[Awards] Game of the Year 2018
Hey there, and welcome to my 2018 game of the year post! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
Gonna be honest, I've been going through some shit recently and I don't really feel like doing much of this. I feel like I'd much rather be doing something else instead of writing this because I really lack the motivation... however, I'm going to try and not totally half ass this, but it's gonna be a lot lazier than last time.
But! I am gonna try to do this, and then later when I've finished up this anime season I'll make an anime of the year post too.
Fun Fact: While writing this, I got the flu or something, puked a bunch and then slept for like 12 hours, missing like a day and a half. That's part of why this is so late.
Before we begin, I have two things to go over! A. Games I played this year that weren't released this year, and B. Games that were released this year that I wanted to play but didn't.
To start, we'll do games I played that weren't from this year. Luckily for me, I don't remember most of them.
Right now I'm playing The Legend of Dragoon and well it's not bad but it's not that good either. I think I'm going to stick with it because I really like PS1 JRPGs, especially 3D characters, 2D prerendered backgrounds PS1 JRPGs.
Another PS1 JRPG I tried to play was Suikoden II, but then I fucked up and had to reformat my PS3's HDD, and lost my save for that and every other game, including Atelier Rorona, which I had also played like half of this year.
I'm also currently replaying Resident Evil 2 in preparation for the REmake.
Earlier in the year, I played through The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the first time, and really enjoyed it! I think I did everything aside fully upgraded my bomb and arrow count.
I can't remember anymore but if I do I'll add some!
So now we do
Games I wanted to play, but didn't:
I'll also explain why I didn't. These are in order that I added them to my list from looking at wikipedia.
Lost Sphear
Reason I wanted to play: It seems a lot more interesting than this studio's last attempt, I am Setsuna, with more interesting battle mechanics and a story that isn't just FFX but everything is cold.
Reason I didn't: It's like 50 bucks??? Why would I pay more than 20 dollars for this DS game lookin low budget JRPG, the fuck?
Misc: The fuck is a "sphear"?
Shadow of the Colossus:
Reason I wanted to play: I like this game and this graphical remake looks better.
Reason I didn't: I actually replayed SotC pretty recently like late last year, so I thought I'd wait til I wanted tot play it again.
Misc: Ico kinda sucks
Secret of Mana:
Reason I wanted to play: I never played the original and I thought it would be cool to experience this story with a non-garbage translation and also these new cute graphics.
Reason I didn't: I had a lot of other games to play and I didn't wanna play it that much.
Misc: I'm really happy to have this physical copy.
Yume Nikki: Dream Diary:
Reason why I wanted to play: I love the original Yume Nikki. It's not much of a game, but it is absolutely wonderful and fuck you if you disagree.
Reason I didn't: It costs too much and it seems like they really turned it into a generic 3D indie game, and completely missed the point of Yume Nikki. I heard a recent patch changed a lot of it and made it more in-line with the real game, but still 20 dollars?
Misc: Also I didn't hear about it until well after it came out so there was no time anyway oops.
Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Battle:
Reason I wanted to play: I love GaruPan.
Reason I didn't: I would have had to import it through PlayAsia and I didn't have the cash to do that.
Misc: Someday I will play as the moes fighting in the tankeys.
Attack on Titan 2:
Reason I wanted to play: I like AoT
Reason I didn't: Money and time.
Misc: EREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN
Shining Resonance Refrain:
Reason I wanted to play: I like JRPGs and wanna get into the Shining series.
Reason I didn't: I don't like Tony Taka and I'm not into the Shining series.
Misc: Tony Taka is a terrible artist.
God of War:
Reason I wanted to play: I really like Norse mythology.
Reason I didn't: I wasn't that interested in playing it.
Misc: Also it seems like a lot of it is "sony movie game"
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon:
Reason I wanted to play: This looks fucking cool.
Reason I didn't: Didn't get around to it.
Misc: Inticreates is really great, isn't it?
Persona 5 Dancing Star Night:
Reason I wanted to play: I love Persona 5
Reason I didn't: It came out this month and I already spent my game budget on Spyro.
Misc: The opening song is equal parts great and retarded.
Detroit: Become Human:
Reason I wanted to play: I really don't know, this game seems to terrible and stupid.
Reason I didn't: It costs too much, it's like 30 bucks used still.
Misc: Why is Kara's story so fucking pointless? It has nothing to do with the plot at all.
Sonic Mania Plus:
Reason I wanted to play: Sonic Mania seems good.
Reason I didn't: I'm not that into sanic, especially old sanic, and also it costs money.
Misc: If someone tries to touch you, and you're not okay with it, that's NO GOOD.
428: Shibuya Scramble:
Reasons I wanted to play: It's a fucking chunsoft sound novel and parts of it have FMV!
Reason I didn't: Money, again. Came out at a bad time.
Misc: I'm so glad we finally got this game though.
Megaman 11:
Reason I wanted to play: It looks cool.
Reason I didn't: Money.
Misc: When is Wily gonna give up? When?
Castlevania Requiem:
Reason I wanted to play: I love Castlevania.
Reason I didn't: Not enough cash, Stranger.
Misc: It's got two whole games!
