Post
by Aria Genisi (?) » Wed Dec 06, 2017 6:51 pm
This year was basically "picking and choosing which games I'm going to get" because there was a lot I was interested in playing, and hoo boy, there was a lot of games this year. So I'm just gonna talk about the games I played for this list, because I liked all of them anyways. Going in no real particular order:
Nier Automata: While I haven't played Nier or any Drakengard games, I've certainly experienced them through LPs, and I was really interested in, and I love those guy this one, especially since it was co-developed by Platinum Games. The gameplay is really good (albiet not top-tier quite like bayonetta), but the story, music, and characters absolutely stole the show. And most notabily, this could only work as a game. Some games you could see it being presented as movie or something else, but the gameplay is just so deeply ingrained into the story and it's themes. It's absolutely fantastic. This is easily one of my favorite games of the year.
Persona 5: This game oozes style, and is overall fantastic. The story is really good, I love the setting, and I really enjoyed the day to day stuff like I did in Persona 4. I just have Problems with some things, which keeps me from enjoying it quite as much as I could. There's a lack of good representation of LGBT themes/characters, when the most notable examples are this gay couple that show up briefly to hit on and harass the protagonist and Ryuji. Presumably for laughs. And then the midpoint event of the second dungeon feels like it entirely goes against everything the very first dungeon was arguing against. And me, personally? I think it's really rather weird that there are a good number of older women in social links that you can have the 16-yo protagonist romance.
It's still a great game, but when I look back at it, I just can't help but find some stuff in the game that just bothers me about it.
Prey: they called the third system shock game "Prey". This game feels like the first true and proper system shock successor since system shock 2. I liked the Bioshock games (except for 2, because I never played it) when they came out, but as time went on, more and more problems made themselves apparent. But Prey? This one is really damn good. It absolutely has some flaws, like how when you're almost upon the endgame, combat becomes a damn slog, and how you can basically make combat against most of the enemies entirely trivial by improving your shotgun and unloading a couple of shells. At the end of the day, however, this succeeds at creating a successor to the System Shock games, while also going in it's own direction. It created a believable and lived-in environment and setting and has a great story.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The switch rules, and this was a great way to sell me on the system. An entirely open zelda game that I could just go running around and exploring in for hours is a hell of a thing. I like open world games, but in recent years, they've been a mess of busywork. BotW fixes that by giving you an actual reason to go exploring the land. There's large ubisoft towers that give you map data, sure, but they only reveal the landscape. Any notable landmarks or destinations or extras to find are on YOU to find. And you don't HAVE to go running around either! just do whatever you feel like! And it's great! I liked having to explore and find my own path around the world, and always having means to do either stupid shit, or sensible stuff with the tools I've been given. It's just a great game to get lost in.
Blaster Master Zero: The origional Blaster Master is a good game, and this is a fantastic remake. When it first came out, it was solid and fun, but it didn't have much replay value. As time went on, free updates to introduce new extras and DLC characters from other games helped add more to the game. It's a lot of fun and well worth the $10 asking price, but it's not as outstanding as some other games that came out this year.
Mighty Gunvolt Burst: Inti Creates comes and shows Comcept how it's done. By all accounts, Mighty No. 9's 2016 release was a disaster. While I had plenty fun with the game, there's no denying the many issues with the game. Then Inti Creates, hot off their previous releases of Gunvolt 2 and Blaster Master Zero, comes out with a sequel to the small retro-themed bonus Gunvolt/MN9 tie-in game, Mighty Gunvolt. The origional was just a short and basic game, but it was fun enough bonus for people who bought Gunvolt 1 and/or backed MN9. Burst, however, is a full fledged game, and truly feels like a proper megaman-like, but with a catch: you get to customize your buster and special properties. All throughout the game, you collect various bonus abilities and CP to work with, letting you custom build the sort of projectiles you want to use, as well as add special abilities you can use while you have that weapon equipped. It's a really fun time and I had a blast.
Sonic Mania: I've spent way too much time on this game. Finally, a proper "back-to-basics" Sonic game. Christian Whitehead and co really knocked it out of the park with this game. It's just a really fun game to just play whenever. It was intended to be like a continuation of the genesis games, and it really feels like it. Fantastic music, fantastic sprite-work, and the level design is just really on point. There's some missteps with some bosses being not really that good (oil ocean's bosses come to mind, as well as flying battery act 2's boss), the final stage is a bit long, and blue spheres as a bonus stage, while fun, really breaks the pace by being too long at times. I love this game though, and I need a copy of the soundtrack on my phone asap. When can i buy the soundtrack sega.
