a harsh and unforgiving world and it’s up to the player how they plan to take on the challenges they face. The game has many starts you can choose from but typically it dumps you off in some random no-name town with no money, no food, and only ragged clothes to your name. It’s up to the player to forge their own destiny in the world. You want to make a living being a bounty hunter? Then be a bounty hunter. Want to be a successful merchant? Then be a merchant. Want to be a degenerate bandit robbing rich nobles as they pass by the wilderness? Then be a degenerate bandit. Want to be a drug smuggler? Then become a drug smuggler. Want to be a treasure hunter? Then become a treasure hunter.   The thing is that unlike other games there is no “questline” to follow to become these things, you simply gather enough money and skills to do them. If you want to become a merchant for example, then you need to decide what you want to sell, how to get those things, how to get the materials to build your business, and where to build it. So, say I want to setup a “general goods” store and I will make a profit by buying things for the cheap in yokel towns and find random stuff in the desert and then flipping them by opening up shop in an area filled with nobles. I can either mine copper/stone for hours and sell that to shops until I have enough money to purchase items to sell to consumers and materials to build a store in the northside of the map. Or I can simply train myself to be a thief as I break into homes and stores in one town, and resell the rest for massive profits so I can raise enough money to start a store...wait....why can’t I just make a living doing this? Oh crap I got caught selling stolen goods! I’m in jail! Now that I’m out, apparently there is this ninja clan nearby that buys anything, no questions asked. Oh cool I can buy a membership and train to improve my thieving and assassination skills. Cool I can try and be an assassin now! Wait they also sell and buy drugs? Wow this is so profitable! Should I do this instead?  There’s no “outline” for how Kenshi unfolds. You the player pick what your endpoint is and how you get to it. The game ends when you want it to end and you see where your journey takes you. If you can think of something you want to do in Kenshi, chances are you can probably do it. You can even overthrow governments. However, the more ambitious something is the harder you have to work for it. Want to have a super strong anime party capable of defeating anyone? You can do that, but you’re going to have to level up your attack skills by getting into a lot of fights. Want to be an Indiana Jones caliber treasure hunter? Well sure, but you have to train your character a lot on stealth and run speed. And of course, if you need help, you can always hire or convince someone to join your party. Now what I’ve described above alone makes an incredible deep “role-playing” experience, but Kenshi takes things a step further. For everything the player does, the game reacts to it. If there is a dangerous trail filled with maneating animals and you and your party clear the nest, you will start seeing more NPCs and traders frequent the area. If you raid a nation’s capital and kill the leader, depending on who is alive, a rival faction or even government will take over the empire. If you kill enough slavers or prison guards it’s possible for their numbers to thin out to the point where they won’t be able to stop the next captive rebellion, having the entire camp or in some cases city fall.  Because Kenshi has events occurring real-time as you are playing the game, things constantly happen before you and you can influence them and vice-versa. It results in a plethora of options the player has to tackle things. For example, let’s look at this diagram again: Now let’s apply it to Kenshi:  There is essentially an almost unlimited scenarios of what you can do. You can simply raid the compound. Or you can sneak into the compound and break your friend out. Or you can disguise yourself and walk into the compound and break you friend out. You can improve relations with the faction’s compound by bribing them or killing their enemies so they are friendly to you and stroll in and release your friend. You can get yourself caught by the faction in the compound and orchestrate a plan to break out. You can kill the government/faction leader of the compound and the compound/city holding the compound will fall. You can simply bail out or buy your friend from the compound. You find a pack of ferocious animals walking near you in the area, run toward the compound as the animals chase you, just so that they end up attacking the guards instead so you can distract the guards so you pick up your friend. You can smuggle in a powerful weapon for your friend so they can wield it and kill all the guards to break out. The list goes on. https://i.imgur.com/qNGKtS4.mp4 (Now THAT'S what I call a "raid".) Kenshi seems almost endless in the amount of stuff you can do. Until I eventually discovered the game’s modding community. With modding, if you can think of something you want to do in Kenshi, you will all but guaranteed be able to do it. The mods in Kenshi are all community made and allow the players to do pretty much whatever they want. There mods allowing the players to recruit literally anybody they want to, mods that overhaul the economy to put items in favor that players want to mine/sell, mods that allows players to work specific professions as a living, mods that allow the player to recruit up t o 256 characters so that the player has their own government scale military or an entire city of citizens to control, and mods that allow the player to take over any town they want so the player can literally take over the world. Ending there alone would be enough to be impressed at, but there are mods even more ambitious. Mods that overhaul the game’s engine and make the game even more reactive than it was before. Down to tiny details such as selling drugs over and over in the same town leads to a lot of addicts in the area or a much more complex game of thrones type power struggle when overthrowing and liberating governments.  And of course there are mods that just add an endless amount of content. New factions, NPCs, animals, treasures, cities, towns, weapons, crops, races, governments, etc. There are even mods that add more traditional questlines, but of course these are also anything but linear in how you achieve them.  