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Yeah that may be the most unassailable argument for game of the year I've ever read. 
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Dec 22, 2023 05:18
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This post is great, and also convinced me to try out Spirittea, so consider us even... for now.
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Dec 22, 2023 05:23
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Metis of the Chat Thread posted:Hello I am Metis of the Chat Thread, as I have always been known, and this is my GOTY list. lmao yesssss
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Dec 22, 2023 05:27
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also excellent argument for #1 goty
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Dec 22, 2023 05:27
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I dunno, the rules specifically say you should have played the game this year.
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Dec 22, 2023 05:34
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As cliched as it is to say, It really has been a really good year. Any of my top 5 may have made my number 1 any other year and even my 20th ranked would have made top 10 any other year. ----------------------------------------------- May have made my top 10 except I don’t rank games that are still in EA Chrono Ark – Still really good but I can’t believe this isn’t done yet. There’s only a few story scenes left. It’s like the devs are scared of releasing out of EA. Shogun Showdown – My new roguelike tactics addiction. The Void Rains Upon Her Heart – Roguelike shmup. The core gameplay is good and it’s got a ton of content and replay value. .----------------------------------------------- Honorable mentions 20. Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 – Basically Fuga 1 with some minor gameplay improvements. Still, Fuga 1 is a good baseline. 19. Personal 5 Tactica – A pretty light and easy puzzle-tactics game but it’s got that Persona 5 snappiness, it was fun trying to LTC it and the story wasn’t half bad either. 18. Chained Echoes – Classic throwback JRPG done well. Doesn’t waste my time and each battle was interesting. Plot is good in theory with some fun swerves but it lacked emotional impact. 17. Like a Dragon - Gaiden – Classic Yakuza 16. A Forgotten Loop – Got to have a game that literally no one else has ever heard of on these lists. An adrenaline inducing management puzzle game sounds odd but it works. 15. Dave the Diver – Initially just a combination of a diving sim and restaurant sim, the systems upon systems that keep unlocking makes it special. 14. Cocoon – A wordless simple beautiful puzzler 13. Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Just pure creativity on show here. Favourite track: Boo 12. Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane – Very much like Ace Attorney 6. Starts off a bit rough but ends epically. Favourite track: Of course every AA-like needs a good Pursuit them. 11. Cassette Beasts: Just a really good pokemon-like with some nice twists to the formula. Favourite track: The lyrics kicking in is the moment I realised this game was going to be good ----------------------------------------------- Pretend I also wrote “the soundtrack was great” when talking about all the below games. 10. A Space for the Unbound  A raw and earnest game about being a teenager. It’s a point and click adventure which starts off with Atma and his reality warping girlfriend Raya and the gimmick of being able dive inside people’s hearts and solve puzzles there and rapidly spirals and escalates from there. It’s set in 1990s Indonesia which is a novelty and there’s a bunch of things that really ground the setting, like the food carts and bottle caps. It’s a funny and charming and heartwarming “story about overcoming anxiety, depression” as it calls itself and it really is a good one of those. Favourite track: The ending actually made me tear up a bit 9. Paranormasight  This VN starts off like a Japanese Horror and rapidly segues into more of a mystery with Japanese horror elements. It’s got a lot of the charm of 428 if you happen to have played that, particularly in that it has multiple protagonists with their stories going on simultaneously and and intertwining with each other. It’s not quite as good but it still stands in the same ballpark and it’s still a frenetic and quirky mystery that does some clever things. Favourite track: Reminds me a little of Amelie. Must be the accordion. 8. Hi-Fi Rush  A character action game with the USP being the whole combining it with having everything moving to the beat and it really does feel like a genuine rhythm action game They went that extra step to make sure that everything in the world is synced with the beat and it just plays so smoothly that even considering I’m not exactly a rhythm savant, it just felt natural to attack to the beat. It’s got a refreshingly sincere and earnest Saturday morning cartoon sense of humor too. Favourite track: Parrying exam 7. Yggdra Union  My retro entry, though since I played the Steam version released this year not really. I’m not sure I could deal without the ability to speed up the battles. This is definitely one of the weirder SRPGs I’ve played. There’s so many weird decisions; a huge part of the wider strategy is items most of which have to be taken from enemies or found in hidden locations on the battlefield, pretty much every battlefield has some sort of secret on certain tiles, your strongest character for most of it is your thief, stats require less to level up the more they’re leveled up. Even the core battle system, where you can only make 1 attack per turn but that attack can involve up to 5 units per side isn’t exactly standard. That’s Sting for you though and it’s still a good SRPG which requires some careful thinking. Really the weirdness is part of it’s idiosyncratic charm. It’s perfectly willing to place its maps in service to the story; for example, there’s some maps where you’re just sneaking through and never see combat, quite a few during the later half where you’re just slaughtering you way through the enemy since you’re the invading force going up against militia and they’re even willing to make the final map a sheathe your sword test. It’s a simple story that questions what it means to be just, even when you’re playing an SRPG where you’re slaughtering your way through the enemy but in a way, that’s what makes it an effective story. Favourite track: Theme for the princess wielding a sword about as big as herself. 6. Jack Jeanne  An Otome VN about a girl who crossdresses her way into an all male acting school. There’s a charming earnest passion to the whole thing that I loved about this with pretty much every character wholeheartedly dedicated to the stage. It’s pretty nice about gender norms too; there's boys who dress and act like girls and that’s considered perfectly normal. The rhythm game is only like 5% of the game but it’s pretty fun and the background dances have some entertaining choreography. Voice work is great too; I can really hear their joy, their tears, their rage and their love through their voices, sometimes done subtly and sometimes clear as day. Favourite track: I swear this song is a reference to The Greatest Showman 5. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom  Fundamentally, this is basically BOTW but with 2 key additions: The 2 new layers that are the Sky and Underground and more importantly Ultrahand aka “If you can conceive it, you can build it”. Even now I’m still a little in awe of how the Physics engine both allows so much possibility and yet remains pretty bug free. Sure there’s a bunch of other changes but it’s those 2 things that mean it’s a fresh enough experience that it doesn’t feel like just a replay of BOTW. You know looking back I can see the sparseness and sameness of the sky and underground worlds and the redundancy of the many plot scenes and yet on the first playthrough, that’s all ignorable thanks to the joy of rediscovering Hyrule and playing around with the new additions and uncovering the new set pieces and in that it really did feel like BOTW for the first time all over again. Favourite track: Theme to defeating a boss by repeatedly dive-bombing it 4. Void Stranger  My indie entry. On the surface it’s a Sokoban style puzzle game with the gimmick of being ale to pick tiles and place them elsewhere with the simple story of a lady journeying to rescue her princess. Even on it’s own, it’s a fun puzzle game. There is of course far more than that beneath the surface. There’s a bunch of twists and turns to the story and a huge amount of secrets to the game itself with certain meta puzzles that are never explicitly stated as such and lore tidbits