[Awards] Old Games of the Year 2019
Hello everyno-one! It's me, that guy! I'm gonna tell you about some video games.
Before I do my game of the year post, I think I'll do a separate one for the games I played this year that were NOT released this year. Normally I do a part where I talk about the old games I played, but I think this time it might be a bit too cluttered if I do that. So instead, here's this other post about what I played when I wasn't playing new releases.
First off I THINK I played The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past this year, really early in it. I'm not 100% sure, but if it was last year I probably would have mentioned it there. I really enjoyed it, it was pretty fun. I did pretty much everything aside upgrading my arrows and bombs to max, though I followed a guide for most of the hidden stuff. This definitely was a good and classic game that I woulda loved playing if I was an SNES kid. I still think my favorite Zelda is Twilight Princess though, but this could be a close second maybe. I still like Wind Waker quite a lot. Also, haven't played Skyward Sword yet so who knows. Also Ocarina of Time is mediocre and Majora's Mask sucks. I'll note for no real reason that I played it on an actual Super Nintendo instead of emulating it or something.
Next there's Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars. Initially I started to play this because I had seen that it takes about 15 hours to get through the main story, and I thought "oh that's fast I can get that done and also I've wanted to play this for a while". I probably ended up playing for 30 hours, because I ended up liking it so much I wanted to do the side quests. I even beat Culex, the Final Fantasy-esque optional boss! Story wise it's nothing special, I mean it's a mario game, but I did enjoy it quite a bit as a fun little JRPG-lite. Another game I woulda liked if I grew up with the SNES. The face-button reliant battle system is fun and it's a charming goofy ride. This is why I'm more interested in playing like the paper mario games and stuff than any of the normal marios. I just don't enjoy that, but I do like turn based RPGs, especially ones with unique mechanics.
I played Until Dawn again. Not much to say about that, it's still Until Dawn and I like it a lot. I decided to get the everyone lives ending because the first time I played it I accidentally got some people killed. Oops. I'll lump this in and say I also played several Metal Slug games on the easiest most free-play mode I could and I really like those games, the animations are great, and they go some wacky places like when the aliens attack not Notzis and you both team up to fight them.
I played Final Fantasy VII again and it's still just as good and has the same problems it's always had. I used the cheats to kill Ruby and Emerald Weapon and I don't consider it an accomplishment, I just wanted to get the Knights of the Round summon without raising a golden chocobo.
I also played Final Fantasy X again and it's maybe my favorite Final Fantasy still. I love it, fuck you if you don't. My opinion is objective and it's the law you're going to jail if you don't like FFX! It's really good though, I love it even though I understand the criticisms. I kinda like that people either love or hate X, similar to VIII, actually.
The Quiet Man. It was on sale so I bought it. I also played THE QUIET MAN: ~ANSWERED~ and I would have finished it if I hadn't accidentally bugged the fuck out of the final boss by punching him in the grab attack so much, because enemies don't break out of it you see, that I must have overflowed a damage integer or something(I don't know what I'm talking about) and it wasn't able to trigger the cutscene that happens when his hit points reach zero. The Not Talky Boy is a bad game made by an ambitious person who was clearly trying to tell and emotional, psychological, and deep story with a bad brawler game, but just couldn't. For one thing the first part of the game has a gimmick where you cannot hear what anyone is saying because the protagonist is deaf, even though he can lip read and at several points talks to people. I'm honestly not even sure he's deaf. Also, even though the whole idea is "you're deaf cuz he's deaf" there's no subtitles for when people talk in sign language to him even though by that logic I should understand it because he does. Then, there's DLC that let's you do a second playthrough with sound, proving they didn't design the story to be understood without words even though the developer specifically stated understanding each other without words is the core theme of the story and just muted a regular fucking FMV brawler game. Worse yet is, half of the stuff the characters are saying is what you expected them to be saying, I guess I could understand it without words thanks for this DLC. The main plot and especially the stuff at the end is totally incomprehensible without it though, but oops I still don't really understand it even after being able to tell what they were saying. The game isn't fun to play, it looks terrible, there's lots of motion blur, the story is total garbage, and you should play it to experience one of the worst games of all time.