My Hero One's Justice:
Reason I wanted to play: I love the anime!
Reason I didn't: It seems like a generic arena fighter!
Misc: This name is retarded! Why couldn't they use the real one!
Gal Metal:
Reason I wanted to play: It looks cute! Cute!!
Reason I didn't: It's on the switch.
Misc: The SWITCH.
Call of Cthulhu:
Reason I wanted to play: I love me some cosmic horror, especially in my video games.
Reason I didn't: Money, again.
Misc: I should play the old Cthulhu game
The Quiet Man:
Reason I wanted to play: Have you fucking seen this game? It's so terrible, I have to play it.
Reason I didn't: It's so terrible I don't want anyone to be paid for this.
Misc: I HEAR YOU WITH MY BLOOD.
Just Cause 4:
Reason I wanted to play: I love Just Cause 3.
Reason I didn't: I bought spyro this month...
Misc: This game looks so cool.
Earth Defense Force 5:
Why I wanted to play: I wanna play all the EDF games.
Why I didn't: I haven't played any of the others and also didn't know this came out.
Misc: I also really liked Starship Troopers.
Now, on to games I actually did play. I actually only played like 12 games that came out this year, so much like last time I'm going to make sure to talk about each one, and give each a category.
Game I Most Don't Know How I Feel About It:
Detalrune - Chapter 1
What even really is this game? Is it a demo? Is it really just chapter 1? Is it a sequel to Undertale, is it not? Does it take place after any of the endings of Undertale? Is it actually related at all? If not, why? Why does it have so many of the same characters? Why does it share so many things? Is it just to pander to fans? I hope not. Or is it meant as some kind of meta trope manipulation like so much of Undertale is? Is the full game just going to actually be a fan pandery sequel? More importantly, do I even like this game?
I honestly don't know. I don't hate it, but I don't really like it either. Well, no, there's a lot I do like about it, but there's an equal amount I don't. For one, I feel like the dumb humor-not dumb humor ration is way more skewed toward dumb humor. I mean maybe it's just cuz it's the earliest parts of the game/the demo, since The Ruins were probably the roughest part with the worst jokes in that regard. And really, if all the jokes were good I wouldn't mind it either, but a lot of the jokes range from unfunny-just not funny. The ones that do land, land pretty hard, but most of them don't stick.
The battle system is so much better and more improved, I really like it a lot and I love all the battle animations and such. It's definitely what you want from a sequel to Undertale. But then there's the problem of the combat mechanics being, well, totally pointless. Sure, sometimes it helps to use the various ACTs and combo moves on enemies, so you can get done with the battle faster/taking less damage, but really most of the time you can get through battles by just attacking.
"But electric barrier" you say, "isn't that true of Undertale as well? I'm confused!". You would be right, of course, but in Undertale if you just attack you will kill your opponent, and eventually become a relentless murdering psychopath destined to destroy the world if you do that enough.
In Deltarune the enemy just runs away so there's no reason to hold back. You can just attack. Why use these cool new Chrono Trigger-esque team up moves to help pacify the enemy when I can just attack them til they run away? Doing so changes nothing, NPCs don't even treat you differently and Toby Fox has confirmed there will be only one ending in the full game. So why bother?
The story is definitely interesting but as I've said there are some problems with it, and some problems that seem like there will be. Moreover, I dunno how I feel about the characters. Ralsei is pretty good, and I think Kris could become a silent protagonist with actual character, but maybe not and also he might be evil??? And Susie could potentially be a good character but so far she really isn't. There are good moments with her but I'm just not sure about the execution. Also, she looks like a boy. And not in a cute way.
I've talked to much about this, maybe I'll go more in depth with a review some time, but for now I just don't know how I feel about this game. I will say, a lot of the music is great.
I do recommend playing it if you like Undertale, you can download it for free here.
Biggest Waste of Money:
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT
Dissidia Final Fantasy, and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, were two fighting game-esque, story based Final Fantasy crossover games for the PSP, with a convoluted and winding time-loop and secret experiments filled narrative that would make Lost shrink away in shame. It had a great single player story, which retells and expands upon the stories of every main protagonist and antagonist of every FF game, weaving them into the overall story about all the characters and why they are here. As it was on the PSP, obviously online multiplayer wasn't really the focus although it could be done.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is an online PVP based fighting game that locks you out of progressing through the story mode unless you grind online matches with random strangers. I think maybe you can get the points or levels or whatever is needed from playing with friends which is fine but still.
Does nobody think that's weird? Does nobody see a problem here? Was I the only one who noticed Dissidia had a story that was really interesting at least? And even then who cares if it didn't, what if I'm not feeling like doing multiplayer matches and just wanna do the story mode? If I don't have enough points then I can't do it. I have no problem with needing to git gud and actually win in order to unlock more of the story, my problem is that you are forced to play modes you don't want to play in order to play modes you do.
Well no, you know what, you don't. Cuz the primary demographic for this game was clearly not people who thought the crazy plot of Dissidia was cool and wanted to see more crossover story stuff, it's people who just like fighting games and competing with other people in fighting games. It's for the Fighting Game Community, which I am severely not a part of. I actually really hate the FGC and think they are a bunch of autistic faggots, with some of the gayest terminology, who have the most boring way of playing video games. Eelzap if you're reading this I'm sorry but it's true.
