fridge corn posted:

Hmm kinda wish I played Forspoken this year

exquisite tea posted:

Whenever BG3 decides to autosave that usually means you're about to get owned.

Lisztless posted:

4. Valkyrie Profile


1. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon

Rarity posted:

Reading through the thread now. We wouldn't have so many blasphemers making ascending lists if we were still under the Rarity Regime

fridge corn posted:

2. Valkyrie Profile – 1999, tri-Ace. Composer: Matoi Sakuraba ♫https://youtu.be/cnDDTg_xqhs?si=H3TLLIdV8owzOQVT ♫
Time played: 40 hours
Completed: yes



There isn’t anything quite like Valkyrie Profile, at least not that I’ve come across. It combines a rich narrative with a peculiar cross section of game mechanics that include a tactical battle system, 2d platforming, and menu futzing with character skill points and item crafting. Fans of the Star Ocean games will recognise tri-Ace’s predilection for a deep yet somewhat clumsily organised skill and crafting system making an appearance here. The battle system is fast paced and feels great in the hands with beautifully animated spritework, coming complete with battle barks that are a pure distillation of the 90’s VA scene, while the appreciation of which is entirely subjective it lends itself to the game perfectly. The 2d platforming is not the best, but something that adds a quintessentially “gamey” gamefeel. Sakuraba’s soundtrack here is the peak of this era of his career and the driving synths and beats would feel just at home pumping out into the arcades as it is into your living room. What I’m trying to say is that Valkyrie Profile is unapologetically a video game. It is not meant to be a subversive deconstruction of what a video game is or can be. It is just a video game meant to be played and enjoyed. And yet…

It is absolutely oozing with vibes, and the way it chiefly communicates its vibe is through its narrative, though not through the text alone, but with its structure and presentation. Valkyrie Profile does not have a straightforward narrative. Yes, the plot is simple: you are Lenneth, a Valkyrie tasked with sending einherjar to Asgard to fight for the Æsir during Ragnarok. But that is not what Valkyrie Profile is about. For each einherjar you recruit to the cause you bear witness to the final moments of their mortal lives, emotionally charged scenes of regret, desire, longing, bitterness, and death. This sets the tone of the entire game. As Lenneth comes to witnesses these scenes time and time again her business-like detachment from the anguish of the recently deceased begins to falter and a meta-narrative begins to form. Valkyrie Profile is about searching for meaning in a world which has none. Rich with allusion and symbolism Valkyrie Profile is perhaps the most Literary video game I’ve ever played. It is a discussion of themes and concepts in a broad frame work that presents questions and challenges to the viewer. When trying to draw comparisons to Valkyrie Profile’s narrative what comes to mind are things like George Saunder’s Lincoln in the Bardo – in other words, literature, not other video games.

And yet again… This is a video game! Some players may not even come across some of the game’s most pivotal scenes, especially not on a first playthrough or without using a guide. The true and complete nature of Valkyrie Profile only reveals itself after spending a significant amount of time with it and steeping yourself in its systems and mechanics. This is a game that wants you to play it like a video game. It doesn’t care about making sure you witness all the content it has to offer, this isn’t a curated guided tour of set pieces and plot points. It’s not a video game attempting to use the medium to ape the experience of other art forms like some games’ attempts at emulating film or prestige TV. It’s not even attempting to emulate literature despite how literary it is, it just the closest approximation I have to describe what its doing. Valkyrie Profile is the most artfully constructed video game I have ever played. A true representation of video games as art that will forever rank as one of the greatest of all time.



1. Octopath Traveler II – 2023, Square Enix/Acquire. Composer: Yasunori Nishiki ♫https://youtu.be/cuVV-_-HKzM?si=EpcIX5NDZhCZk5bA ♫
Time played: 120 hours
Completed: platinum



And here we are. Presenting the fridge corn Year of RPGs from Japan number 1 RPG from Japan: Octopath Traveler II. This is a game that has it all – a complete package. Everything this game had to offer was on point. The visuals, the gameplay, the narrative, the music (especially the music) was spot on. 10 out of 10s across the board. The thing that struck me the most while playing Octopath Traveler II (having never played the first one, mind) was how much it felt like playing a Final Fantasy game, and by that I mean the sheer level of care and quality that went into the game’s design. Final Fantasy 6 blew me away with its presentation in 1994. Octopath Traveler II did the same in 2023. Octopath Traveler II is obviously an homage to the 16-bit era games, which is what the whole design philosophy behind HD-2D is all about, of course. But it nails that homage so well that you could almost mistake it for the real thing. An alternate timeline where Square waited a bit before committing the series fully to 3D graphics. Final Fantasy 6.5 as it were.