hidden away with obscure triggers along with a full blown hidden story route. In a way it reminds me of that Pokemon rumor saying Mew could be found under some random truck since this is the sort of game where I could believe any outlandish rumor about some secret it was hiding. It’s a game hiding multitudes within. Favourite track: It begins 3. Fire Emblem Engage  My favourite gameplay of any entry on this list and of any Fire Emblem game. The animations are great. The maps all have something interesting to them (my personal favorite gimmick was Ike’s fortress Demolish) and just have a really good cadence, constantly pushing you forwards. The break mechanic is a simple but tactically interesting addition emphasizing player phase. The emblems really liven up the gameplay, with their seemingly broken abilities taken into account by the maps. They still enabled some great big brain plays and together with the couple of skill slots and each class having a specific type with a special ability provide enough dimensions to building a character. It just adds up to a gameplay nirvana. On the other hand, it’s got the worst story in my top 10 though that’s hardly a damning criticism; it’s not a trash fire like Fates or anything. It’s just mediocre and even then does at least manage a few awesome moments and the characters are actually pretty fun in their supports. Actually it’s a pretty standard FE story; it just looks bad compared to its immediate predecessor. The DLC bracelet maps were pretty fun and the DLC story was actually vaguely interesting but the way the DLC story maps was implemented was just not very good and it’s annoying because it was very nearly a great DLC. Favourite track: Makes the desert battles feel like a party 2. Octopath Traveler II  Much like the first entry I’ll admit that the whole format of having 8 individual stories does result in some issues; most notably for each story the party is present in gameplay but not in story and there’s a dearth of interparty interaction. However unlike the first entry, I feel the positives of this format outweighed that flaw and in this instance I consider it an eightfold adventure that’s far more than the sum of its parts; the stories might range from an optimistic tale of a girl trying to become the best dancer to a dark revenge tale but the variance in tone just meant I could pick a story that matched my mood on the day. It’s also got everything else a great RPG needs. The crossed paths and inter party skits being unmissable was enough interaction to convince me that the party really did feel like a group of people with bonds between them and the endgame was a great conclusion to every story. The individual stories themselves are great with not a single one being a miss. The battle system and 2D-HD graphics are still as great as ever. Favourite track: The entire soundtrack is spectacular, easily my favourite this year. If I had to pick one though I’d go with the one I’ll remember as the song of farewells . The final boss theme: Apothecary/Axe mum version is also a banger. 1. Baldur’s Gate 3  You’ve probably heard all the praise there is to say about the performance and gameplay etc. so I’ll just stick with the main thing that amazed me: It’s just so much drat game with so much detail in even the littlest things; the many item descriptions and readables and hidden locations and speak with animal targets that most are never going to see and yet Larian implemented it for the small percentage who would. Pure maximalism and I love it for that. Favourite track: Of course it’s the one with the Boss singing their own Boss theme .----------------------------------------------- 1. Baldur’s Gate 3 2. Octopath Traveler II 3. Fire Emblem Engage 4. Void Stranger 5. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 6. Jack Jeanne 7. Yggdra Union 8. Hi-Fi Rush 9. Paranormasight 10. A Space for the Unbound Morphogenic96 fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Dec 22, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2023 05:39
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The big thing for me this year was assembling a multiplayer Discord with some childhood friends. It was Valheim what got us going but we play anything and everything now and also constantly talk poo poo on their and it's been a fantastic addition to our lives. 10. Baldur's Gate 3 Grudgingly including this for its ambition although I haven't finished it. I'm not a fan of the turn-based combat, it just takes too long and it just seems abstract/arbitrary - the RTwP system from the infinity engine games is actually one of my favourite combat systems so I feel like Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2 were actually much closer spiritual sequels (I know, BG3 is more a DOS2 followup). I also really don't get on with the camera controls, a hard isometric with rotate would be way better. I'd actually love to see what could be done with a mashup of Mimimi's stealth gaming engine and CRPG game direction. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'll finish it eventually although it will take me forever because of those friction points I've mentioned. I contrast it with my number one (spoilers: Zelda) wherein the actually feel of the game to play moment-to-moment is just so pleasurable, whereas BG3 feels like it's fighting me. I wish I loved it more. 9. Deep Rock Galactic Finally having a multiplayer group means we can go back and play some of the classics. This was a standout and had us hooked for a couple months. 8. The Case of the Golden Idol Representin' all the less significant puzzle games I played this year (Patrick's Parabox was another standout) but giving this props for actually being more in this budding genre of 'deduction' games which I adore. Still got a bit of it to go and I'll do the DLCs after. 7. Lethal Company Hilarious fun with the buds, hitting it up again tonight, an easy play. 6. Shadow Gambit Bye-bye Mimimi. I actually think this is the worst one they made - making the decision to allow you to choose your team meant they had to make both the puzzles more generic and the character skillsets wider and more powerful. I played on the hardest difficulty and never broke a sweat. However they absolutely perfected the engine, the controls and the visuals so it's an absolute tragedy that we won't get any more. For fucks sake, someone pleasse hire all their staff and license their engine and keep making these games. Fingers crossed for the Commandos remake to take up the reins. It's all here - just do what Mimimi did. 5. Valheim Kicked off our discord, fantastic time one-upping each other with building cabins, then castles, then entire villages, and then megalaphobia-triggering monstrosities that darkened the skies. We'll revisit it at 1.0 and also looking forward to the wave of similar games next year (Hello Games' next one and that other one with the hobbit-people that had a demo in the Next Fest. 4. Talos Principle 2 I still need to go back and finish the first one and Road to Gehenna but I decided to jump straight in on this one and it was the correct decision. It fit so perfectly into my life at the time, short sessions of a few puzzles or longer sessions trying to solve the larger meta-puzzles, great soundtrack, fantastic graphics and scenery and I actually got pretty into the plot by the end of it all. 100%ed, something I never bother doing. 3. Turbo Overkill Take note: this is not a boomer shooter. I would say this is the best FPS since Doom: Eternal and it takes elements from all over FPS history and smushes them into an incredible package. A mind-blowing one-man project. 2. Crab Champions This feels like a game we really discovered on our Discord instead of having it handed to us by the zeitgeist. Literally just searching crabs on steam and this looked great and loving blew us away. For weeks we became crabs in human forms, would not shut up about crabs to everyone in our lives, and the loving incredible drum and bass soundtrack (the DJ is also the dev) is on constant rotation in my headphones. 1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom This brought together all the strands of gaming that I love. Our discord went crazy over it, emulating it on our PCs (sorry, but it's best played on ultrawide at max resolution and 60fps), sharing mods and fixes, talking poo poo, sharing clips. The kids loved watching me play, I made sure they got to see all the important story moments and they cheered me through every boss fight. It satisfied my puzzle itch which has always been a big thing for my gaming. Out of a year full of huge sweeping epics this was the only one that swallowed me whole it was an extremely wholesome 100+ hours that meant a lot to me, my kids and my budding multiplayer group of mates. Now I get to go back and play Breath of the Wild! Finished/had my fill, but didn't qualify: Patrick's Paradox Viewfinder Warhammer 40K: Boltgun Dredge Brotato Cocoon Super Mario Brothers Wonder Alan Wake 2 What Remains of Edith Finch A Short Hike Sea of Thieves TMNT: Shredder's Revenge