Metroid: Samus Returns: metroids's back baby, it's good again. Aruoooo (wolf howl). God, I've been waiting for a game like this for what seems way too long. AM2R was a fantastic fangame, but god, it's good to see that there's more metroid on the way and that it's still good, despite Other M and Federation Force kinda hanging in the air like an ugly spectre. It's got good exploration, the Aeion abilities are a really neat new feature to add to the game, the story was handled pretty great, and all of the boss fights were fun. Diggernaut's final form sucked though, Area 3 felt like a huge drought in terms of powerup progression, and it's honestly a bit hard to guess that powerbombing while in spiderball did anything. I do think that AM2R did some things better than Samus Returns, but I really liked a lot of things that SR did differently. I can easily find love for both SR and AM2R.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus: Back when The New Order came out, it was such a breath of fresh air for me when it came to FPS games. I loved the story, loved the gameplay, and it was just great. Loved the Old Blood, too! The New Colossus is also pretty damn fantastic. I do admit that I need to revisit the game, but I think Doom really kinda spoiled me, and TNC felt a little wonkier gameplay-wise than I would have liked. The story is still a standout though, and with all the real world bullshit going on these days, it felt a bit cathartic to experience it. I just need to get around to replaying it and playing all the extra stuff.
Super Mario Odyssey: This game is just...fun. Like, just a really damn fun platformer. It's kind of a chore to try and 100% every last damn thing at times, but just trying to get to the end, and collect a ton of moons and explore the absolutely packed kingdoms that the game has to offer is seriously a lot of fun. I love New Donk City, I love the Steam Gardens, the Luncheon Kingdom, the endgame is absolutely fantastic, and it's just a lot of fun! I just don't have a lot to say other than it's just extremely fun and it's a great switch game.
Sonic Forces: It's not as amazing as Mario Odyssey. It's not as fantastic as Sonic Mania. Hell, I'd argue that Colors and Generations are still better than this game. But damn, if I still didn't enjoy Sonic Forces a whole bunch. It's a short game, but it's solid, focused, and fun. I like trying to customize my avatar, I like the music a whole bunch, and I like that the game didn't try to go for some sort of major gimmick beyond the player avatar. I do wish that maybe they added a bit more to the game, especially with the story, where it seems that it goes a little too quickly at times, and how it doesn't give a proper resolution to the villains. Also I want to slap whoever named the final boss, because it's bad. That is not a Death Egg Robot. Call it the Infinite Phantom Egg or something. Anything else!
It's still a good game though, imo.
Night in the Woods: God. What a game. When I got the game in the middle of november, I was kinda at a low point, mood-wise the past few months, just from how everything has been going with my life, as well as how things were going in the news. And honestly? Some of the stuff that the game touches on hit a bit too close to home, which didn't help things either. But even then, I continued. There's just something about the characters, the setting, and the dialogue that just resonates with me so personally. And Mae in particular just so relatable in a lot of ways. I went through the last act and reached the epilogue in a single night, and I couldn't stop. I was hooked. And despite all the crap that did hit me throughout the game, the end of the game left me with a sense of closure, and being able to move on.
Life sucks. There's a ton of bullshit, and there's certainly going to be pain and hardship as there are some issues just so deeply ingrained that they can't just be easily solved in a single night, or even a couple of nights. But despite the bad, there's good too. It's possible to be able to reach a point where you can have a chance to move forward in a positive direction, even if it's slow and small gains. There's always hope.
And I just loved this game. It resonates with me very personally, and it's one of my absolute favorites for this year. No doubt about it.
I just want Bioware to tell good stories with fun characters again. HZD did this better than they did, but it seems like nobody wants to do games with real choices anymore except CD Projekt Red.
("Don't try to reform me, Hag, because I'm made of cold stone.")
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Dat Inventive Spin: Mighty Gunvolt Burst
It's not Scummy. How About That: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Blessed Remake: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
Ye Sickest of Tunes: Sonic Mania
The Dark Souls of Something or Other: Cuphead
I'm No Speedrunner, But: KAMIKO
Played, Liked, and Neglected Halfway Through: Slime-san
Bought and Promptly Forgotten About: Horizon Zero Dawn
Actually, That One Came out Last Year: Beglitched
You Stuck with Us in Spite of Everything: Super Bomberman R