But even if those things weren't the case, this game is clearly not for me. And it's very stupid to lock the story mode behind these walls. Abilities, characters, specific routes or parts of the story maybe, but I started only being able to watch the into cutscene.
This also raises the problem that once people move on from this game, as competitive online game players always do because they don't really like games, they just like competing in games, you will not be able to play any mode aside VS CPU. Truly this is a good decision, truly this is just "people really caring about the story in a fighting game, huh?". Eelzap again if you're reading this I'm sorry but that was one of the stupidest things you've ever said.
The worst part is: the story mode isn't even very good it seems, so there was really no point for me to play this.
Most Disappointing Game:
Yakuza 6 ~The Song of Life~
More like... Yakuza DAD the song of DADS.
My good friend over at 24 Frames Per Second already did a review of this, so mostly just read that. To sum up though, Yakuza 6 is a pretty good step up in terms of the game itself. Gameplay, controls, mechanics, the world, everything on a technical level is vastly improved not only from the turd that was Kiwami but from Yakuza 5 as well.
What wasn't improved was the story and also I feel like the amount of things to do... The central theme is delivered so unsubtly that David Cage would feel it was heavy handed. The theme is father and son relationships, could you tell? Because literally every character with a line is a dad, a son, or a daughter. All stories, substories and main story alike, are, usually overtly too, about parent child relationships. Doing a substory? HELP, MY SON HATES ME oh wait no he doesn't thank you kiryu. Do another one? I HATE MY DAD HE SUCKS oh okay I understand now why he can't always be around thank you kiryu. Another? MY DAD BETRAYED ME oh wait no he didn't he actually did this thing for my sake now I know thank you kiryu! And so on and so forth.
No one is properly developed, the twists aren't very good, the last few hours of the story are all total bullshit, you spend two chapters where dialogue is basically THE SECRET OF ONOMICHI MUST NOT BE REVEALED what is the secret of onomichi?! IT MUST NOT BE REVEALED end scene. The most interesting boss fight is the one with Beat Takeshi and that's not the final one the final one takes place on a fucking loading dock or some shit not anywhere cool and isn't with anyone cool Did I mention the ending is bullshit because it is.
This game is a huge letdown and a terrible end to Kiryu's saga. At least Judge Eyes looks cool.
Funnest Game:
Hitman 2
I don't have all that much to say about Hitman 2. It's Hitman 2016 but better(literally, if you download the legacy maps). Both plot and game-wise it's a continuation of the last game, greatly improving the already really good mechanics and fun, making it way easier to figure out how to do the opportunities(now called story missions) and find everything there is to do in a map. The new content is absolutely excellent with some incredibly fun and inventive, and often hilarious, ways of killing your targets. It's everything you loved about the last game, if you did indeed love it, and more. I really like this game and can't wait for more content!
Manliest Game:
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise
After this game came out I feel like people kinda stopped talking about it. I find this really weird, because I absolutely loved this game. I can see why people might just think it's "okay" and only really fun if you're a big fan of both Yakuza and Hokuto no Ken, and well... I am a big fan of Yakuza and I'm a decent fan of Fist of the North Star, so I guess it makes sense I liked this so much. I would have completed all the substories had there not been one that required me making like 100 million dollars via grinding the hostess club mission. I even found a japanese guide that said "just grind the last hostess club mission for hours lol". I completed every other substory I could though, did every side activity I could, that's how much I liked this game!
But I definitely can't put this on top of my list or anything, it's got a lot of problems. For one thing, it doesn't do that good of a job at weaving the story of the manga/anime into the story of the game; characters just kinda show up to fight you for half a chapter and then fuck off. As much as I enjoyed fighting Souther and even having a cool Yakuza mid-fight cutscene where he figures out his heart is on the left and that's why Hokuto Shinken wasn't working on him!!!, he really just kinda barges into Eden, the city where the game takes place, one day and then he leaves after getting beat. Doesn't die, no, just leaves. Shu isn't involved either, even though he was kinda important to that arc. Raoh also doesn't die, and in fact they don't really have a good reason to fight when they do near the end of the game. It's definitely all just fanservice and is handled about as well as the average crossover. I hope if they make another one of these they do this better. The game itself, like Yakuza, can get repetitive if you're going for such a high rate of completion. Since there are 80 substories in this game, that can be a problem. I'd go on but I wanna talk about what's cool.
Everything that isn't kinda lame about it. And that's a lot. It's probably the best FotNS game to date, and absolutely captures the way the series should be. Instead of heat attacks you use Hokuto Shinken Secret Techniques, and the fun cheesy attack name text appears on screen every time you do it. This prevents it from getting boring even when you're gonna be using the same ones for 70% of the game. Boss fights also make it really great because a lot of the QTE attacks Yakuza is famous for end in big japanese letters saying the name of the attack who's name he's yelling out too. It's incredibly over the top in a way that mixes both series incredibly well and makes for a fun experience. I don't really mind that the story doesn't give a good reason for everyone to really be here, when I'm punching the shit out of Uighur and he charges me and I press triangle real fast to do a cool super move and explode his arm. The game really makes you feel like you are Kenshiro, but without making him as overpowered in regular fights as he is in the show so it doesn't get boring, but you're still a big muscley manly badass. If you like Yakuza, if you like Fist of the North Star, you will mostly likely be able to put aside the game's flaws and highly enjoy it.