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Dec 22, 2023 06:02
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10. Warriors of the Nile 2 9. Perfect Tides 8. Signalis 7. Cobalt Core 6. Wolfstride 5. Elden Ring 4. Factory Town Idle 3. Cassette Beasts 2. Factorio 1. TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children Early Access These titles are worthy of being in this year's top 10, but I want to save them for another's Cosmoteer: Starship Architect & Commander (EA): There's been a lot of discussion in the management games thread about how Cosmoteer isn't like Factorio (and that's true in that it isn't about production), but I do think it's similar in that it's a game about design compromises and the triumph of minimizing those compromises through clever design. As an example, this was my first attempt at a deck gun ship:  In retrospect the flaws are so obvious. Among many others it's trivial to punch through the thin armor and hit a gun or reactor, and the chain reaction burns the ship into an empty shell:  This is the final design I arrived at:  Half the price and 2/3rd the crew requirements but faster, more lethal (the guns are concentrated over a smaller area to bore through armor) and far more survivable. It's hard to damage the internals without first working through large chunks of armor, and reaching one gun or one engine doesn't cause a catastrophic loss of functionality. I don't think Cosmoteer is anywhere close to being "solved". Every multiplayer tournament I see some component used in a way I never would have thought of. For instance, the fact that railguns have the longest range in the game doesn't mean they can't be used as a close-range pile driver on a highly maneuverable fighter. Desynced (EA):  A chain of cheap bots programmed to form an "extension cord" that transmits power to an outpost Factory game where there's no separation between buildings and units--what something does is determined by what modules you equip it with and what you order it to do. Honorable Mentions These games don't fit neatly into a top 10 list, but I want to shout them out anyway Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog (2011): A 15-minute Phoenix Wright-like from the creator of Space Funeral. Murder Dog is on trial at the Hague for crimes against humanity (presumably the events of Murder Dog I-III) and as his lawyer it's your job to demonstrate the difference between the crimes he certainly did and what can be "demonstrated as evidence in this bizarre ritualistic setting" The Roottrees are Dead (2023): goon-made mystery game about filling out a family tree using clues from newspaper articles and early internet sites. The UI is a bit unpolished and the AI art is a (necessary) compromise, but it's worth the money (free) and the day or two you'll spend on it https://jjohnstongames.itch.io/the-roottrees-are-dead Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille zur Macht (2003):    The year is TC (Trancend Christ) 4767. Humanity, still suffering from the consequences of the Life Recycling Act, is fighting (and losing) wars against forces that may be extraterrestrial, extradimensional, and/or divine. The Galaxy Federation is only held together every faction simultaneously scheming to subvert it. People are products. Products are people. You can email your coworker a nuke over the space internet. Shion Uzuki, a neurotic, sleep-deprived tech worker is massively behind schedule on her project: building an android messiah that will be our salvation or our destruction. I don't think a video game story has ever been as grand or ambitious as Xenosaga. It's flawed, but the biggest flaw is the slow battle animations and movement speed and those are both fixed by emulator speedup. The List 15. Astronarch (2021): Roguelike autobattler that experienced a bit of a revival this year 14. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023): It's an expansion pack that builds on what made the first game good (the power set is very well-designed) but doesn't fix any of the first game's major flaws. If I hadn't played Breath of the Wild this would have been in my top 10, but as-is it's more like breathing a little more life into a game I've already worn out. 13. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (2023):  It's not as much of an improvement/fix as Torna, but it is a shorter, tighter, more developed version of the base game, Matthew and A are great protagonists, and I have to say I like Rex's attitude. 12. Eliza (2019): In 2019 Zachtronics made a VN about a tech startup pushing a lovely chatbot as a substitute for proper therapy. We now live in this world, and if you've ever worked at a tech startup you've met all of these characters. The only flaw is that the commitment to naturalism means it's not that satisfying as a narrative. 11. I was a Teenage Exocolonist (2022): It's a deckbuilder/raising sim where the core concept is that your deck is comprised of the memories and experiences that make you who you are, divided into physical (red), mental (blue), and social (yellow). Early on you'll be adding cards like your first day of school and first time playing sports in planetary gravity and remove cards like your first words or first steps. Unfortunatly the game falls apart mechanically as a sufficiently powerful monocolor deck can beat most challenges and stats are easy enough to raise that they stop being an issue halfway through. The game also can't settle on a tone as to whether you're a realistically emotionally and physically vulnerable child or Dirk Hardpec, Hero of Space. The first few years (10~13) are strong but by 17 or so the systems have broken down and the game has run out of new content. 10. Warriors of the Nile 2 (2022): Roguelike tactics game with small numbers and elegant mechanics. It's a bit too easy to build a super-unit that solos everything (and higher difficulties make this more necessary instead of harder to do), it really should cut 1-2 fights out of each act, and the metaprogression is awkward (although not hugely detrimental), but I'd say it's mechanically the best roguelike on this list. 9. Perfect Tides (2022): Emotionally raw game about being a teenager in a very specific place and time. Easily the best-written game on this list, although it comes with the caveat that it has the worst gameplay as it's as a point-and-click adventure with all of the jank that caused that genre to die. Even with a guild expect to trek across multiple screens to find the one pixel that advances the story while fiddling with a clunky UI (the 2.0 update may have fixed some of the UI issues). Best Use of Britney Spears' "Stronger" in a Video Game 8. Signalis (2022):  Extremely atmospheric survival horror. I can't tell if the gameplay is good as I don't enjoy the genre, but it was worth playing despite that. 7. Cobalt Core (2023):  Deckbuilder where the cards are used to control a spaceship. The gameplay isn't that deep but it's charming (the writing is surprisingly good--funny without feeling insincere) and doesn't overstay it's welcome. 6. Wolfstride (2021):  To the extent that one can speak objectively this is the worst game on this list (of good games). There are blatant script inconsistencies (likely due to how much was re-written/ad-libbed), the engine is held together with duct tape, and there's a Persona-style time management mechanic that was obviously stripped out late in development resulting in a lot of days that exist on paper but where the player wakes up and clicks the "end day button" to advance the story. Every screen you interact with is padded with a second screen you have to run through to get there. But I don't think there's any game that's quite like Wolfstride. Which is odd given how openly derivative it is--the opening is basically Redline with a mech instead of a car. It's not a new story, just a kind of story RPGs generally don't tell with the kinds of characters you don't normally find in your party, yet one suited to a genre about getting into fights to make yourself stronger. Apart from the complete lack of polish there are two caveats that might be an issue for some people. The first is that the protagonist is complete scumbag who's primary occupation is failing the characters we actually care about. The second is that there are a lot of subplots that intersect the narrative but don't get resolved (I interpreted this as restraint, others might interpret it as cut content). It's at 70-75 on Metacritic and I don't disagree with that. But I'd rather have an interesting (18 hour) mess than something unremarkable. 