Another year is now over and it's truly been one to remember. It's had its share of good and bad moments but now it's time for me to celebrate what 2020 had given us within gaming and award that which deserves praise. I started doing these blogs back in 2012 and 2020 certainly found a way to be unique from all other years before it. Feel like I got to play most of the games that I wanted this year and those that I've yet to play don't make me wait with this blog. As always there will be spoilers. Now lets get this show going and first out is..

The Anticipated

The games that I looked forward to this year that got released this year and which I had the chance to play:

1. Crusader Kings III

2. Final Fantasy VII Remake

3. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV

4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

5. Nioh 2

What game lived up the anticipation the best?

Final Fantasy 7 Remake - This is the game that handled whatever expectations I held the best and outdid them the most. Before this game I hadnt been much of a Final Fantasy fan but with such a legendary title having a remake the interest was there and while I didnt expect too much what I did expect got blown out of water and what was delivered was one of the finest games of the year and maybe even of recent times. I had an absolute blast playing this game from it's combat, visuals and many other aspects working so well together and created a fantastic game that's made me delve deeper into the FF series and made me truly look forward to what comes next for this magical franchise!

The largest disappointment

Crusader Kings III - Now the title makes it seem way worse than it actually is. I actually quite enjoy this game and play it every now and then so the question is why does it get the award despite this? Simply because the catergory exist and someone gotta have it and this isnt the first time the award goes to a game I picked up and enjoyed. Maybe it's simply a sign that I've gotten better at avoiding true disappointments over the year and 2020 would signal that to be true with an obvious candidate being Cyberpunk 2077 which I massively looked forward to yet didnt pick up at launch which seems to have been a smart deicison. What Crusader Kings III has dragging it down is that this game is the base game that attempts to compete with its predecessor CK2 which got many years of DLCs and balancing helping it out making it from the start an impossible battle for Crusader Kings III to win. Still with that said I somewhat expected a bit more as right now the game is fun but not fun enough to sink in the hundreds of hours a title like it should make me want to do

Places 10-8

10. Animal Crossing: New Horizons: First out is Animal Crossing! A game that came out in the time it was the most needed. Rarely if ever has a game been timed so well and this without any intention from its publisher or developer. I took the chance to jump onto this series and see what it was about and what I found was a relaxing and enjoyable game that while not as much to my taste as for others was still a welcome experience to handle 2020. Picking stuff, building, just taking my time doing things without feeling like I had to do something was a truly wonderful feeling

9. Hades: Always been a fan of Supergiant Games and loved all their games and Hades is no different. Not been completely captured by the game as of this moment but it's something that will happen in due time. That said it's possibly the best game that the developers have made and they should be proud of this beatuiful, entertaining and challenging game that tried to be unique and having success doing so. I'll for sure play it many, many, many times in 2021 and see it to the end!

8. Nioh 2: The first Nioh was a nice challenge and a good attempt at the formula and to challenge FromSoft but it felt like the developers could do a lot better and that's what they did with Nioh 2. Everything about the game is superior to the original Nioh and at times by a great margin. The bosses, the average enemy are more interesting this time around and with a character creator of incredible quality it's possible to create your perfect character that will be with you throughout the entire game. I love this game and while I wish the protagonist had a voice it's an acceptable lose if it means the well-developed character creator. Still got the DLC to play and I've heard plenty of good about them so.. I'll be back Nioh 2!

The Unexpected

Yakuza: Like a Dragon: Is the game that surprised me the most this year and I say that as an avid fan of the series. This game is a bold decision by the developers where they go for a new protagonist and a new combat system and to be honest the system was my largest concern and a reason why I held off getting the game until I could hear the opinions of people I trusted. With that extra time I came to realise that this game might have something for me and that it absolutely did. This is exactly the game that Yakuza as a series needed and exactly what I needed in 2020. The game that dared to embrace the nature of being a video game more than any other and said screw it, lets have a monkey drive a digger and be a boss fight! THAT is what I need more in my video games. Balls to the walls crazy should be embraced more often!