Can you imagine what it would have been like playing Final Fantasy 6 with excellently directed voicework? Play Octopath Traveler II and you’ll get at least an idea. I love the voicework in this game. I started off playing it in Japanese but I switched to English early on just for a quick listen but I never switched back. The VAs do a tremendous job bringing these characters to life. Can you imagine Partitio without his infectious twang? Agnea without her unabashed drawl? Temenos without the sassiness of his dry wit? How about Castti without hearing her soothing and practised bedside manner slip into something a little more comfortable (THESE HANDS )? The combat barks are also second to none and quite intricate. Characters will compliment each other by name when someone lands a breaking blow. There are unique spell incantations for every character in every class. Such a little touch but adds so much to the characters and combat.

Speaking of combat, Octopath Traveler II boasts one of the punchiest turn-based battle systems I’ve had the chance to play. On PS5, the game makes good use of the DualSense haptics to give a real tactile feel to what is essentially just scrolling through menus – a subtle but welcome addition. Turn order manipulation is a thing here, as well as the weakness-based break system, giving combat a tactical bent. With a plethora of skills, spells, classes, and weapon loadouts, there is a lot of playing around that can be done, although the class system is perhaps not as in-depth at FF5’s is. All in all the combat is a lot of fun, and with the freeform manner of the scenario selection the difficulty can be pretty much adjusted to taste. The massive boss sprites are pure delight.

But what I really want to talk about and what really stood out to me almost immediately as I booted up the game; the thing that communicates the vibe of Octopath Traveler II most vibrantly: the soundtrack. Yasunori Nishiki’s chops are on full display here and his score for this game is a perfect showcase for why he just may be the biggest up and coming talent in the industry at the moment. Nishiki’s soundtrack borrows from a wide variety of styles and influences to give character to not only each of the main cast with their own leitmotifs but also each and every location that the party visit – bustling cities, snow-capped peaks, dusty backwaters are all bursting with aural character. Some of the influences are typical of video game sountracks – celtic, country, jazz, etc., others are a bit more on the nose such as Temenos’ continually modulating detective noir theme, or Osvald’s theme which I swear is more than just a wink and a nod to Ramin Djawadi. But while any distinctive style from Nishiki is hard to pin down, his mastery of composition, orchestration, and instrumentation is clearly and immediately evident. I mean who on this godforsaken earth couldn’t listen to this all goddamn day? I expect to hear a lot more great work from Yasunori Nishiki in the future. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if he ends up scoring a mainline Final Fantasy title one day. Easily the best soundtrack all year and by default that makes Octopath Traveler II the best game I played all year.

fridge corn posted:

The hardest thing was deciding where to place those two

TimberJoe posted:

#1 – Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

I hated Sekiro. Hated it. Stupid game. Unfair.




Skill issue.

But for some reason I persevered. Continued smashing my head against the combat system. And dear reader, the strangest thing happened: I got it.



Not only did I get it, but I got it to the extent that I no longer had to think about what I was doing but I could actually see the game as was in front of me. It’s good. It’s the rare sort of good that when you go back to something else, it feels like a step down.



First run? Probably 40 hours, can’t remember how long but it took forever. Second run? Sub 10. By the third and fourth runs I was one with the game. I felt like Jack Torrence and The Overlook Hotel, we were simpatico.





Just some good lads messaging each other about video games.