5. Elden Ring (2022):  Just take everything, positive and negative, that was said about the game last year and I'd say "yeah I agree with that" 4. Factory Town Idle (2023): Easily my favorite incremental game. It's not really an idle game (there's almost always somewhere that you want to be increasing production) or a clicker (the clickables menu is like manual mining in factorio and mainly serves to demonstrate how far automation has brought you from the start of the game). It's more like a factory game where the spaghetti has been cut out so there's no friction between wanting to increase production and increasing production (I like spaghetti, but I have games for that). Sometimes you just want to make numbers go up. 3. Cassette Beasts (2023): I want to like Pokemon, but they're not complicated enough in ways I care about (single player gameplay) and too complicated in ways that annoy me (the dozen different mechanics you need to interact with in order to try out a given build). Cassette Beasts is focused on providing that single-player adventure. As the developer puts it, https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1321440/view/6349565145235433772 posted:You might be able to see now how bootlegs, stickers, character levels, and several other mechanics in Cassette Beasts were designed to address various other unspoken needs. Stickers, for example, let players quickly mess around with different party configurations and strategies. This can be fun in any RPG but usually, it involves an incredible grind each time, which, while fun for some, doesn’t appeal to the same group of strategizing players. Oh and it does the thing where whenever you use your limit break gauge to fuse your big monster the lyrics kick in on the battle theme (of which there are 6) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjMk-qwnMAs 2. Factorio (Space Exploration mod) (2020): https://i.imgur.com/6tjfg3I.mp4 Space Exploration is a mod with a lot of design flaws and the further you get into it the more it falls apart. With the release of the Space Age expansion it will almost certainly be obsolete, as SA seems to be delivering the same promises with the base game's eye towards good design. But the core concept is incredibly strong: that gravity wells are an incredible logistical problem that can only be overcome through incredible industrial production. For all its flaws, it's a game where you launch massive 500-stack cargo rockets and send trains across the galaxy on RORO ferries. 1. TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children (2020): TROUBLESHOOTER is a game I wouldn't have played if it weren't for Snooze Cruise recommending it during the last Steam sale. It starts out very similar to modern XCOM with the biggest notable change being an FFX style turn order (similar to what XCOM tried in Chimera Squad but with a lot more methods to manipulate it):  The VHPD Suppressor generic is basically a midgame XCOM unit with a basic attack that inflicts bleed, a suppressing attack that knocks an enemy down in the turn order regardless of whether it hits, overwatch, a medkit, and a flash, freeze, or smoke grenade. They're the simplest, weakest unit you'll ever use and they still have a robust toolkit. They're the unsung heroes of the early game, which plays like low-level adventurers (very deadly, very squishy) being backed up by Tucker's kobolds. It initially seems like a "clone" of XCOM, but where XCOM ends is where TROUBLESHOOTER begins. TROUBLESHOOTER bucks the recent trend towards permadeath in SRPGs, and I think that's a good decision. It means that enemies can be extremely lethal and it's common for missions to spiral out of control with the player only scraping by. I went into the final mission of the base game with 9 units, a guest unit, and 4+ VHPD generics and came out with two characters and a generic. The final battle of the first DLC ended with everyone but my healer dead just as the enemy's unstoppable killbot ran out of fuel.  sweet, sweet victory The elegance of the design is that all units are made from the same building blocks called masteries. Characters are still unique due to abilities and classes (Albus will always be a highly mobile melee unit and Sion will always be some variety of magic DPS), but there's a fundamental balance to everyone being a blue mage--anything the enemy can do is something you can also do and vice-versa. It also means that unlike how a lot of long games start slow, run out of content after a point, or have an agonizingly slow drip-feed, TROUBLESHOOTER has a smooth learning curve from when you're equipping Albus with Counterattack at hour 1 so he can tank for Sion and the VHPD and when you're building Walh Hara's turret frog at hour 100. I understand this This is also how the game crafts its faction and encounter variety. You might go from a faction heavy in midrange skirmishers to a faction heavy in sniper support to an all-melee faction, and factions are frequently mixed (either allied or in a 3-way fight). This is supported by the varied map design, which might go from an underground bunker where hallways with long, clean lines of fire are contrasted with dark tunnels and side rooms to a vertical cityscape, to scrubland with little geometric cover but a lot of undergrowth, to a mission where you and the enemy push a third faction of damage-avoiding robots into each other. I wouldn't say the story is good but it's weird in an interesting way. None of the plot threads get resolved but the game has an amazing way of pulling new ones out while advancing old ones, like a magician pulling an unbelievably long streamer from their sleeve. If you like 「Proper Nouns」 in 「Emphasis Quotes」 this is going to be your kind of game. (I put Xenosaga in my honorable mentions, so that is my kind of thing.) Like a Batman comic it's at its worst when it's a generic cops vs. criminals story and at its best when it's taking a ridiculous concept and treating it 100% sincerely. The developers seem to have realized this as the antagonists of the first DLC (the game has two DLC, one free and one paid, which each add an extra chapter) are a clown gang/PMC and their plotline is one of the midbosses going through a midlife crisis.  What it does right is how it integrates the gameplay with the story. Medical science is as advanced in cutscenes as it is in gameplay (hence why it doesn't have XCOM/Fire Emblem-style permadeath). Some masteries play major roles in the plot. Every one of your units has a score for how they think of the others (along with a zodiac sign and tarot card because RPGs should either be minimalist or maximalist), and while it doesn't matter that much story sections usually result in new mechanics for that score. Early cutscene direction has an interesting style where it makes extensive use of panning, zoom, and long cuts to tell a story on a single map (usually setting up the protagonists and antagonists for this encounter). I suspect this was ultimately for budget reasons as later maps make greater use of drawn 2D art (still good, just less unique). I've heard that the translation used to be bad (and there are still some unclear mechanical descriptions) but while I wouldn't call the script punchy it is serviceable. Going in I was worried about grinding as the BeforeIPlay page mentions it a couple of times, but I don't think it's necessary outside of three largely optional subsystems: - Crafting (the only essential thing is Kylie's weapon upgrades, and if that's all you're crafting you'll have enough resources from breaking down dropped items) - Monster Taming - Drone Building Unlike the guide I don't think there's a huge benefit to doing Shooter Street early as everything you get there is only useful if you want to get into these systems in the lategame. For experience, I played on Cruel and never felt underleveled (Yearning is a 0-cost support mastery available from the beginning that drastically increases exp). The one caveat is that it is sometimes necessary to re-do a map to get a specific mastery drop, although the Expertise company mastery (which there's no reason to not use 90% of the time) helps with this and the Troublemaker info mechanic ensures it will drop eventually. I'd say my biggest gripe is that the game does a poor job of teaching the player about masteries and mastery sets to the point that using a guide is strongly recommended. For minor gripes I would say that the monster/mech design is generic, the music in the base game lacks variety (you're going to get tired of the knockoff XCOM deployment tune before they got an actual music budget for the DLC), and there are some low-unit gimmick story missions that end up poorly balanced (knock the difficulty down for these). If you're looking for a 2024 (year of the SRPG) game of the year it's $12.50 on Steam right now.