Places 7-5

7. Crusader Kings III: Already covered this a little but to go more in-depth the one thing this game has nailed better is making combat, the actual warfare much more enjoyable than it was in the past. Otherwise it's laid a very good foundation for the developers to build a game to overtake it's older sibling but until then it's just lacking that "thing" that makes me want to go "one more ingame month" and to see the hours fly past. It's good but it's not addicting yet!

6. Ghost of Tsushima: A game I also waited on picking up as money was tight but when I did pick it up I realised the praise it had achieved was well earned and within this game I found the perfect samurai powerstory. The game is clearly very beautiful but it's so much more than impressive graphics! It got a fitting and well crafted soundtrack that draws you in but what truly did it for me wasnt the story or the character but the gameplay which made me look forward to taking on my foes with ever growing enthusiasm and fun. What does it matter if I face 20 enemies! Just means I need to get a bit better at its mechanics and with time I did and so increased the enjoyment of this game. Enjoyed it so much I had to pick up the platinum trophy and at no point was that hunt a drag!

5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - 2020 was the year I finally caught up with this series and a lot of the reason for that is because I wanted to enjoy this game as much as I could. Didnt care much for whatever reputation it had among some people. I knew this game could be amazing and to be honest it at times was just that amazing. It brought with it an awesome OST with some real bangers and visually it wasnt all that bad either. Gameplay was the same as usual and the story and characters were what I had become to know and love from Trails. Could technically talk about this game all day discussing its strengths and weaknesses but to put it briefly it's a decently long game that I for the most part enjoyed a great deal! A game with many high highs and a handful of low lows!

Best Soundtrack

Hajimari no Kiseki - No absolutely clear winner this year. Several strong candidates but the OST that I enjoyed the most belongs to this title. The OST is vast with varied quality so not every piece of music is all that great but most of the OST is damn good and the best tracks are phenomenal. I've had some of them playing almost non-stop since I finished the game just a few days ago as of writing this. What those tracks is bring back the memories of relevant scenes and the feelings I felt during those scenes and it's a blessing to be able to re-experience certain parts of the game the way that the OST of Hajimari allow me. The soundtrack got a song or music ready for every situation the game throws at us and some of the soundtracks in this fantastic soundtrack are so very good that I will listen to them for years to come and that is how I know that a soundtrack is a step above the others. I have a feeling this wont be the last time that a Trails game will be a winner of this category over the years to come!

Most Impressive Aesthetic

Final Fantasy VII Remake - An award that's often gone to Supergiant Games and their titles and almost did once again but the game that impressed me the most was instead FF VIIR and this isnt about being the most lifelike or anything but about pulling me in with the visual stuff and that's what this game did the best of every game played this year. This is a very beautiful game and is that without compromissing anything else about the game and it's how you use this strength that in the end separate the winner from the others.

Place 4

Persona 5 Royal - Wasnt sure how to approach this game in this blog post as it's the first time since I started in 2012 a game that's very much similar to its original form with a fair bit of additional content. Would I judge the entire game or would I judge just the new content? I went for simply judging the new content and the changes made to the old content. Persona 5 won my GOTY back in 2017 and this game is actually as a whole better with the addition of two amazing characters, a fantastic third season in the game so the new stuff is very, very good but not enough to reach further than 4th. Not every change is an improvement and Royal in a way showcase that this is the best that Atlus can do with this formula and for future releases I want something very different than what P3-P4-P5 have given us. Persona 5 Royal is a very good game in its own right and a worthy purchase for certainly newcomers but for many returning fans of Persona 5 that want more of what made them fall for the original.