Then I played God of War III. It was pretty alright. Not great but alright. I had some fun and the story was fine I guess. I don't like the ending either I think it was super forced. Overall I think I'm interested in maybe playing the original god of war instead, or maybe Dante's Inferno.
But then I got to The Evil Within 2 aka PSYCHO BREAK 2 in japan, which is just a way better name. I liked this one quite a bit, it was a much better time than I had trying to play the first game, to the point I kinda wanna try that one again. Much better of a survival horror game than last time. It was actually kinda scary at some points, there was great horror imagery, lots of good designs and environments overall which is way better than the first game, the story was actually comprehensible this time around too. I liked it enough I might play it again some time, it gave me that good just tough enough feeling that a resident evil would give me while giving me some visuals I might see in a silent hill game. I mean sure none of them reach the peak of silent hill imagery but it's on par with some of the lower level stuff for sure.
I also played Oxenfree, another horror game but not the same kind. Oxenfree is kinda a walking simulator, there's no way to die from what I've seen, but you do need to solve puzzles to progress and make good dialogue choices to get the ending you want, so at least it's not on a Gone Home or Stanley Parable level. Or Dear Esther for that matter... you know what else sets it apart from those games, aside it's perspective and artstyle? It has good writing. Oxenfree is a pretty well written story, especially once you get to a certain point in the game and you start to understand the significance of the cryptic things you've been hearing. It's a very mysterious and interesting story that rewards you for paying attention to it and thinking about what's going on in it, a good puzzle type of story. I liked Oxenfree quite a bit and might play it again sometime, especially since it's short like it only took me like 2 or 3 days to finish. If you played a lot it could take you just one.
Then, cuz it was really cheap, I ended up getting Detroit: Become Human. I consider myself a fan of David Cage games, even if it's at best mostly ironically. He's so ambitious and always talks up his stories as if they're going to rival classic films and novels, but then churns out badly executed stories that are so cliche even hollywood wouldn't write them. Maybe because he's really just lifted plots wholesale from hollywood movies. I think Detroit is simultaneously Cage's best and worst "game". Worst in that it's his least hilarious and make fun-able, best in that the last statement is true. I like him the most when he's churning out unmitigated trash fires like Beyond: Two Souls, where you can't lose a single sequence and nothing you do in any scene actually affects any later ones because they're shown out of chronological order. Where the story is nonsensical and hilarious and just all around terrible. Because that's super entertaining! I'd put Beyond in with Indigo Prophecy/Farenheit, and Detroit in with Heavy Rain. I also like heavy rain, even though it's less hilarious and it's problems are all massive plot holes, bad writing, and stealing from SE7EN. Detroit's problems are mostly ham fisted "what does it mean to be human" and "what distinction is there between us and these androids"(hey hey if you want a good some of that play Nier: Automata), as well as the most obvious racism allegories you could possibly do, bad writing and stealing from Star Trek with Connor, stealing from Blade Runner and I, Robot for everything else. Not as many plotholes that I noticed this time around, the big one I think can be explained in that the designer of the the androids, Kamski, probably made them suspiciously human-like with the ability to break free from their subservience on purpose. Overall I think Detroit is an interesting and enjoyable story, I like the improvements to the whole "your actions have consequences" shit that DC always does(unlike in heavy rain you can die at more than one or two pre-determined points), but I think it's still hampered a lot by Cage's incompetence as a writer and director. I hope that he either improves to the point you can really like his stories unironically, or goes full retard and just makes more shit like Beyond.
I also played Sleeping Dogs, and boy was it a fun time! I liked it a lot it was fun to play, driving around was fun, the story was fun, I liked blowing up cars in the car chase scenes, I liked doing the side missions, I liked putting on fun costumes, I liked the writing and humor, it was just overall a fun good time and I don't really have much more to say than that!
Sanitarium is another game I played. Sanitarium is a classic PC adventure game, and I liked it a lot. I had to resort to guides a few times, but for the most part I was able to figure out how to progress on my own. I enjoyed the story, the different and strange vignettes, the themes of mental illness and insanity, the tone and atmosphere of the game, it was just a nice time. I hope to play more old PC games like this in the future.