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Dec 22, 2023 06:13
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Bugblatter posted:I dunno, the rules specifically say you should have played the game this year. I played the game.... the game of the FREE MARKET OF GOODS
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Dec 22, 2023 06:20
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Metis of the Chat Thread posted:If you don’t know anything about Fire Emblem Fates, I’ll explain the unique circumstances that came together to create this possibility. Fates is, in actuality, three games: Birthright, Conquest and Revelation. Birthright and Conquest were sold as two separate versions for the 3DS, similar to different Pokemon versions, except that they are two entirely different campaigns, with different plots, characters and maps. After buying one version, you could buy the other as DLC from the eShop, as well as the third version, Revelation, essentially a golden route that provided a happy ending for all* the characters from both, which existed only as DLC and not as a physical standalone cart. 
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Dec 22, 2023 06:33
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Bugblatter posted:I dunno, the rules specifically say you should have played the game this year. eh i see it as a letter of the law vs the spirit of the law kind of thing. intent was in the spirit of the thread and was a fun read and it isnt going to skew the final results in ant meaningful so why not just enjoy it
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Dec 22, 2023 06:50
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Morphogenic96 posted:6. Jack Jeanne whoa
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Dec 22, 2023 07:08
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Escobarbarian posted:Lmao that ending loving ruled Stay physical folks
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Dec 22, 2023 07:54
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Didn't play that many games this year because of No.1 but I'll rank them anyway. 8. Daemon X Machina Fast paced combat mecha game with a striking style and feels great to control. Plot and dialogue best skipped. 7. Unnamed Space Idle Fight endless hordes, push deeper into hostile territory, upgrade your ship, unlock new weapons and research, but as an idle game? I was hooked, and oh boy was I addicted to the digital crack, of watching numbers go up. Ever the enticing feeling of unlocking something new, or a new mechanic, if you just play one more day, reach a new sector, or defeat that next boss, made sure that carrot-on-a-stick never left my donkey eyes and I kept playing. I'm amazed I ever managed to uninstall it. Save your precious time and your sanity, do not search this game on steam, do not install, do not leave it on in the background, and definitely do not keep playing past 3am. 6. Kaiju Wars Love the retro style and presentation. Desperately throwing all your tanks, planes, and infantry into the path unstoppable forces of nature, in the hope you delay your doom for just one more turn and clutch the win is a good feeling. Unlocking unit upgrades through multiple completions of the same level is making me take ages to get through the game though, my OCD just won't let me let by. 5. Inscrytion Top notch direction and design, the mystery box style story is quite well done and unique. Doesn't outstay its welcome but could have stayed around longer. 4. Borderlands 3 Scratch that juicy looter-shooter itch for the third time. Gearbox keep improving and learning their lessons with each reiteration, just controls and plays so well now, thank god for fast travel from anywhere. The writing and dialogue is loaded with jokes that kept me chuckling throughout. 3. Super Mario Wonder A nostalgic joy, literally turns the clock back 3 decades to the time I discovered gaming, and Mario for the first time. Helps that it is a degree easier than SMW. Played every night over two weeks to 100% it. A platformer instant classic. 2. Shadow of the Tomb Raider A drat fine send off to the "Survivor trilogy", this game just grabbed me, fully immersing me into the deep jungle, exploring long lost civilisations, puzzling out booby-trapped tombs, depopulating ecosystems with bow and arrow, and murking an entire army's worth of unsuspecting goons. Stopped to appreciate the graphics and art direction more than once. Little touches such as modeled unique collectables which you can rotate and zoom into, adds another level of engagement. I 100% it, just to stay in its world a little longer. 1. Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker Believe the hype, this is a pretty special experience. The story and writing will get you invested and is literally life affirming. The time commitment required is pretty large, but that is a reflection of the amount of love put into it. A pinnacle of the RPG medium.
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Dec 22, 2023 08:17
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I’m glad that at least one person thinks I’m seriously objecting a breach in the rules.