And now, the moment none of you have been waiting for...
The
GAME
OF
THE
YEAR.
The game of is a toss up between, Monster Hunter World, Valkyria Chronicles 4, and Dragon Quest XI.
And boy that's such a tough choice. I like all these games so much. Because of how I am, I'm gonna have to choose a story-focused game over a pretty much pure gameplay-focused one like MHW. Not that MHW doesn't have a good story, it absolutely does, but that's not the main draw by any stretch. Regardless, MHW is a fantastic game, just ask anyone not stupid who's played it. A absolutely great, quality of life filled evolution of the Monster Hunter series. No zones, no obtuse menus, nothing hidden from you or not told to you, it's just not as tedious and hard to get into as the other games. Even plenty of hardcore Monster Hunter fans agree with this, so I don't know how the contrarian "serious hardcore old school" fans can actually say the shit they say about how it's been "casualized". It's been made actually accessible to someone who isn't insane.
It's such a fun and charming game, it's fun to go fight monsters with people OR go solo. Somehow even though I thought I would, I never got bored even killing the same monsters over and over to get parts to make new stuff. I enjoyed collecting weird creatures to put in my room. I enjoyed hunting the great Bazelgeuse with my friend and we beat him TWICE. There's just so much fun to be had even if most of what you're doing is really the same shit over and over again. I don't even know how to explain it it just IS fun even though it's repetitive. If you've played it you know what I mean, there's just something so fun about even slowly slaying a big monster. I could do it for hours... and I did!
But what of the other two??? Well boy, that's a tough one too... not because they're both perfect or something, but because they both have a lot of flaws.
VC4 has a lot of bugs that I don't think have even been patched. DQ11 has a series standard nothing protagonist. VC4 has a lot of really rough and kind of bullshit missions that I hate. DQ11 has a "real ending" path that opens up after you beat the game that's just... fucking trash. VC4's penultimate mission is too hard and is kind of impossible on your first try unless you get lucky. DQ11's true ending path is REALLY bad like it just forces you to grind and the story is fucking terrible and the bad guy is an asspull. VC4's last mission is just too damn long, for fucks sake. It's not that hard, it just takes forever because of how it's set up and I just do not like it. VC1 had that same problem.
But both games are still really good. I actually recommend not really bothering with the "post game" stuff in DQ11, and if you just stick it out in VC4 you'll make it through fine, even through the glitches.
I think what it comes down to is two things:
1. VC4 has less problems. DQ11's post game stuff is so bad I can't even begin to explain it. Like to beat the last boss you use a weapon from the items menu as an item, something I didn't know you could do for the whole game because I never needed to and I don't think the game even told me. There's a crazy time travel plot that makes no god damn sense in the worst way possible. The grinding. The pointless twists. The undoing of a character death.
All VC4 has is some annoying missions and bugs.
2. I like the story of VC4 way better. Even forgetting the post game stuff in DQ11, VC4 just has a way better story. It's not that I don't like like DQ11's story, in fact it's very good, but VC4's is miles and miles better. VC4 tells such a fantastic story, with so much more moral ambiguity than the first game which kinda only hinted at the idea that the other side wasn't evil, and I don't think even hinted at the idea our side could be. It's so much darker and more gritty, more realistic of a depiction of war. It's just such a sad fucking story. But it's so damn good. It's hard to go into here because there's just so much to talk about, but whatever problems you had with the plot and characters of VC1 are pretty much remedied here. If that stopped you from liking that game, absolutely try this one. It is absolutely a much better story, and game, than the first one.
So in the end, I'm gonna have to say that the ultimate winner issssssss
Valkyria Chronicles 4
And there you have it, another year, another bunch of games. I love video games, don't you?
Go home.
Gonna be honest, I've been going through some shit recently and I don't really feel like doing much of this. I feel like I'd much rather be doing something else instead of writing this because I really lack the motivation... however, I'm going to try and not totally half ass this, but it's gonna be a lot lazier than last time.
But! I am gonna try to do this, and then later when I've finished up this anime season I'll make an anime of the year post too.
Fun Fact: While writing this, I got the flu or something, puked a bunch and then slept for like 12 hours, missing like a day and a half. That's part of why this is so late.
Before we begin, I have two things to go over! A. Games I played this year that weren't released this year, and B. Games that were released this year that I wanted to play but didn't.
To start, we'll do games I played that weren't from this year. Luckily for me, I don't remember most of them.
Right now I'm playing The Legend of Dragoon and well it's not bad but it's not that good either. I think I'm going to stick with it because I really like PS1 JRPGs, especially 3D characters, 2D prerendered backgrounds PS1 JRPGs.