Best Game Played That Was Released In The Past

Final Fantasy X - The remaster version in my case and my third ever Final Fantasy game. Always wanted to play it but never found that push I needed to make the leap but 2020 was the year where I finally did it and this game is a gem. It's aged not so well in some areas but where age hasnt affected the game is its characters. Some funny, maybe even charming character moments aside that's affected by when the game was made the character in this game are phenomenal and I feel not only for Lulu, Riku, Titus etc but more than anything I fell for Yuna and her story. It's what pulled me in and made me overlook the age of parts of the game and instead focus on its positives and the charm the game carries with it. The game is pretty too and not to mention got a fantastic OST with absolute diamonds such as "Return to Zanarkand" as maybe one of the best tracks I've ever heard. So if you want to give Final Fantasy a go and dont know where to start.. this is certainly not a bad place to start!

Place 3

Final Fantasy 7 Remake - The first podium position goes to this fantastic title. It's a position earned through a very enjoyable combat system, fantastic visuals, strong soundtrack and most importantly the good story with the essentially incredible characters that give the game, the world, everything the life a truly incredible game requires. What more than anything made me love this game is the characters. Tifa, Aerith, Cloud, Jessie, Barret and every other member in this game are crucial components in making this game as good as it is. Take one character away and it starts to fall apart and lose the brilliance it's worked so hard to build up.

Best Side Content

Yakuza: Like a Dragon - Yakuza games always got good side content and this game is no different. I probably by now have spent almost twice as much time doing the side stuff as I spent doing main content such as the main storyline and I dont regret a single moment. The management system, the can collection, the school, the racing.. everything comes together to create a very entertaining game that respect the players time by always attempting to find new ways to be fun.

Place 2

Yakuza: Like a Dragon - Wait.. more Yakuza!? Well yes it's such a good game that it managed to not only earn itself two awards but also work itself up to 2nd place among the best games I played in 2020 and it's by the smallest of margins it falls short to win it all. I've said it before but it's worth repeating, this game embraces being a video game better than most other games. Some try to be movies, some try to be serious so much they lose what makes games fun. All of that couldnt be further from the truth as Yakuza: LAD combines serious storytelling during the main story where complex questions and issues are tackled with due respect with the fun natured sillyness that video games are uniquely well-placed to embrace with its combat, side content and all the stuff around the main story and its characters. This game and Yakuza series has walked this line between serious and silly for so long they can do it in the sleep and still nail it. This game just nails it better than most of its predecessors and certainly better than the industry at large!

Character of the Year

C - Hajimari spoilers incoming, been warned! C or otherwise known as Rufus Albarea is the best character of 2020 for me. There've been many challengers but none as amazing as him. Hajimari took a well-developed character with insane potential yet to be filled from the end of Cold Steel 4 and when Hajimari was over I had experienced a truly remarkable character journey where a husk of a person had grown fully alive and full of vigour. I could gush on for ages about Rufus and the journey he did but it's a journey best experienced rather than read on some blog. It would be a grave injustice for me to spoil any detail.

Game of the year

Hajimari no Kiseki - Is the winner of 2020 Rah GOTY award and it just by the smallest of margins won over Yakuza: LAD. In the end the last game I played in 2020 ended up being the best game of the year. Truly ending a miserable year on a high! The story is really good, engrossing like no other this year for me. It completely absorbed me and in turn made me spend almost every free hour I had for just over a week on this game, the characters introduced in this game are some of the best that I have ever seen in a game and old favorites return to shine once again, some brighter than ever before. Not to mention the gameplay which is really enjoyable and about as good as I believe Falcom can make it with the current formula. The game is the best that the Trails series in my opinion has ever been and utilize the previous games and the work they put in for the series in a truly masterful manner which does all the hard work great credit. I cant wait until the west get this game localized so many, many others game enjoy this fantastic game. I imported a copy from Japan and with a spreadsheet done by heroes of the fandom experienced this game earlier than I otherwise would've and that in some part played a role in giving Hajimari the award it so well has earned. Well done Hajimari no Kiseki, well done Falcom. G O T Y!

And with all of that this blog is done and over. 2021 looks promising for gaming and should hopefully be able to deliver some reprive for us that are around to deal with a world gone mad and mader and madest. Until then, bye-onara!