I also played Harvester this year too! I liked that a lot too though there was way more guide looking this time, mostly in the Lodge so that I didn't have to reload old saves to get myself out of unwinnable situations. I did make multiple saves in there just in case though. Harvester is a weird, very weird, and also weird game. It's a commentary in video game violence, one that really culminates in the notion that it's really up to you if you're going to let a video game inspire you to hurt or kill someone. One might think looking at it that it's a hypocritical game, what with being maybe the most realistically gory game there was at the time due to all the FMV of practical gore effects and greenscreened onto real pople not-practical effects. However, if you really look at it closely, I don't think it's trying to wag it's finger at you, you can tell the people that made it were big fans of dumb low budget gory schlock. That's kinda what this game is, but with a pretty smart backbone to it, a lot of absurd and surreal humor, and pretty good biting wit. Maybe the standards have improved since then, but I still think if Harvester ever looked like something that might interest you, then check it out. It's like 5 bucks at most on steam and it goes on sale all the time. Or you can get it from GOG. You don't even have to configure DOSBox, GOG and Steam do that for you.
I played Fatal Frame for the first time as well, and while I had some frustrations with it I liked it anyway. My biggest gripe is that in camera mode, the thing you use to take pictures of the ghosts to kill them with your magica camera, left stick moves the view and right stick moves the character, so the opposite of FPS controls. It was incredibly difficult to get used to and I kinda never did, until the very end of the game this control scheme fucked with me, because you can't change it to something more sensible. Add in the fact sometimes ghosts just have inescapable moves(well, I couldn't anyway), and this game can be a hassle. To be fair, I did make things more difficult for myself for trying to save up healing items and special move stones for the final boss, as I would in a classic style Resident Evil game, only to find out that the last boss kills you in one hit so healers are useless, is very slow so the specials and good film I had were useless, and is generally just the easiest fight in the game. Whoops. Still, the game has issues, hut overall I liked it. I want to play more of these games, I'm starved for survival horror these days even with RE2make out and RE3make just around the corner. Even then, the game was spooky, gave me that good exploration and progression accomplishment feeling I get from from survival horror, and had an interesting story..
Speaking of Resident Evil, I also replayed Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 5. Not much to say, I liked RE3 still it's a good game, weakest of the original trilogy to be sure, partly because it was meant as a spin off, but still a good time. I'm interested in seeing how the remake handles it. And 5 is great too, I still really like 5. The game is fun, the story is fun, if you don't think so you're wrong my opinion is law you're going to jail fo-
Also tossed in a replay of Kingdom Hears: Dream Drop Distance for some reason. I just felt like it. Took me less time too about 15 hours I think on NG+.
I then completed Final Fantasy IV for the first time. I've played FFIV before, even gotten to the final boss, but I never beat it until this year. Even this time, I had a tough time beating Zeromus, yeah even in the US easy version, but I did it cuz I'm good at JRPGs. I think? Anyway, F to the F to the 4 is still a real good old JRPG. You can so clearly tell it was a transitional period for FF, where it was trying to really tell a good story about real characters and not blank slates, with big twists and turns and drama. I mean it comes out to an honestly pretty silly story, where you go to the fucking moon to fight your brother because you're secretly also from the moon. I mean, that's kinda while I like it, amidst the internal character drama that's not handled well is tons of weird plot twists and fake character deaths, leading to a story that is both confused and very charming. I like this game.
I also played the first Penumbra game and it was okay? I ended up not reading the text files I found because they were all like 10 pages long. I have no idea what the story is aside there's a weird eldritch god thing going on. I probably won't play more oof.
Also replayed Silent Hill 3, and I also may have played Silent Hill 1 again this year? I don't know. But I do know I played 3 again and boy is it still real good. I love Heather, I love the story, I love the graphics, I love the imagery, I love the intense scariness that still kinda gets me especially the noises the nurse monsters make oh god make it stop. The music is great too, of course, the voice acting is the exact right level of quality, just awkward enough in the right way that it accentuates the surreal vibe of the game. I love Silent Hill 3. I love Silent Hill 2. I love Silent Hill, and Silent Hill 4. I hate all Silent Hill games made after that.