Another PS1 JRPG I tried to play was Suikoden II, but then I fucked up and had to reformat my PS3's HDD, and lost my save for that and every other game, including Atelier Rorona, which I had also played like half of this year.
I'm also currently replaying Resident Evil 2 in preparation for the REmake.
Earlier in the year, I played through The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the first time, and really enjoyed it! I think I did everything aside fully upgraded my bomb and arrow count.
I can't remember anymore but if I do I'll add some!
So now we do
Games I wanted to play, but didn't:
I'll also explain why I didn't. These are in order that I added them to my list from looking at wikipedia.
Lost Sphear
Reason I wanted to play: It seems a lot more interesting than this studio's last attempt, I am Setsuna, with more interesting battle mechanics and a story that isn't just FFX but everything is cold.
Reason I didn't: It's like 50 bucks??? Why would I pay more than 20 dollars for this DS game lookin low budget JRPG, the fuck?
Misc: The fuck is a "sphear"?
Shadow of the Colossus:
Reason I wanted to play: I like this game and this graphical remake looks better.
Reason I didn't: I actually replayed SotC pretty recently like late last year, so I thought I'd wait til I wanted tot play it again.
Misc: Ico kinda sucks
Secret of Mana:
Reason I wanted to play: I never played the original and I thought it would be cool to experience this story with a non-garbage translation and also these new cute graphics.
Reason I didn't: I had a lot of other games to play and I didn't wanna play it that much.
Misc: I'm really happy to have this physical copy.
Yume Nikki: Dream Diary:
Reason why I wanted to play: I love the original Yume Nikki. It's not much of a game, but it is absolutely wonderful and fuck you if you disagree.
Reason I didn't: It costs too much and it seems like they really turned it into a generic 3D indie game, and completely missed the point of Yume Nikki. I heard a recent patch changed a lot of it and made it more in-line with the real game, but still 20 dollars?
Misc: Also I didn't hear about it until well after it came out so there was no time anyway oops.
Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Battle:
Reason I wanted to play: I love GaruPan.
Reason I didn't: I would have had to import it through PlayAsia and I didn't have the cash to do that.
Misc: Someday I will play as the moes fighting in the tankeys.
Attack on Titan 2:
Reason I wanted to play: I like AoT
Reason I didn't: Money and time.
Misc: EREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN
Shining Resonance Refrain:
Reason I wanted to play: I like JRPGs and wanna get into the Shining series.
Reason I didn't: I don't like Tony Taka and I'm not into the Shining series.
Misc: Tony Taka is a terrible artist.
God of War:
Reason I wanted to play: I really like Norse mythology.
Reason I didn't: I wasn't that interested in playing it.
Misc: Also it seems like a lot of it is "sony movie game"
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon:
Reason I wanted to play: This looks fucking cool.
Reason I didn't: Didn't get around to it.
Misc: Inticreates is really great, isn't it?
Persona 5 Dancing Star Night:
Reason I wanted to play: I love Persona 5
Reason I didn't: It came out this month and I already spent my game budget on Spyro.
Misc: The opening song is equal parts great and retarded.
Detroit: Become Human:
Reason I wanted to play: I really don't know, this game seems to terrible and stupid.
Reason I didn't: It costs too much, it's like 30 bucks used still.
Misc: Why is Kara's story so fucking pointless? It has nothing to do with the plot at all.
Sonic Mania Plus:
Reason I wanted to play: Sonic Mania seems good.
Reason I didn't: I'm not that into sanic, especially old sanic, and also it costs money.
Misc: If someone tries to touch you, and you're not okay with it, that's NO GOOD.
428: Shibuya Scramble:
Reasons I wanted to play: It's a fucking chunsoft sound novel and parts of it have FMV!
Reason I didn't: Money, again. Came out at a bad time.
Misc: I'm so glad we finally got this game though.
Megaman 11:
Reason I wanted to play: It looks cool.
Reason I didn't: Money.
Misc: When is Wily gonna give up? When?
Castlevania Requiem:
Reason I wanted to play: I love Castlevania.
Reason I didn't: Not enough cash, Stranger.
Misc: It's got two whole games!
My Hero One's Justice:
Reason I wanted to play: I love the anime!
Reason I didn't: It seems like a generic arena fighter!
Misc: This name is retarded! Why couldn't they use the real one!
Gal Metal:
Reason I wanted to play: It looks cute! Cute!!
Reason I didn't: It's on the switch.
Misc: The SWITCH.
Call of Cthulhu:
Reason I wanted to play: I love me some cosmic horror, especially in my video games.
Reason I didn't: Money, again.
Misc: I should play the old Cthulhu game
The Quiet Man:
Reason I wanted to play: Have you fucking seen this game? It's so terrible, I have to play it.
Reason I didn't: It's so terrible I don't want anyone to be paid for this.
Misc: I HEAR YOU WITH MY BLOOD.
Just Cause 4:
Reason I wanted to play: I love Just Cause 3.
Reason I didn't: I bought spyro this month...
Misc: This game looks so cool.
Earth Defense Force 5:
Why I wanted to play: I wanna play all the EDF games.
Why I didn't: I haven't played any of the others and also didn't know this came out.
Misc: I also really liked Starship Troopers.