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Dec 22, 2023 08:36
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A shout-out to the Street Fighter 6 warriors in this thread! Fighting games to me always feel underrated in GOTY threads, and it's been 5 years since I picked a fighting game for my #1 GOTY. It was SoulCalibur 6. Now it's happening again... on the streets! Here's my list. Top to bottom because I spoiled the ending. 1. Street Fighter 6 This game is incredible. I've always loved Street Fighter, since Championship Edition on Genesis. And the Dreamcast days of Third Strike with my friends and bro. All along the way, Street Fighter is good times. Also a KoF guy etc. Anyhoo, this ruled so much, my fav in a long time, and I did like 5. 6 is just so fresh, and I love the new modern control scheme, it felt like it arrived at the perfect time for me. Really got me more into a bunch of easier to access areas of the game where I hadn't ventured as far before tech and combo wise. And it's just fun! I played more of this than any game this year, and it's at the moment the definitive fighting game for me. 2. Alan Wake 2 This game is terrific, love Remedy and everything they do. So much care and character, it figures they're friendly with Hideo. And was sad to hear James McCaffrey passed away, he's wonderful in this as always. What a game. I just got a PS5 in the past month, and a cheap 4K TCL TV, so this was my first game on those. Really really cool, turn the lights off, cinema game magic. I haven't beaten it yet, but it deserves the high slot I feel. Here's to many more from Remedy. 3. Cyberpunk 2077 Gotta bring Cyberpunk back into the list, it's too good. One of my fav games, and jumping back in after beating it 3 years ago reinforces that. Before doing Phantom Liberty, which is really well done, I had fun messing around in the main game on my old save for a few days as well. Just a really cool game, so up my alley. The characters, the vibe, the quality and enjoyment of the level design and how much care goes into the missions. Even little ones, it's just wild how much character and charm it has compared to a lot of open world contemporaries for me. Masterpiece. 4. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom This game rules. I played it nonstop for a few weeks (until SF6 came out). I hadn't gone this binge crazy into a game for a few years, since Cyberpunk which I really dug. And much like the magic of BoTW at the time. That sky island opening is really cool, and all the new abilities rock. Was fun talking to people about it, posting pics, just a nice game, well done, more of what you'd want. That said, I also feel the game has a bit more virtual coal mining and the kind of busywork stuff that isn't always my fav thing. In general I feel like games could do things other than having a gigantic endless inventory where you have hundreds of different things in your pockets like twigs, wood, bugs, whatever, just picking up everything you see etc. I know that style does make people happy so that's cool. Not my fav thing, but I get into the addictive vibe and let time fly by for this quality of an opus. I also haven't beaten it yet, as with BoTW I tended to play say 90 hours in a few weeks, then went back to it and beat it nearly a year later. I figure something similar might happen with this one, got a little burned out in a way, but I do look forward to returning to it and doing more of the main stuff etc. So it's a tricky thing for me to describe, I am a fan of these games, but I also don't want gaming to keep going in this direction. Hundreds of hours, lots of repetition and item gathering on an open map, etc. There's room for everything, but I prefer less collecting/crafting and a more dense smaller in scope game usually. Anyways I love this particular game even if it's almost a bit too much. And this also brings up another thing, with this kind of game that to me almost feels front loaded, you can still love a game even if you haven't beaten it. I enjoyed my 120 or whatever hours so far, and I do think I'll be back. Yes this is a flip-floppy review. I enjoyed those three weeks either way. Hell of a game. 5. Sea of Thieves Had a lot of fun playing this with a few friends. Pirate tomfoolery and lifestyle, we are... on the cruise! Like One Piece. 6. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Still have this installed on Steam, still living the dream. Best soundtrack in game history. A masterpiece. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Dec 31, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2023 09:18
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Webcormac McCarthy posted:8. Daemon X Machina Interesting to see this one come up in the year of AC6. I'd been interested in the Armored Core series for years, but had never been able to play them before, so I downloaded the demo for Daemon as soon as it was up... And I never bought the game, because I thought the demo wasn't very good. Cut to a few years later and the AC6 rumors, and I decided that I'd try emulating the old games, see how that felt. Pretty soon, I was hooked, and hooked hard enough to preorder 6. (One of the times I haven't regretted it.) Seriously, the PS1 AC has controls designed by a madman, early 3D graphics, crappy platforming, and a threadbare story, but it's amazing. Weight feels great, kills come quicker, and there's much less cruft to get in the way of the core fantasy. I'd recommend giving some Armored Core a go. You'd probably like at least one of them.
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Dec 22, 2023 10:19
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It rules seeing Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children appear on a bunch of lists, the game is great and I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks so!
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Dec 22, 2023 10:49
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if you’re a fan of good games there really is only one choice for GOTY
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Dec 22, 2023 11:33
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Dec 22, 2023 11:33
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Morphogenic96 posted:6. Jack Jeanne I have been curious about this game since I saw it's number 6 in metacritic for 2023 switch games but I had never seen anyone mention it until now so thank you, now I'm even more intrigued.
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Dec 22, 2023 11:42
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Bugblatter posted:I’m glad that at least one person thinks I’m seriously objecting a breach in the rules. That’ll happen when you say something in a totally straightforward way on the internet, I guess
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Dec 22, 2023 12:35
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other random games i played this year in no particular order Limbus Company this games worldbuilding is really cool and theres some neat ideas in the gameplay but as a gacha game the daily grind got really really boring even by live service game standards and the months between any significant content made me fall off. and then the devs decided to let anti-feminists harass their lead artist for tweeting 'i think sexism is bad' five years ago, and then they got madder at the people who thought that sucked then the incels. so yea rip. shame because a lot of the characters are really cool and distinct. Honkai: Star Rail this games worldbuilding is really cool and theres some neat ideas in the gameplay but as a gacha game the daily grind got pretty boring even by live service game standards and the months between any significant content made me fall off somewhat. but less so than limbus and the devs have yet to bend the knee to 10 guys online with usernames like 'anti-woke admiral yi'. otoh the character designs are less cool. The Idolmaster Shiny Colors: Song for Prism as a big fan of the original shiny colors browser game i was interested in what they could do with a full 3d game. what they did was both casualize the game by making the stories mostly just shorter recaps of the original game's stories and also implement the most bizarre deckbuilder, slay the spire type game ive ever seen, in their idol game. Every unit has their own 'deck' that reflects their characterization and dynamics. for instance theres a unit of a grouchy girl who wants to be a solo act and her two backup dancers and the whole deck is built around discarding the cards of her backup dancers to power up the lead. thats a legitimately cool characterization bit. unfortunately the card game also takes way too long for the kind of game it is, as mentioned the writing isnt very good, and the rhythm game has nothing to do with anything and the 3d models arent that good. i dont know why this exists because it doesnt seem designed to appeal to anyone. Starfield i played like an hour of this and im stunned that this game was allowed to release in this state. watching bethesda yell at people in the steam reviews was more entertaining. Octopath 2 it was okay but idk why this series is allergic to having the party interact in a meaningful way, or if they are allergic why theyre so insistent on having them together the whole game. would work way better if it was just eight disconnected segments like live a live my actual top 10  Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection "Work the good upkeep!" It's a bit overpriced and the first game is a jank fest, but this is a great collection of some great wizardry clones. EO3's class balance is all over the place but the class concepts are really neat, and I think some of the minor balance tweaks they did to EO2 do a lot to make more parties viable. (You can actually use beasts now!) The new portraits are a fun addition, even if they stick out compared to the old ones due to how the artist's style has shifted over time. But you CAN make your beast a gorilla. After worrying that EO was dead, this was a nice surprise. Now port the 3DS games. https://i.imgur.com/kNsalqi.mp4 F-Zero GX "And you might feel like there is nothing left to go for and fight for, but it's the fight that keeps us ready and on guard. F-Zero 99 made me go back and finally 100% this game after 20 years, and it owns. Yeah, story mode is ridiculously unfair, and some of the physics can also be kinda fucky when it comes to falling off the map, but it's still ludicrously fast and feels really good, and every car feels really distinct, even if they have the same stats. Perfecting tracks feels so good in this game, and then there's 30+ other cars to try it with. One I'll definitely be coming back to whenever I want that feeling of speed.  Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless "Prepare for an innocent romance where we start by exchanging letters! After being pretty disappointed with Disgaea 5 and 6, this game was a pretty strong return to form. The cast doesn't reach the highs of 1 (or even 2 and 4), but it's still pretty solid, and they made a lot of tweaks to the gameplay that IMO bring it back in line with the better games in the series. And there's some actually decent jokes this time, too. I'm looking forward to dumping time into the post-game, which is more than I can say for 5 or 6. Happy to see this series getting back on the right track.  The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie "It's incredible how many people have our backs." Yeah, this game is basically just Falcom congratulating themselves on the series. It's got an absurd amount of party members and a pretty disjointed plot, and a weird pseudo-roguelike bonus dungeon they corral you into just so half those characters have an excuse to exist. It doesn't add a ton to the plot or characters besides setting some stuff up for the next arc. But I really like this cast and world, so just getting to revel in the excess of what Falcom's built over the past 20 years or so is fun as hell. It feels like one of those DBZ movies where Piccolo and Vegeta show up for no real reason, only with 40 piccolos and vegetas. That's pretty charming to me.  Fate/Samurai Remnant "Aren't samurai of this era allowed to kill as they please? A pretty jank musou/RPG hybrid that can't really decide how much of either of those it wants to be, with some very light yakuza virtual tourism thrown in. The plot's kind of split across its three routes, but not in a way where it really enhances the plot - mostly, it just introduces a need to replay multiple times. There's features in the game to make that less tedious, and you do get new characters on the routes, but still. However, it's carried hard by the dynamic between the protagonist, Iori, and his partner, Saber. They're consistently funny in how they needle and barb each other. Saber's matter of factness contrasts well with Iori's sullen, snarky personality, and they manage to have a fun back and forth throughout the whole game and the whole route. Sometimes love really is an ancient samurai and his nonbinary, even more ancient samurai buddy.  Heaven for Death "I'll give you half my pay, so just stay with me." This is an hour long RPG maker fangame for Bocchi the Rock, a manga and anime about a high school girl rock band. The anime and manga are really good, and so's this game. It's about half the cast of that series dying and them trying to muddle through processing that, remembering what they were doing when they died, how it impacted both themselves and the ones left behind, etc. It's not exactly a profound statement on life and death - it's just the characters muddling through their own feelings and their feelings on each other. The gameplay is literally just walking around and talking to people, and maybe a singular puzzle, but it's a cool exercise in taking something and morphing it into something else. Even through the kind of jank fan translation, the writer clearly has an eye for casual dialog that hits the right emotional beats.  Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising "What makes the sky blue? Who was the first to ask?" This is a very recent release, and I might be overrating it, but I'm just stunned by how ArcSys and CyGames were able to take the original Granblue Versus, a game I thought was okay, and make it some of the most fun I've had in a fighting game in years. Trimming down the excess mechanics, focusing in on the core combat, making sure every character felt fun and snappy to play, improving the pace of the game - I was pretty mid on Street Fighter 6 and Strive, but this has really opened up my eyes to the possibilities of more 'beginner friendly' fighting games that don't have to sacrifice fun or complexity to get there. This has gotten friends who have never played fighting games seriously to get into it, and they're actually starting to get good. I'm looking forward to the next year with this game. https://i.imgur.com/CeYjjRp.mp4 Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon "What I wouldn't give to fight like this forever." FromSoft did it. They brought back Armored Core with a snappy, fun game that modernizes the series without ruining its core appeal. Fast, aggressive gameplay is rewarded almost to a fault, as a lot of players have trouble grasping at first how hard they're supposed to go (RIP pre-nerf Balteus), but if you push through you're rewarded with a game that plays like a dream and offers endless customization. A bunch of people asked if they'd make it more like Dark Souls, but the truth is Dark Souls was already a lot like Armored Core.  Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone "Everything leads back to vengeance." I finally get to abandon the Blaze Union gimmick because a Union game actually got released. Sure, it's just a rerelease, but still, it's Yggdra Union. It's a weird, kind of jank SRPG that often sacrifices gameplay for story, but the vibes are immaculate and that story's actually really good - it's a story about how Yggdra's justified anger leads to consequences she refuses to fully grapple with, even up to the end. The game doesn't make a point of this, it trusts you to realize things have gotten kind of hosed up. Combine that with some actually pretty funny jokes sprinkled in and a lot of secrets, and you have a game that's a lot of fun to play and replay. It can be kinda easy to screw yourself over, but the PC port made some efforts to alleviate that. And hey, flunky's a permanent character now!  Fire Emblem: Engage "If you live true to yourself, you'll be rewarded." Yeah, Engage is just really good. The plotting has some issues but I love the cast (for the most part), I love the character designs, I love that it actually has color again after Three Houses, and the gameplay and map design are the best the series has had in almost 20 years. The DLC's implementation is a bit rough and there's a few bad maps thrown in there even with how good most of them are, but it really executes on what it wants to be: a celebration of the series, a fun game to play, and an enjoyable thing to spend time with. Rosado's one of the best FE characters ever. After Awakening, Fates, and Three Houses all had their ups and downs with me, it's wonderful to have an FE game I just unequivocally love. It's my favorite game series ever, and it feels like the Engage devs would say the same thing. If you wanna dig into the plot, there is actually some reflection on the history of the franchise, including stuff Nintendo doesn't wanna talk about, like the lawsuit with the original creator - and the ending of the game is a big declarative statement that all the ups and downs are part of what makes Fire Emblem Fire Emblem. Here's to another 30 years. easy list: 10: etrian odyssey origins collection 9: f-zero gx 8: disgaea 7: vows of the virtueless 7: the legend of heroes: trails into reverie 6: fate/samurai remnant 5: heaven for death 4: granblue fantasy versus rising 3: armored core 6: fires of rubicon 2: yggdra union: we'll never fight alone 1: fier emblem engage
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Dec 22, 2023 14:18
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Bugblatter posted:I’m glad that at least one person thinks I’m seriously objecting a breach in the rules. that's what i'm here for. i got you 
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Dec 22, 2023 15:21
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I am one of those people who got into Granblue Fantays Versus Rising just because of how beginner friendly it is (hell Endorph has kicked my rear end in a public lobby before) and I'm glad it's a late addition to someone's list (spoiler alert it's also going to be a late addition to mine).