I also played Crash Bandicoot: Warped and am currently in the middle of playing Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. Crash is crash, and Baten Kaitos is pretty good. I thought I'd be put off by the weird card mechanics of the battle system, but it's basically like a mix of the Xenosaga battle system(this is a Monolith Soft. game) and the Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories system but better. You put offense, defense, and healing cards in your deck. When it's your turn, you can attack with offense cards and combo as many of them as you're allowed based on your current "class", and can end them with a special move card, like protagonist Kalas' first one "Blue Storm". Using a special attack will also end the combo regardless of how many cards you could have played, so make sure to use it last if you can. During the enemy's turn, you can use your defense cards to block attacks, and if you strategize with them right you can come away with 0 damage. The cards have numbers which you can combine to get straights(i.e. 1 2 3) and pairs ( 1 and 1) for bonus damage, defense, or healing. It all works pretty well even when the game gives me a shitty hand like sometimes I just have all defense cards on my turn and all attack cards on defend rounds. Even with that, the combat is pretty fun and I feel like I must be decent at it cuz I haven't got a game over once. The game also seems like it'll give you a break if you're doing bad. Also, sometimes if you've built enough trust with the character in question, one of their cards might transform into a super special move. Oh, that's right, I forgot to say the most interesting part of this game: You play not as Kalas, but as his Guardian Spirit, a being "from another world" who has bonded to him, helps guide him, and lends him his power. It's a cool idea to let you be a character in the story who can roleplay a little without sacrificing an actually designed and developed protagonist. The story takes place in a world where there's no ground and islands just float in the sky, people have wings, and Kalas' grandfather and I think sister were killed by an imperial officer named Giacomo. Kalas is on a quest for revenge, but gets roped into a journey across the pre-rendered background islands to find the End Magnus before the empire does, so that they can't undo the seal on an ancient evil god called Malpercio. It's a pretty cool JRPG, but I can't help but feel it woulda been better if it was also written by Soraya Saga.
Finally, we have the best game I played this year that wasn't released this year: Nier: Automata. I already did a review of that game, so read it for my thoughts. It wins "best game I played that didn't come out this year except for maybe Final Fantasy X and Silent Hill 3".
Before I do my game of the year post, I think I'll do a separate one for the games I played this year that were NOT released this year. Normally I do a part where I talk about the old games I played, but I think this time it might be a bit too cluttered if I do that. So instead, here's this other post about what I played when I wasn't playing new releases.
First off I THINK I played The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past this year, really early in it. I'm not 100% sure, but if it was last year I probably would have mentioned it there. I really enjoyed it, it was pretty fun. I did pretty much everything aside upgrading my arrows and bombs to max, though I followed a guide for most of the hidden stuff. This definitely was a good and classic game that I woulda loved playing if I was an SNES kid. I still think my favorite Zelda is Twilight Princess though, but this could be a close second maybe. I still like Wind Waker quite a lot. Also, haven't played Skyward Sword yet so who knows. Also Ocarina of Time is mediocre and Majora's Mask sucks. I'll note for no real reason that I played it on an actual Super Nintendo instead of emulating it or something.
Next there's Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars. Initially I started to play this because I had seen that it takes about 15 hours to get through the main story, and I thought "oh that's fast I can get that done and also I've wanted to play this for a while". I probably ended up playing for 30 hours, because I ended up liking it so much I wanted to do the side quests. I even beat Culex, the Final Fantasy-esque optional boss! Story wise it's nothing special, I mean it's a mario game, but I did enjoy it quite a bit as a fun little JRPG-lite. Another game I woulda liked if I grew up with the SNES. The face-button reliant battle system is fun and it's a charming goofy ride. This is why I'm more interested in playing like the paper mario games and stuff than any of the normal marios. I just don't enjoy that, but I do like turn based RPGs, especially ones with unique mechanics.
I played Until Dawn again. Not much to say about that, it's still Until Dawn and I like it a lot. I decided to get the everyone lives ending because the first time I played it I accidentally got some people killed. Oops. I'll lump this in and say I also played several Metal Slug games on the easiest most free-play mode I could and I really like those games, the animations are great, and they go some wacky places like when the aliens attack not Notzis and you both team up to fight them.