But I feel an aspect that is not often discuss about Kenshi is the game’s stories. You see Kenshi may not have cutscenes and relatively little text, but due to the harsh environments and situations players find themselves in. Like the Civilization videogame series, Kenshi’s story strengths is having the player create little stories in their head to explain the chaos happening around them. They assign traits and personalities to their party members as they interact with the world around them. Kind of like a...role-playing game? This leaves Kenshi playthroughs to have tons of lets plays with deep story potential that results in Youtube videos, retail paperback books, and even me posting my let’s play. This may sound a bit conceded, but to me Kenshi is real role-playing game. Both Western style and Japanese style role-playing games, while fun, are both heavily watered down. With the former being a little more than a choose your own adventure book and the latter being just a book, but with RPG elements. This isn’t to be disrespectful to games in those genres, just to highlight how special Kenshi is. While games in the genre have focused more on delivering flashier graphics and bigger environments, Kenshi focused solely on the freedom aspect. It’s a game like no other, and one of the best there is. Now typically, that would be where I would end this entry, but something that needs to be touched upon is Kenshi’s difficulty. Notable MMORPG Youtuber Josh Strife Hayes points out that “convivence kills adventuring”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juR8h1htw5k And in Kenshi this is proven to be true. The world of Kenshi is harsh, one could argue even harsher than that of Dark Souls. The world is vast with few areas of rest as dangerous beasts roam looking to eat anyone in sight. Witty bandits lay hiding waiting to rob the player, or monstrous slave drivers are out there looking to sell the player into slavery. Towns are few and far in-between, and unlike almost any other open-world game there are no teleports around. If you have to get from one map to the other, your only choice is to walk...that’s it. Is it punishing? Yes. Is it harsh? Absolutely. But in its grit leads to good story-telling. If there is no risk or punishment, how can a story be tense? How can a story be engaging? The gameplay also encourages this. While it’s easy to fail in Kenshi, it can be a bit more difficult to die. Every time you get hit in Kenshi and survive; your “Toughness” stat goes up. Which in short, is a stat that determines how long a character can stay conscious and stay fighting. It is arguably the most important stat in the game. On top of that as long you get a clean hit on an opponent or dodge an opponent, those stats go up too. This makes it so that the game has an answer to a catch-22. While the player will fail time and time again throughout the game, never is anything “pointless”. Because as long as your character doesn't die, they become stronger than before, even if they get their rear end kicked. This makes it so that the failure to achieve an objective isn’t a failure at all, rather than a continuation of the journey It is this aspect that as missing so often with RPGs in general. Even in the most “freedom” touting WRPGs if your character loses a battle, that’s it, it’s often game over. But in the world of Kenshi, it is never “game over” unless your entire party dies. Anything short of that the story continues. The strengths they’ve gained. The relationships they’ve formed with other factions. The events and occurrences of the world. They all not only stay but continue to evolve. And when the player final is able to achieve their objective, it is because they have grown and earned to be at that point. To me that is what real role-playing actual is, and “Kenshi” delivers. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker  There isn’t much I can say about Final Fantasy XIV that so many others haven’t already said about it in this thread. As such, despite it being my number one entry, it will also be the one I write about the least. All I have to add is that is seems so strange when I recall seeing the Ascians for the first time in A Realm Reborn. I literally rolled my eyes and said “Wow what generic enemies. Black robes? Really Square-Enix?” Only for these generic black robe big bads unfold to become the most interesting and well written villains I’ve ever encountered in a video game. Endwalker is the cumulative end result of A Realm Reborn and its subsequent expansions story. Every event has led to the final moments of the game. And the title lives up to those expectations. Admittedly though the game isn’t perfect. There are some problems. I understand that the game is a third longer than Shadowbringers and thus it feels a third longer than it is supposed to be. The second half of the game just has far too many pointless quests that feel like they are just padding an already long run-time. Also, the true final boss fight with Zenos was just...terrible. Both game mechanic wise (why do I get six “lives”?) and story wise (I just saved the universe, why does some whiny prince’s grudge matter?) Besides that, the game is great and met my exceedingly high expectations of it. Outside of the Endwalker expansion I found myself really enjoying parts of Final Fantasy XIV that were more “traditional” for an MMO. Clearing Eureka (and even getting the Cassie Earrings) was very fun and relaxing. Finding blue mage spells was also an amusing task that resulted in some actual interesting adventures. Doing these things actually required me partying up with other players, as I interacted with them and even made friends with them. https://i.imgur.com/XLeBJNN.mp4 (You have no idea what I needed to do to get here.) It was a fun experience and I can’t wait to try out Bozjna and find the new blue mage spells. That’s about it. Final Fantasy XIV was very good and it continues to “rob” several titles for my GOTY spot (but honestly “Kenshi” was razor thin close at taking the top spot). With all the votes I’m seeing, “Endwalker” will probably win GOTY or at least get near it. And being truthful, it deserves it. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Dec 27, 2021 02:48