It’s not like other From Software titles, it’s not really like most other action games really. It’s not for everyone. But if you have made it this far into this post and you’re struggling with Sekiro, thinking you’re going to drop it, I promise you if you stick with it it’s worth it. It has given me a satisfaction like few, and I mean very few, games I can think of. It’s downright bizarre, one moment it feels like you’re trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with your feet against the clock while a howler monkey yells at you and the next it is so zen it’s practically relaxing. The jump from “I will never beat Owl” to “Huh, I just no hit Owl” is the blink of an eye it seems. And when you get in that flow, oh my loving god. You’re a combination of Jonah Lomu, Didier Drogba and Randy Moss just running through motherfuckers. You’re Adrian Peterson and Barry Sanders. You’re 90s Michael Jordan. You’re 80s Mike Tyson. You’re King Kong with a 20 tonne nutsack. I could probably go through Genichiro now by sound alone, clang clang clang (delay) clang clang clang check and jump, mikiri or parry. Beating Owl (Father)? God it’s good. Shadows may die twice but Sekiro won’t do, what a loving game.

Ibblebibble posted:

https://i.imgur.com/cH8hLIA.mp4

https://i.imgur.com/wJituuB.mp4

Sally posted:

this is a good'un. probably my fav of the whole series. it has a great arcadey shooter feel to it that the other games fail to eger replicate. the weapon wheel, the speed Hale moves around, the semiregenrating health, the weird weapons themselves... even the goofy one-off stuff like driving around the jeep and taking sick jumps... it all rules.

not perfect. game takes a bit to get going. the first four missions feel like one long prologue and ehile relatively short feel interminably long. once you are through though the game really opens up.

also for the first PS3 FPS I played i was absolutely blown away by the fact that you could shoot out pieces of a glass pane rather than have the whole thing instantly shatter. next level graphics lol.

you play a New Game+ campaign? it adds a bunch of new weapons for subsequent playthroughs. also coop is a blast if you can find someone for it.






dont get me wrong... R2 and R3 are good in their own ways but just different enough from R1that i was disappointed

fridge corn posted:

Well veeg did play mostly Nintendo games this year.

susan b buffering posted:

8. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
This was the first or second game I beat this year, and I had a blast the whole way through. The asteroid mission in particular is one that will stick with me, much like Titanfall 2's time travel mission. I do feel it could have used another mission or two, but that's a minor sin all things considered.

Sakurazuka posted:

I'll take the double female and 3-way

Owl Inspector posted:

8. Hunt Showdown. It is the third year this game has been on my top 10. Since I dared to try it three years ago I still haven't touched a single other competitive game, because after 2000 matches and counting, I've still never had the same fight twice. Some days Hunt is thrilling and incredibly satisfying, some days Hunt is pure psychological torment and misery, but no matter what, Hunt is never boring. The possibility space in Hunt is so big that the game is very resilient to being "solved" and reduced to a repetitive meta. There is no playbook to follow and no single right way to play, which makes it so refreshing to play with teammates who think of different things than you and clutch matches in ways you wouldn't have tried. Every fight is a unique and original challenge, because there are so many random variables and weird things enemy players could try to do that it makes them unpredictable to a degree I haven't seen in any other game. The result is that the matches are so memorable and distinctive that I still think about moments from 500 hours ago. It's also introduced me to some of the genuinely coolest folks I've played any game with through the Awful discord.

I really think this is one of the most remarkable games around today, as countless safer and more conventional multiplayer games have died and vanished in their first year, but somehow this unorthodox niche game for insane people is still going strong in its sixth year and even setting new playercount records. The devs continue to support it with a lot of content and I'm glad Hunt is going to be with us for awhile yet.

fridge corn posted:

Fucken hell BP I'm literally crying. What a post

Party Boat posted:

3. Dark Souls

Almost exactly a year ago I booted this game up on my Steam Deck for the first time. I'd had the trilogy for years thanks to various bundles but the reputation of the series as a punishing grind had put me off.

I'm not sure what made me try Dark Souls but I'm so glad that I did. I have Terminal Metroid Brain so the moment that I took the elevator down from the Undead Parish and found that it deposited me back at Firelink Shrine I was completely sold on the game's design.