I played Final Fantasy VII again and it's still just as good and has the same problems it's always had. I used the cheats to kill Ruby and Emerald Weapon and I don't consider it an accomplishment, I just wanted to get the Knights of the Round summon without raising a golden chocobo.
I also played Final Fantasy X again and it's maybe my favorite Final Fantasy still. I love it, fuck you if you don't. My opinion is objective and it's the law you're going to jail if you don't like FFX! It's really good though, I love it even though I understand the criticisms. I kinda like that people either love or hate X, similar to VIII, actually.
The Quiet Man. It was on sale so I bought it. I also played THE QUIET MAN: ~ANSWERED~ and I would have finished it if I hadn't accidentally bugged the fuck out of the final boss by punching him in the grab attack so much, because enemies don't break out of it you see, that I must have overflowed a damage integer or something(I don't know what I'm talking about) and it wasn't able to trigger the cutscene that happens when his hit points reach zero. The Not Talky Boy is a bad game made by an ambitious person who was clearly trying to tell and emotional, psychological, and deep story with a bad brawler game, but just couldn't. For one thing the first part of the game has a gimmick where you cannot hear what anyone is saying because the protagonist is deaf, even though he can lip read and at several points talks to people. I'm honestly not even sure he's deaf. Also, even though the whole idea is "you're deaf cuz he's deaf" there's no subtitles for when people talk in sign language to him even though by that logic I should understand it because he does. Then, there's DLC that let's you do a second playthrough with sound, proving they didn't design the story to be understood without words even though the developer specifically stated understanding each other without words is the core theme of the story and just muted a regular fucking FMV brawler game. Worse yet is, half of the stuff the characters are saying is what you expected them to be saying, I guess I could understand it without words thanks for this DLC. The main plot and especially the stuff at the end is totally incomprehensible without it though, but oops I still don't really understand it even after being able to tell what they were saying. The game isn't fun to play, it looks terrible, there's lots of motion blur, the story is total garbage, and you should play it to experience one of the worst games of all time.
Then I played God of War III. It was pretty alright. Not great but alright. I had some fun and the story was fine I guess. I don't like the ending either I think it was super forced. Overall I think I'm interested in maybe playing the original god of war instead, or maybe Dante's Inferno.
But then I got to The Evil Within 2 aka PSYCHO BREAK 2 in japan, which is just a way better name. I liked this one quite a bit, it was a much better time than I had trying to play the first game, to the point I kinda wanna try that one again. Much better of a survival horror game than last time. It was actually kinda scary at some points, there was great horror imagery, lots of good designs and environments overall which is way better than the first game, the story was actually comprehensible this time around too. I liked it enough I might play it again some time, it gave me that good just tough enough feeling that a resident evil would give me while giving me some visuals I might see in a silent hill game. I mean sure none of them reach the peak of silent hill imagery but it's on par with some of the lower level stuff for sure.
I also played Oxenfree, another horror game but not the same kind. Oxenfree is kinda a walking simulator, there's no way to die from what I've seen, but you do need to solve puzzles to progress and make good dialogue choices to get the ending you want, so at least it's not on a Gone Home or Stanley Parable level. Or Dear Esther for that matter... you know what else sets it apart from those games, aside it's perspective and artstyle? It has good writing. Oxenfree is a pretty well written story, especially once you get to a certain point in the game and you start to understand the significance of the cryptic things you've been hearing. It's a very mysterious and interesting story that rewards you for paying attention to it and thinking about what's going on in it, a good puzzle type of story. I liked Oxenfree quite a bit and might play it again sometime, especially since it's short like it only took me like 2 or 3 days to finish. If you played a lot it could take you just one.