Now, on to games I actually did play. I actually only played like 12 games that came out this year, so much like last time I'm going to make sure to talk about each one, and give each a category.
Game I Most Don't Know How I Feel About It:
Detalrune - Chapter 1
What even really is this game? Is it a demo? Is it really just chapter 1? Is it a sequel to Undertale, is it not? Does it take place after any of the endings of Undertale? Is it actually related at all? If not, why? Why does it have so many of the same characters? Why does it share so many things? Is it just to pander to fans? I hope not. Or is it meant as some kind of meta trope manipulation like so much of Undertale is? Is the full game just going to actually be a fan pandery sequel? More importantly, do I even like this game?
I honestly don't know. I don't hate it, but I don't really like it either. Well, no, there's a lot I do like about it, but there's an equal amount I don't. For one, I feel like the dumb humor-not dumb humor ration is way more skewed toward dumb humor. I mean maybe it's just cuz it's the earliest parts of the game/the demo, since The Ruins were probably the roughest part with the worst jokes in that regard. And really, if all the jokes were good I wouldn't mind it either, but a lot of the jokes range from unfunny-just not funny. The ones that do land, land pretty hard, but most of them don't stick.
The battle system is so much better and more improved, I really like it a lot and I love all the battle animations and such. It's definitely what you want from a sequel to Undertale. But then there's the problem of the combat mechanics being, well, totally pointless. Sure, sometimes it helps to use the various ACTs and combo moves on enemies, so you can get done with the battle faster/taking less damage, but really most of the time you can get through battles by just attacking.
"But electric barrier" you say, "isn't that true of Undertale as well? I'm confused!". You would be right, of course, but in Undertale if you just attack you will kill your opponent, and eventually become a relentless murdering psychopath destined to destroy the world if you do that enough.
In Deltarune the enemy just runs away so there's no reason to hold back. You can just attack. Why use these cool new Chrono Trigger-esque team up moves to help pacify the enemy when I can just attack them til they run away? Doing so changes nothing, NPCs don't even treat you differently and Toby Fox has confirmed there will be only one ending in the full game. So why bother?
The story is definitely interesting but as I've said there are some problems with it, and some problems that seem like there will be. Moreover, I dunno how I feel about the characters. Ralsei is pretty good, and I think Kris could become a silent protagonist with actual character, but maybe not and also he might be evil??? And Susie could potentially be a good character but so far she really isn't. There are good moments with her but I'm just not sure about the execution. Also, she looks like a boy. And not in a cute way.
I've talked to much about this, maybe I'll go more in depth with a review some time, but for now I just don't know how I feel about this game. I will say, a lot of the music is great.
I do recommend playing it if you like Undertale, you can download it for free here.
Biggest Waste of Money:
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT
Dissidia Final Fantasy, and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, were two fighting game-esque, story based Final Fantasy crossover games for the PSP, with a convoluted and winding time-loop and secret experiments filled narrative that would make Lost shrink away in shame. It had a great single player story, which retells and expands upon the stories of every main protagonist and antagonist of every FF game, weaving them into the overall story about all the characters and why they are here. As it was on the PSP, obviously online multiplayer wasn't really the focus although it could be done.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is an online PVP based fighting game that locks you out of progressing through the story mode unless you grind online matches with random strangers. I think maybe you can get the points or levels or whatever is needed from playing with friends which is fine but still.
Does nobody think that's weird? Does nobody see a problem here? Was I the only one who noticed Dissidia had a story that was really interesting at least? And even then who cares if it didn't, what if I'm not feeling like doing multiplayer matches and just wanna do the story mode? If I don't have enough points then I can't do it. I have no problem with needing to git gud and actually win in order to unlock more of the story, my problem is that you are forced to play modes you don't want to play in order to play modes you do.
Well no, you know what, you don't. Cuz the primary demographic for this game was clearly not people who thought the crazy plot of Dissidia was cool and wanted to see more crossover story stuff, it's people who just like fighting games and competing with other people in fighting games. It's for the Fighting Game Community, which I am severely not a part of. I actually really hate the FGC and think they are a bunch of autistic faggots, with some of the gayest terminology, who have the most boring way of playing video games. Eelzap if you're reading this I'm sorry but it's true.
But even if those things weren't the case, this game is clearly not for me. And it's very stupid to lock the story mode behind these walls. Abilities, characters, specific routes or parts of the story maybe, but I started only being able to watch the into cutscene.
This also raises the problem that once people move on from this game, as competitive online game players always do because they don't really like games, they just like competing in games, you will not be able to play any mode aside VS CPU. Truly this is a good decision, truly this is just "people really caring about the story in a fighting game, huh?". Eelzap again if you're reading this I'm sorry but that was one of the stupidest things you've ever said.
The worst part is: the story mode isn't even very good it seems, so there was really no point for me to play this.
If by "The Legends" you mean fighting some guys from
austrailia with some guys from britain, then yes.
Most Disappointing Game:
Yakuza 6 ~The Song of Life~
More like... Yakuza DAD the song of DADS.