The thing I hadn't realised before I played Dark Souls was how funny it was. Yes, it's full of weird lil guys, but almost every doorway is a practical joke where the punchline is “four skeletons stab you”. Getting killed by a trap or mimic inevitably just made me laugh at my own carelessness rather than get frustrated. My favourite comedy moment was climbing to the top of Sen's Fortress, dodging (and being flattened by) endless rolling boulders and finding that the mechanism was driven by… a giant with a huge pile of boulders.

This was my first experience with Souls bosses and while I definitely tilted a couple of times on the more challenging ones that just made them all the more satisfying to take down. Fighting Artorias and learning his moves was the highlight of my time with Dark Souls, and it seems like Fromsoft agreed as bosses that reference Artorias turn up throughout subsequent games.

As I said at the outset Dark Souls has a daunting reputation and it's not completely exaggerated - I saw the words YOU DIED many, many times this year. But this game kickstarted me, someone who's officially Bad At Video Games, to become a Souls guy.

2. Dark Souls III

At first blush DS3 seems like a slightly desperate attempt to reassure anyone put off by Dark Souls 2. “It's okay, it's like the one you enjoy! Look, Andre’s here! Please don't review bomb us!” I was initially pretty put off by this, but was soon won over by just how good it was to play. DS3 is fast, responsive and brutal. It's filled with references to the previous games but these callbacks feel earned instead of cheap, especially in the Ringed City DLC which acts as a conclusion for the whole series (and contains some of its best battles).

I enjoyed playing this game so much that when my almost-finished save game was lost (victim of a lack of cloud saves) I was excited to play through it all again and complete the sidequests I'd missed the first time. When I finally put Dark Souls 3 down I was satisfied that my Souls journey was over and that it was the best game I'd played that year. Until I played…

1. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Remember how I said learning Artorias’s moves, figuring out his openings and turning the tide on a battle that initially seemed impossible was my favourite part of Dark Souls? Sekiro gave me a game full of bosses like that. Removing the options for different builds means you can't just out level or otherwise cheese most bosses: you have to learn them.

Every boss that took me multiple attempts went through the same process: I began overwhelmed, began to recognise moves that I had good counters to, put together more and more of the boss’s moves and finally emerged victorious. The handful of bosses that are reused or remixed at points throughout the game could be criticised for being uncreative, but I always enjoyed the opportunity to see how my skills had improved. Genichiro is the best example of this: he made short work of me at the start of the game, the rematch partway through was a tough fight that I eventually overcame, but when he turns up ahead of the final boss he's little more than a warmup act for the main event.

And what a main event. Sekiro’s final boss, like so many others, had me playing until late at night. I gave up, went to bed, and then took him apart with my morning coffee. In that moment there was no question - this was my game of the year.

(And don't worry, I've started playing Elden Ring and 2024 will have to be an amazing year for it to not feature on my list.)

bone emulator posted:

I can't believe there is another Infinite Warfare defender out there, other than me.

bone emulator posted:

07. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty + Cyberpunk 2077



That's right! It's the best update or DLC of the year! That poster who put Cyberpunk as their game of the year before playing it all those years ago is finally vindicated.

Kull the Conqueror posted:

Escobarbarian posted:

Tempura Wizard posted:

2023 – The Year of the (Arcade) Rat

The year was 2010 and I was dissatisfied with life. Failing to get into a program a desperately desired to be a part of, I moved back home to while away a few years working on a postgraduate degree.  I had a stipend, so at least I wasn’t burning money, but I certainly wasn’t making much either. Suspended animation.  Purgatory.

While my studies were going well enough, I had begun to lost interest in the things I once loved, primary among them, games.  I had been an avid collector of Famicom games in college, building up a large library and diving deep into the history of games that came before I was born and left their mark on the games I grew up with.  However, stuck where I was, it all felt so trivial.  What was the point of games?  What was the point of anything, really?  I had fallen into a deep nihilistic funk.  I sold the lion’s share of my collection.  I got into some bad habits that I took a long time to recover from.