Then, cuz it was really cheap, I ended up getting Detroit: Become Human. I consider myself a fan of David Cage games, even if it's at best mostly ironically. He's so ambitious and always talks up his stories as if they're going to rival classic films and novels, but then churns out badly executed stories that are so cliche even hollywood wouldn't write them. Maybe because he's really just lifted plots wholesale from hollywood movies. I think Detroit is simultaneously Cage's best and worst "game". Worst in that it's his least hilarious and make fun-able, best in that the last statement is true. I like him the most when he's churning out unmitigated trash fires like Beyond: Two Souls, where you can't lose a single sequence and nothing you do in any scene actually affects any later ones because they're shown out of chronological order. Where the story is nonsensical and hilarious and just all around terrible. Because that's super entertaining! I'd put Beyond in with Indigo Prophecy/Farenheit, and Detroit in with Heavy Rain. I also like heavy rain, even though it's less hilarious and it's problems are all massive plot holes, bad writing, and stealing from SE7EN. Detroit's problems are mostly ham fisted "what does it mean to be human" and "what distinction is there between us and these androids"(hey hey if you want a good some of that play Nier: Automata), as well as the most obvious racism allegories you could possibly do, bad writing and stealing from Star Trek with Connor, stealing from Blade Runner and I, Robot for everything else. Not as many plotholes that I noticed this time around, the big one I think can be explained in that the designer of the the androids, Kamski, probably made them suspiciously human-like with the ability to break free from their subservience on purpose. Overall I think Detroit is an interesting and enjoyable story, I like the improvements to the whole "your actions have consequences" shit that DC always does(unlike in heavy rain you can die at more than one or two pre-determined points), but I think it's still hampered a lot by Cage's incompetence as a writer and director. I hope that he either improves to the point you can really like his stories unironically, or goes full retard and just makes more shit like Beyond.
I also played Sleeping Dogs, and boy was it a fun time! I liked it a lot it was fun to play, driving around was fun, the story was fun, I liked blowing up cars in the car chase scenes, I liked doing the side missions, I liked putting on fun costumes, I liked the writing and humor, it was just overall a fun good time and I don't really have much more to say than that!
Sanitarium is another game I played. Sanitarium is a classic PC adventure game, and I liked it a lot. I had to resort to guides a few times, but for the most part I was able to figure out how to progress on my own. I enjoyed the story, the different and strange vignettes, the themes of mental illness and insanity, the tone and atmosphere of the game, it was just a nice time. I hope to play more old PC games like this in the future.
I also played Harvester this year too! I liked that a lot too though there was way more guide looking this time, mostly in the Lodge so that I didn't have to reload old saves to get myself out of unwinnable situations. I did make multiple saves in there just in case though. Harvester is a weird, very weird, and also weird game. It's a commentary in video game violence, one that really culminates in the notion that it's really up to you if you're going to let a video game inspire you to hurt or kill someone. One might think looking at it that it's a hypocritical game, what with being maybe the most realistically gory game there was at the time due to all the FMV of practical gore effects and greenscreened onto real pople not-practical effects. However, if you really look at it closely, I don't think it's trying to wag it's finger at you, you can tell the people that made it were big fans of dumb low budget gory schlock. That's kinda what this game is, but with a pretty smart backbone to it, a lot of absurd and surreal humor, and pretty good biting wit. Maybe the standards have improved since then, but I still think if Harvester ever looked like something that might interest you, then check it out. It's like 5 bucks at most on steam and it goes on sale all the time. Or you can get it from GOG. You don't even have to configure DOSBox, GOG and Steam do that for you.
I played Fatal Frame for the first time as well, and while I had some frustrations with it I liked it anyway. My biggest gripe is that in camera mode, the thing you use to take pictures of the ghosts to kill them with your magica camera, left stick moves the view and right stick moves the character, so the opposite of FPS controls. It was incredibly difficult to get used to and I kinda never did, until the very end of the game this control scheme fucked with me, because you can't change it to something more sensible. Add in the fact sometimes ghosts just have inescapable moves(well, I couldn't anyway), and this game can be a hassle. To be fair, I did make things more difficult for myself for trying to save up healing items and special move stones for the final boss, as I would in a classic style Resident Evil game, only to find out that the last boss kills you in one hit so healers are useless, is very slow so the specials and good film I had were useless, and is generally just the easiest fight in the game. Whoops. Still, the game has issues, hut overall I liked it. I want to play more of these games, I'm starved for survival horror these days even with RE2make out and RE3make just around the corner. Even then, the game was spooky, gave me that good exploration and progression accomplishment feeling I get from from survival horror, and had an interesting story..