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TLDR: 10. Popful Mail 9. Animal Crossing 8. Final Fantasy XI 7. No More Heroes III 6. Metroid Dread 5. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles 4. Yakuza: Like a Dragon 3. killer7 2. Kenshi 1. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ~ Honorable Mentions ~ HM.1 Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin  ~I wrote this huge effort post because I thought it was #10, only to realize I played another game better than it earlier this year. ~ I was debating whether or not to put this game on the list. On one hand, it was a very unique title that left an impression that I sunk dozens of hours into. On the other hand, much of those hours weren’t willingly as the story takes far too long to get through. The story focuses on the title character, Sakuna, who is the Goddess of Rice. Unfortunately, she is also very spoiled, being pampered by the palace life her entire existence. After a human “family” manages to find themselves in the after-life they are chased by a bandit and soon Sakuna into the palace grounds and from there into the pantry filled with food for the banquet. The family accidently blows up the entire room, destroying all the food as a result. Seeing this as an act of insolence, the supreme Goddess punishes both Sakuna and the family by casting them away to a farm so they can harvest enough rice as a replacement. The game itself has a very unique gameplay loop, being split into two parts. One part of the game is farming rice as the character does all the tasks from hoeing the soil, planting seed, letting in and out water, peeking weeds, separating the good seed from the bad via mud water, mixing manure into fertilizer, etc. Each harvest not only gets you closer to completing the game, but makes your character stronger, with the higher quality of crop correlating with the stat boosts. This makes it so that when the player engages in the second part of the game, doing level-based action side-scrolling segments, they have a much easier time due to "leveling up". The side-scrolling sections are very standard. Go, primarily, to the right, and complete the objectives on the screen. Once a certain number of objects are complete, a new area will unlock. While the player is out and about, they collect various ingredients and enhancements that they can add to the fertilizer for the harvest. Which has the player get a better harvest to get a better clear a level, which is also focused on getting a better harvest, and round and round we go. It’s a solid gameplay loop. The issue with Sakuna is simply time. The game overstays it’s welcome. It’s a 20-hour game stuck in a 30-hour run-time. After the first 5 hours or so, the game spends the next 15 with nothing much happening, before it really picks up at the 20-hour mark. And even by then you are just enough interested to continue as planting rice seeds can only hold one’s interest for so long. But taking it the game as a whole, it was a very interesting experience and unlike anything else I played. Like the protagonist, Sakuna isn’t perfect, but it is a charming and memorable experience that will stay with you after the credits roll. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ HM 2. Old School RuneScape  It’s me! That guy who never grew up with OSRS and decided to download and play it for the first time ever this year! My initial impressions of the game were very positive. I enjoyed how the series didn’t take itself seriously, how amusing the quests were, and the friendly community. But as I played the game, I got annoyed how I would be in the middle of a quest just to be hard gated in suddenly needing to grind up to some super high level for a specific stat. Or how almost every quest needed a walkthrough open. And I understand why Final Fantasy XIV gets poo poo for “not being a real MMO”, but for Old School RuneScape being so...old school, it’s basically a single player RPG in a big map with other people in it, arguably more so than Final Fantasy XIV. I liked the game, and it’s SimCopter aesthetics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIC5pwv86X0 But at the end of the day I couldn't get over the game's moments of poor pacing and gatekeeping. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ HM.3 Umurangi Generation  Pokemon Snap meets Vaporwave in Neo New Zealand. It feels, and arguably even looks, like those weird experimental Playstation 1 games that would have a super limited release back in the day. The game is very short, but memorable and very stylish. The game would have likely charted if it wasn’t so short. Each level takes less than ten minutes to complete and there is only a handful of them. Steam clock says 2.6 hours. So, it’s best to be purchased when it is on sale...like it is right now. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ HM.4 Record of the Lodoss War: ~ Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth ~  Castlevania in all but name. The game even looks like Castlevania. The title looks pretty, has good movement, memorable set pieces, and an interesting world. Unfortunately, the title suffers from the two cardinal sins of metroidvanias. #1 It is far too easy, with only one boss giving even the slightest bit of trouble. #2 It is way too short, clocking in just over seven hours. The game would have made the list but unfortunately it was too brisk to leave an impact. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ HM5. Final Fantasy IX  A classic game that I final had the honor of playing. Like others I used the Moguri Mod which had upscaled HD backgrounds and had the game running at a smooth 60fps. The mod didn’t cause some issues with my game’s controller but I was able to sort it out...for the most part. With only a new coat of paint the game hasn’t aged much. However, while I enjoyed it and found the game to be “Final Fantasy quality” there just was something about it that I couldn’t help but become bored after thirty minutes of playing it. After several thirty-minute sessions I beat the game, but overall while I appreciate and enjoyed the world, the experience wasn’t as engrossing as the other Final Fantasy game’s I’ve played. Maybe I played it during the wrong time of my life. punk rebel ecks fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Dec 27, 2021 |
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Dec 27, 2021 02:48
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More like Year of the Games
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Dec 27, 2021 03:48
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2021 was the year of the games, according to the gamer calendar. 2022 is too, incidentally
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Dec 27, 2021 04:11
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| # ? May 23, 2024 09:16 |
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 Nailed it 
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Dec 27, 2021 06:09
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