Eventually enough, I pulled myself out of it, thanks to a few life-changing books, some good friends, and a place that opened in my hometown within a year.  An arcade.  Not just any arcade, but one run by a maniac with a passion for the medium and an eye for quality. One focusing on Japanese sit-down style candy cabinets (loaded with hard-as-nails shoot em’ ups and fighting games) classics from the golden age of the early 80s, and pinball machines from their respective renaissance in the 90s.  There was no other place like it in the entire region, and here it was opening in my backyard.


Closer to its current form, but very much familiar

I hit it off with the owner and soon was part of the circle, stopping by just as much to shoot the breeze and hang out with him and the regulars as much as playing the games.  And what games there were: the owner had an extensive collection of arcade PCBs and was constantly rotating what was in the cabinets on a monthly basis.  I got a crash course in arcade history, interactive style.  There were tournaments and parties, but on any given weekend it felt like a party even if there wasn’t any official one.  It was a truly special time and place, and I feel extremely lucky to have been able to live it, to become, against all odds, a bit of an arcade rat in the 2010s.

It meant a lot to me to have this very special third place – a place where I could leave my troubles behind without resorting to substance use, a place where I could learn fascinating new things about a part of the hobby I had never really known or cared about before.  I tried all the games and would dabble for hours but I wouldn’t say I ever really excelled any of them at all.  For whatever reason at the time I didn’t have the focus for the shmups or the dedication to improve at fighting games.  I was there for the vibes.  And for the puzzle games.


The greatest achievement of these years was not my degree, but winning back-to-back high score contests on Vs. Dr. Mario

Eventually, as things do, things changed.  I had to move away for love and work, and the arcade moved to another location.  It’s still plugging along but has to put up with competition from a barcade downtown and a big multinational chain at the mall.  I’m sure it still holds magic for some, but the magic is different.  I haven’t been back to my hometown in nearly a decade.  May it stay there for many years to come, and be something special to someone else the way it was to me.

Yet here, hundreds of miles and a dozen years removed from that, I had my own little arcade revival, in a year packed with banner release after banner release.  Thanks to modern rereleases I could play those games that saved me, and those I wanted to give my undivided attention to but had to let pass by.

A big part of this is because I’m part of a family now and getting older, and that means less personal time to sit down for a 100+ hour AAA game.  Staying up all hours of the night becomes a more dangerous prospect, both for my personal life and for my health.  Arcade games are immediate because of the intended setting.  You get right into the action to set players up for the failure state, in order to boost revenue.  

veni veni veni posted:

xoFcitcrA posted:

snoremac posted:

1. Inscryption
I only wanted to make this post after playing this. Was hungover and bored the other day. I hated Pony Island, which was also lauded, but I gave this a shot. I've flown through the whole thing in three days and was sad to see it finish. The base card game is extremely fun. I had no inkling of anything that was to come and don't want to hint at it to anyone who hasn't played, but I recommend you get this while the sales are on and jump in blind. A perfect game.

Party Boat posted:

I'm 20 hours into elden ring and while it's very very good and will almost certainly be on my 2024 list, if I had to make room for it on this year's list based on what I've played so far it would bump DS3 to 3rd place with Sekiro remaining as champion

VideoGames posted:

The sheer amount of gaming ambrosia I have absorbed these last 36 months are making me powerful beyond belief, however, and I will consume the world.

VideoGames posted:

BP I loved your post so much and read your #1 aloud to LVG and she thought it was wonderful. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself in this one.

AceOfFlames posted:

Time flies and I have a NYE dinner to get to so hopefully I can sneak this in. Alas, I didn't have time to do a wrap up for each of them:

10: EA WRC
9: Terra Nil
8. Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp
7. Street Fighter 6
6. Mortal Kombat 1
5. Gravity Circuit
4. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
3. Cocoon
2. Lies of P
1. Baldur's Gate 3

Happy New Year!

Geo Fixer posted:

Getting a quick list in before the year ends.
12.Jackbox Party Pack 10
11.We Love Katamari + Royal Reverie
10. Helldivers
9. Cadence of Hyrule
8. Suika Game
7. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
6. Super Mario Wonder
5. Super Mario RPG
4. PIZZATOWER
3. Advance Wars: Rebootcamp
2. Deep Rock Galactic (ROCK AND STONE TO THE BONE!!!)
1. Pikmin 4