My good friend over at 24 Frames Per Second already did a review of this, so mostly just read that. To sum up though, Yakuza 6 is a pretty good step up in terms of the game itself. Gameplay, controls, mechanics, the world, everything on a technical level is vastly improved not only from the turd that was Kiwami but from Yakuza 5 as well.
What wasn't improved was the story and also I feel like the amount of things to do... The central theme is delivered so unsubtly that David Cage would feel it was heavy handed. The theme is father and son relationships, could you tell? Because literally every character with a line is a dad, a son, or a daughter. All stories, substories and main story alike, are, usually overtly too, about parent child relationships. Doing a substory? HELP, MY SON HATES ME oh wait no he doesn't thank you kiryu. Do another one? I HATE MY DAD HE SUCKS oh okay I understand now why he can't always be around thank you kiryu. Another? MY DAD BETRAYED ME oh wait no he didn't he actually did this thing for my sake now I know thank you kiryu! And so on and so forth.
No one is properly developed, the twists aren't very good, the last few hours of the story are all total bullshit, you spend two chapters where dialogue is basically THE SECRET OF ONOMICHI MUST NOT BE REVEALED what is the secret of onomichi?! IT MUST NOT BE REVEALED end scene. The most interesting boss fight is the one with Beat Takeshi and that's not the final one the final one takes place on a fucking loading dock or some shit not anywhere cool and isn't with anyone cool Did I mention the ending is bullshit because it is.
This game is a huge letdown and a terrible end to Kiryu's saga. At least Judge Eyes looks cool.
Pictured: The entire story.
Now on to some good things!
Best Game Everyone Else Hates:
Metal Gear Survive
I like this game. It's not the best game, but it's not bad or mediocre. It's simply good. It's one of the few good takes on survival games I've seen in a while, the base building is fun, the sense of exploration is great, the dust zones remind of of Silent Hill, the progression is good, the story while not being great is still enjoyable and a good deal "metal gear-y". This game is pretty good and I hope Konami can continue not fucking up this IP. Yes, I really believe this, it's not a joke. I'm not being sarcastic, this is a decent game.
Best Remaster, Remake, Port, or Collection:
Sega Genesis Classics VS Spyro Reignited VS Megaman X Legacy Collection
Well right off the bat we can toss Sega Genesis Classics out of there. It's not bad, it's got cool stuff like VR support apparently and the nice virtual room with virtual genesis and virtual cartridges that's pretty fuckin' cool, but the game selection seems the same as you can find in any of the sega genesis collections on any other console of which there are tons. I mean this just doesn't have enough here added in to really say it's as good or better than the others.
So what about the others? Well, both are really good. Spyro is a full graphical remake of the first 3 Spyro games, the good ones, and that's fantastic. While I do not care for the new voice acting or the new art style, plenty of it looks good even if it does lose some of the old charm and atmosphere of the old games. You can turn on the old music though, which is fantastic. Megaman X on the other hand is really just a nice port of the 8 Megaman X games. Obviously that's like, 5 more games, at least so you'd think that'd make it the automatic winner but I don't know... Those games are much shorter each, for one. Spyro has the added in percentage tracking that made it so easy to 100% the game that I actually platinumed all 3. It also clearly improved a lot of the controls and such, whereas megaman is just the same games. However, Megaman X has the Rookie Hunter mode which makes it so much easier to just play through all the games, it has the crazy fight two bosses mode thing, the music player, the artwork and manual stuff and pictures of all the different merchandise... and honestly I always just liked Megaman X better than Spyro so
Megaman X Legacy Collection wins!
Funnest Game:
Hitman 2
I don't have all that much to say about Hitman 2. It's Hitman 2016 but better(literally, if you download the legacy maps). Both plot and game-wise it's a continuation of the last game, greatly improving the already really good mechanics and fun, making it way easier to figure out how to do the opportunities(now called story missions) and find everything there is to do in a map. The new content is absolutely excellent with some incredibly fun and inventive, and often hilarious, ways of killing your targets. It's everything you loved about the last game, if you did indeed love it, and more. I really like this game and can't wait for more content!
Manliest Game:
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise
After this game came out I feel like people kinda stopped talking about it. I find this really weird, because I absolutely loved this game. I can see why people might just think it's "okay" and only really fun if you're a big fan of both Yakuza and Hokuto no Ken, and well... I am a big fan of Yakuza and I'm a decent fan of Fist of the North Star, so I guess it makes sense I liked this so much. I would have completed all the substories had there not been one that required me making like 100 million dollars via grinding the hostess club mission. I even found a japanese guide that said "just grind the last hostess club mission for hours lol". I completed every other substory I could though, did every side activity I could, that's how much I liked this game!
But I definitely can't put this on top of my list or anything, it's got a lot of problems. For one thing, it doesn't do that good of a job at weaving the story of the manga/anime into the story of the game; characters just kinda show up to fight you for half a chapter and then fuck off. As much as I enjoyed fighting Souther and even having a cool Yakuza mid-fight cutscene where he figures out his heart is on the left and that's why Hokuto Shinken wasn't working on him!!!, he really just kinda barges into Eden, the city where the game takes place, one day and then he leaves after getting beat. Doesn't die, no, just leaves. Shu isn't involved either, even though he was kinda important to that arc. Raoh also doesn't die, and in fact they don't really have a good reason to fight when they do near the end of the game. It's definitely all just fanservice and is handled about as well as the average crossover. I hope if they make another one of these they do this better. The game itself, like Yakuza, can get repetitive if you're going for such a high rate of completion. Since there are 80 substories in this game, that can be a problem. I'd go on but I wanna talk about what's cool.