Ibblebibble fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Dec 22, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2023 15:46
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iTrust posted:It rules seeing Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children appear on a bunch of lists, the game is great and I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks so! I started playing it this year (based on recs here on SA) and am enjoying it so far, so it has a decent chance at my 2024 list! Arist posted:1) Hitman: World of Assassination[/b] I bounced off Agent 47 and Silent Assassin pretty hard, but I really enjoyed Blood Money and this writeup has me thinking that next time I want some Hitman I should perhaps pick up this rather than replaying my favourite BM missions. Metis of the Chat Thread posted:Hello I am Metis of the Chat Thread, as I have always been known, and this is my GOTY list. quote:NUMBER SIX - THE BEST SUMMER VIBES GAME - BLUE REFLECTION SECOND LIGHT
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Dec 22, 2023 15:50
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Arist posted:Finally finished writing my list Nice work buddy. Really enjoyed reading your list
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Dec 22, 2023 19:58
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ToxicFrog posted:I bounced off Agent 47 and Silent Assassin pretty hard, but I really enjoyed Blood Money and this writeup has me thinking that next time I want some Hitman I should perhaps pick up this rather than replaying my favourite BM missions. So, the first two games in the original series, the ones you mention here, are very different structurally to modern Hitman. They're very basic and strict, some levels not even having proper targets and the "rules" of interactions not really clear a lot of the time. Blood Money is the game where you find Hitman stretching its wings and developing into its current form, so if you gravitated towards BM's more open approach, World of Assassination takes that idea and runs with it. WoA is incredibly open and there's several scripted (and countless unscripted) ways to approach each target whereas BM generally only had like, one scripted kill each. Also, good news! It's less racist, sexist, and overall misanthropic than Blood Money! Anyway, can't speak highly enough of WoA. Definitely give it a try.
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Dec 22, 2023 20:38
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I usually don't post too much, but I loved so many games this year I felt I should toss my $0.02 in. 1) Baldur's Gate 3 I'm a huge BG 1 & 2 fan, so when Larian was announcing and doing BG3 I choked. BG isn't D:OS or even remotely like that. Well color me shocked and pleasantly surprised. Not only one of the best RPGs ever made, but with so much care and detail that it still blows me away. 2) Armored Core 6 I'm a big FROMSoft fan, I loved Dark Souls 1/2/3 and Elden Ring was pretty good. This just again surprised me, fast paced combat like Bloodborne (so I hear, never played since no PC port). I played through all three times to get al the endings and with a different loadout each time. I loved how customizable this was, and how all the parts actually had a good place to fit into a build. Even some of the weapons you start with early in the game stay good. 3) Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty I didn't play this when it first came out a few years ago, bugs and such kept me away. Hearing all the rave reviews about the fixes and new content, not to mention Idris! I'm so glad I jumped in, still chewing through all of Night City and I'll be coming back for more playthroughs in the future. Amazing turnaround CDPR. 4) Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader I'm a Warhammer sucker. I bought Fire Warrior, Epic 40K, both new and old Chaos Gate. Games Workshop has a rube in me and it's been proven over and over again. Every once in a while though a good Warhammer game comes out, and this has got to be one of the best so far. I loved both Pathfinder games so I figured this would be good, but this is amazing. So many playthroughs coming to this one, I can't wait to dig into all the good min-maxing you can do, and what's awesome is unlike Pathfinder, you don't need to. 5) Age of Wonders 4 I have loved this series forever, but part 3 was a real bummer. Slimmed down mechanics, buggy and just lacking in variety. So now that they turned about with Planetfall, the return to Fantasy gave me high hopes. While not as diverse as parts 1 and 2, the combat and magic system are just great. The constant patching and upgraded battle/campaign AI make this 4x game just better and better. Plus, the developer keeps the update training rolling with big patches between DLC. Honestly, the patches do more for the game than the DLC does. Wyrmthang fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Dec 22, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2023 21:19
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If the thing I love about the souls series is exploration, does Armored Core also have that? It feel the game is more focused on combat which is why I haven’t picked it up yet.
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Dec 22, 2023 21:26
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theblackw0lf posted:If the thing I love about the souls series is exploration, does Armored Core also have that? It feel the game is more focused on combat which is why I haven’t picked it up yet. it’s a ranked mission-based game, totally different dna than souls. architecture is top notch if you like gargantuan steel superstructures but you won’t be exploring much of it
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Dec 22, 2023 21:39
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Wyrmthang posted:I usually don't post too much, but I loved so many games this year I felt I should toss my $0.02 in. FYI you gotta rank at least 5 games for your votes to be counted!!
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Dec 22, 2023 21:54
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theblackw0lf posted:If the thing I love about the souls series is exploration, does Armored Core also have that? It feel the game is more focused on combat which is why I haven’t picked it up yet. Not really. You pick a mission from a menu and get dropped into a large arena bounded by arbitrary walls. There is generally only one obvious path to follow and finding it isn't hard. Most missions have a single collectible, some have a treasure chest with a robot part in it, and occasionally there's a group of enemies you wouldn't find if you beelined for the objective, but in general taking your time and poking into every corner is intentionally not very rewarding
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Dec 22, 2023 22:19
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Alxprit posted:3) Transistor I love Transistor so much. probably my favourite game from them. glad to see it on a list in 2023 Saint Freak posted:3. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles I was replaying some cases for trophies and my wife happened to see the scene in the second case of game 1 where he's just hanging on the coat rack on the wall to see if it could hold a tiara and she couldn't stop laughing for like five minutes lol morallyobjected fucked around with this message at 23:05 on Dec 22, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2023 22:20
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Armored Core is made by Fromsoft but it is in fact not a souls series
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Dec 22, 2023 22:37
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Kerrzhe posted:Armored Core is made by Fromsoft but it is in fact not a souls series A) Has Patches B) Has the Moonlight Sword C) You'll Die A Lot D) Depressing worldsetting where humanity is on its last legs. Obviously it is a Souls game. No, I don't care that Armored Core predated Souls. It is all Souls. Ninja Blade is Souls. Metal Wolf Chaos is Souls. Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airou Village? You better believe that's a Souls.
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Dec 22, 2023 22:43
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ToxicFrog posted:Yesss, I liked Strange Horticulture and I loved Heaven't Vault (I go back and forth on whether HV or Outer Wilds is my game of 2021) and it's good to see it still getting some recognition. I ended up picking up the books based on how much I liked the game and enjoyed those, too. And based on your other recs I now have a bunch of other puzzle games to play... There are books!? Off to find those right now!
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Dec 22, 2023 22:53
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ImpAtom posted:A) Has Patches Yet sekiro is not a souls game
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Dec 22, 2023 23:09
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ImpAtom posted:A) Has Patches Counterargument: Metal Wolf Chaos doesn't have the fourth of those, and the reason is, because Michael Wilson is the President of these great United States of America
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Dec 22, 2023 23:45
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| # ? May 23, 2024 05:36 |
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I feel a post coming on...
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Dec 22, 2023 23:46
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