Speaking of Resident Evil, I also replayed Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 5. Not much to say, I liked RE3 still it's a good game, weakest of the original trilogy to be sure, partly because it was meant as a spin off, but still a good time. I'm interested in seeing how the remake handles it. And 5 is great too, I still really like 5. The game is fun, the story is fun, if you don't think so you're wrong my opinion is law you're going to jail fo-
Also tossed in a replay of Kingdom Hears: Dream Drop Distance for some reason. I just felt like it. Took me less time too about 15 hours I think on NG+.
I then completed Final Fantasy IV for the first time. I've played FFIV before, even gotten to the final boss, but I never beat it until this year. Even this time, I had a tough time beating Zeromus, yeah even in the US easy version, but I did it cuz I'm good at JRPGs. I think? Anyway, F to the F to the 4 is still a real good old JRPG. You can so clearly tell it was a transitional period for FF, where it was trying to really tell a good story about real characters and not blank slates, with big twists and turns and drama. I mean it comes out to an honestly pretty silly story, where you go to the fucking moon to fight your brother because you're secretly also from the moon. I mean, that's kinda while I like it, amidst the internal character drama that's not handled well is tons of weird plot twists and fake character deaths, leading to a story that is both confused and very charming. I like this game.
I also played the first Penumbra game and it was okay? I ended up not reading the text files I found because they were all like 10 pages long. I have no idea what the story is aside there's a weird eldritch god thing going on. I probably won't play more oof.
Also replayed Silent Hill 3, and I also may have played Silent Hill 1 again this year? I don't know. But I do know I played 3 again and boy is it still real good. I love Heather, I love the story, I love the graphics, I love the imagery, I love the intense scariness that still kinda gets me especially the noises the nurse monsters make oh god make it stop. The music is great too, of course, the voice acting is the exact right level of quality, just awkward enough in the right way that it accentuates the surreal vibe of the game. I love Silent Hill 3. I love Silent Hill 2. I love Silent Hill, and Silent Hill 4. I hate all Silent Hill games made after that.
I also played Crash Bandicoot: Warped and am currently in the middle of playing Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. Crash is crash, and Baten Kaitos is pretty good. I thought I'd be put off by the weird card mechanics of the battle system, but it's basically like a mix of the Xenosaga battle system(this is a Monolith Soft. game) and the Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories system but better. You put offense, defense, and healing cards in your deck. When it's your turn, you can attack with offense cards and combo as many of them as you're allowed based on your current "class", and can end them with a special move card, like protagonist Kalas' first one "Blue Storm". Using a special attack will also end the combo regardless of how many cards you could have played, so make sure to use it last if you can. During the enemy's turn, you can use your defense cards to block attacks, and if you strategize with them right you can come away with 0 damage. The cards have numbers which you can combine to get straights(i.e. 1 2 3) and pairs ( 1 and 1) for bonus damage, defense, or healing. It all works pretty well even when the game gives me a shitty hand like sometimes I just have all defense cards on my turn and all attack cards on defend rounds. Even with that, the combat is pretty fun and I feel like I must be decent at it cuz I haven't got a game over once. The game also seems like it'll give you a break if you're doing bad. Also, sometimes if you've built enough trust with the character in question, one of their cards might transform into a super special move. Oh, that's right, I forgot to say the most interesting part of this game: You play not as Kalas, but as his Guardian Spirit, a being "from another world" who has bonded to him, helps guide him, and lends him his power. It's a cool idea to let you be a character in the story who can roleplay a little without sacrificing an actually designed and developed protagonist. The story takes place in a world where there's no ground and islands just float in the sky, people have wings, and Kalas' grandfather and I think sister were killed by an imperial officer named Giacomo. Kalas is on a quest for revenge, but gets roped into a journey across the pre-rendered background islands to find the End Magnus before the empire does, so that they can't undo the seal on an ancient evil god called Malpercio. It's a pretty cool JRPG, but I can't help but feel it woulda been better if it was also written by Soraya Saga.
Finally, we have the best game I played this year that wasn't released this year: Nier: Automata. I already did a review of that game, so read it for my thoughts. It wins "best game I played that didn't come out this year except for maybe Final Fantasy X and Silent Hill 3".
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Ey watchu think mang?