Everything that isn't kinda lame about it. And that's a lot. It's probably the best FotNS game to date, and absolutely captures the way the series should be. Instead of heat attacks you use Hokuto Shinken Secret Techniques, and the fun cheesy attack name text appears on screen every time you do it. This prevents it from getting boring even when you're gonna be using the same ones for 70% of the game. Boss fights also make it really great because a lot of the QTE attacks Yakuza is famous for end in big japanese letters saying the name of the attack who's name he's yelling out too. It's incredibly over the top in a way that mixes both series incredibly well and makes for a fun experience. I don't really mind that the story doesn't give a good reason for everyone to really be here, when I'm punching the shit out of Uighur and he charges me and I press triangle real fast to do a cool super move and explode his arm. The game really makes you feel like you are Kenshiro, but without making him as overpowered in regular fights as he is in the show so it doesn't get boring, but you're still a big muscley manly badass. If you like Yakuza, if you like Fist of the North Star, you will mostly likely be able to put aside the game's flaws and highly enjoy it.
And now, the moment none of you have been waiting for...
The
GAME
OF
THE
YEAR.
The game of is a toss up between, Monster Hunter World, Valkyria Chronicles 4, and Dragon Quest XI.
And boy that's such a tough choice. I like all these games so much. Because of how I am, I'm gonna have to choose a story-focused game over a pretty much pure gameplay-focused one like MHW. Not that MHW doesn't have a good story, it absolutely does, but that's not the main draw by any stretch. Regardless, MHW is a fantastic game, just ask anyone not stupid who's played it. A absolutely great, quality of life filled evolution of the Monster Hunter series. No zones, no obtuse menus, nothing hidden from you or not told to you, it's just not as tedious and hard to get into as the other games. Even plenty of hardcore Monster Hunter fans agree with this, so I don't know how the contrarian "serious hardcore old school" fans can actually say the shit they say about how it's been "casualized". It's been made actually accessible to someone who isn't insane.
It's such a fun and charming game, it's fun to go fight monsters with people OR go solo. Somehow even though I thought I would, I never got bored even killing the same monsters over and over to get parts to make new stuff. I enjoyed collecting weird creatures to put in my room. I enjoyed hunting the great Bazelgeuse with my friend and we beat him TWICE. There's just so much fun to be had even if most of what you're doing is really the same shit over and over again. I don't even know how to explain it it just IS fun even though it's repetitive. If you've played it you know what I mean, there's just something so fun about even slowly slaying a big monster. I could do it for hours... and I did!
But what of the other two??? Well boy, that's a tough one too... not because they're both perfect or something, but because they both have a lot of flaws.
VC4 has a lot of bugs that I don't think have even been patched. DQ11 has a series standard nothing protagonist. VC4 has a lot of really rough and kind of bullshit missions that I hate. DQ11 has a "real ending" path that opens up after you beat the game that's just... fucking trash. VC4's penultimate mission is too hard and is kind of impossible on your first try unless you get lucky. DQ11's true ending path is REALLY bad like it just forces you to grind and the story is fucking terrible and the bad guy is an asspull. VC4's last mission is just too damn long, for fucks sake. It's not that hard, it just takes forever because of how it's set up and I just do not like it. VC1 had that same problem.
But both games are still really good. I actually recommend not really bothering with the "post game" stuff in DQ11, and if you just stick it out in VC4 you'll make it through fine, even through the glitches.
I think what it comes down to is two things:
1. VC4 has less problems. DQ11's post game stuff is so bad I can't even begin to explain it. Like to beat the last boss you use a weapon from the items menu as an item, something I didn't know you could do for the whole game because I never needed to and I don't think the game even told me. There's a crazy time travel plot that makes no god damn sense in the worst way possible. The grinding. The pointless twists. The undoing of a character death.
All VC4 has is some annoying missions and bugs.
2. I like the story of VC4 way better. Even forgetting the post game stuff in DQ11, VC4 just has a way better story. It's not that I don't like like DQ11's story, in fact it's very good, but VC4's is miles and miles better. VC4 tells such a fantastic story, with so much more moral ambiguity than the first game which kinda only hinted at the idea that the other side wasn't evil, and I don't think even hinted at the idea our side could be. It's so much darker and more gritty, more realistic of a depiction of war. It's just such a sad fucking story. But it's so damn good. It's hard to go into here because there's just so much to talk about, but whatever problems you had with the plot and characters of VC1 are pretty much remedied here. If that stopped you from liking that game, absolutely try this one. It is absolutely a much better story, and game, than the first one.
So in the end, I'm gonna have to say that the ultimate winner issssssss
Valkyria Chronicles 4
And there you have it, another year, another bunch of games. I love video games, don't you?
Go home.
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Ey watchu think mang?