This year's list is almost a distilled version of last years list. Every theme and trend in 2014's upped to rotgut strength: the polished classic topper, the strong but single-flawed second tier, the half off/half amazing bottom tier, and a few undercooked but respectable bench-warmers at the end, the vast litany of on-the-cheap LTTP all-time classics gone unmentioned in this go.
I am 39% terrible at this game. The music is generic bleh. I whiff 70% of my aerials. Ballchasers enrage me. I still have problems with striking consistantly.
I find myself disgusted, but then I want more. I land that aerial. I bank-pass for the score. I get that hat trick painting the corners of the net like Greg Maddux. I go René Higuita on a vicious offensive barrage. I steal the dribble. I get better. I play again.
And again.
And again.
And again...
You can't ask for more out of a game, dammit.
I wish more games nailed The Feel that this game does of consistant engaugement, perfectly interlocking mechanics, and responsive controls first, then the bells and whistles. Cuz gosh darnit, you do that and the world will beat a path to your door like we did to Psyonix.
Second Chapter was the payoff to a very unsure wait of four and a half years and it almost over-delivered.
Wait, lemme explain that.
With SC, the writers at Falcom pulled off actions that most RPG designers never even attempt despite calls for it in passing from players: characters both inside and outside the party have full arcs, even some generic-model NPCs like Anton and Miranda do. Bringing different optional characters to events brings specific rich dialogue, no plot thread goes unwoven, full short stories, backstories, on and on and on in that rich, conversational, personality-driven way.
The issue is that there's almost too much of it in repetition; you journey thru four regions, observe four plots by four dastardly agents of the antagonist organization, later fight thru four towers to fight said four agents for the first time, then fight them again in the final dungeon, then a very long final "point-of-no-return" end boss extravaganza to close it out.
This leaves all this richness of dialogue, music, characterization, theming, side-quests, metaplot, and many other wonderous facets at times burying us players in "almost too much good". I hate to call it a pacing issue as that usually results in stretching the game out thin and what they were doing is usually the same quality goodness as the rest of what you played, but it ended up leaving me feeling tired until the late parts of the foursomes hit exceptionally high notes.
And there is so much good in this. Estelle and Joshua's journey is done exemplarily well; I have never seen a better romance soup to nuts in this medium with this combination of density and quality. Their choices, their triumphs, and their setbacks pass muster with their personalities and the plot (which is too often in others just leaping from high point to high point).
The music is a triumph, hitting industry-topping benchmarks for composition and passion, the overall metaplot is an excellent dance partner for the main plot that never feels tacked on and the writers gave us everything we need to understand the signifigance yet always leaving you hungry for more information, and Chapter Six is easily one of the best segments of a game in history.
All in all, too much good is better than too little, but it is getting knocked for a loop having the opposite for once and is still an exemplary journey for everyone who likes worldbuilding and light narrative excellence.
Bring on more Trails, the Thirst still needs slaking.
On the very very short list of "games whose writing can stand in sight of Planescape: Torment". This game knows when to go direct, when to pour on the flowery purple prose, how to coin a phrase, or when to use an obscure euphamism with exemplary grace and power.
It is eerie, it overflows with choking atmosphere, and the creativity is off the damn charts. Islands where people play chess 24/7 till they're covered with coral? A city of self-mummifying dead? An island where postmen desperately organize lost mail? HE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN T
The few flaws come with the utilization of Roguelike mechanics on this text adventure/CPRG/Roguelike hybrid. Some say the start is too repetitious, but I feel the real problem comes at end game when currency and resources are a trifle and you're tooling around in a Behemustache-crushing death ship searching for the next knot in the story thread you're currently embarked on.
But it's small potatoes for how many highs this game has. Set sail, the Zee calls.
Another great peanut butter & chocolate indie darling that was hard to put down. Taking the "everyone and everything takes a turn" regimen of Roguelikes and putting it to a booty-moving beat is the kind of brilliance that is a big reason why video games are fun. Many different characters to play as, the graphics have deft shading on them (take that about eleventy gorillion pixel art games!), the upgrades are deep and full of pluses and minuses, and the game does the "unlocking of upgrades" deal much, much better than Rogue Legacy did by shunting it off into a seperate mode. It's just a great silly time.
Some have been suffering from Frenzy and clashing with the those who delved into too much Insight about this title, but From did a pretty damn solid job trimming the metaseries down to an action game with RPG trappings.
It's the same cohesive art direction, level design, theming, darkness, brutality, and the dignified descent into insanity and ruin that characterizes Miyazaki's genius. Trick weapons are a delight (PIMP CANE MOTHERFUCKERS), the use of ranged weapons as the parry system is a brilliant solution to the problem of magic being easy mode and the reliance on shields for riposte, the Space Marine-esque use of healing via cuttin' fools is well-implemented to make combat beastly good, and those little touches like The Doll being an MGS2-level meta-commentary on the waifu movement's atraction to The Maiden In Black of DeS is all too, too good and well-implemented.
Hitboxes are great again! Early on, I missed thrusting some werewolf with my charge attack due to its attack at the same time rearing back mere centimeters from my devastating blow, leading me to getting rolled. Was mad for a split second before smiling. Enemies also don't do that damn DS2 thing where they run up and crowd you swinging on a swivel that narrows combat; they're again dangerous duelists, powerful mages, and feral monsters trying to kill you, not punish you for when you're attacking "when you shouldn't".
There are problems. PvP and PwP are dumbly both hidden away in a few levels and requires a consumable, the camera when any overhangs exist is a nightmare with all the quick-lunging huge beasties you tangle with, and there's a wierd frame problem with the riposte that took some getting used to.
Still, it's a great time and I need to get around to that expansion pack they cooked up this year sometime. The Hunt calls, it does...
The Year of Dreams 2015 drops another hot plate of goodness in our laps with this 6th title in the Trails series. We get to see the teetering viper's nest that is the Erebonian Empire, the metanarrative and world-building of Falcom's rumble on in its greatness, new beloved characters get introduced, old beloved characters continue being belovable, and last but not least another magnificient soundteam_JDK soundtrack rocking out oh so sophisticatedly for our enjoyment.
This game got much, much better as it goes along. Don't get me wrong, by hour 4-ish it's right in-gear with classic Trails goodness we know and love, but the prologue is a chore that's drug down with an unfortunate case of the Stock Dull Anime Situation "Humor" Syndrome to the point that the characters then and later are almost different people. There's also a real problem with a few characters that clearly exist as creeper bait that either exhibit disturbing fetishy behaviors, dialogue, or dress that...and I'll be blunt, do not belong here and did nothing but drag down every scene they're in. Luckily, two of them get better later on to become much more tolerable but it puts an otherwise much better title almost at war with itself (hell, the whole series really; this ain't some random JRPG here).
There's also the fact that this is Falcom's very first foray into full 3D and the technical hurdles present some problems in the form of seriously varying texture quality in close proximity, awkward animations, a framerate that chugged like crazy in crowds, and those crowds that were always smaller than they should be for their scenes and always eerily unmoving. Luckily this was fixed in the sequel and I don't usually go in on this sort of thing but it was enough to erode enjoyment a little bit.
Past that though, it's a great build up of political, fractional, ancient mysteries, clashing personalities, and plotting till a fantastical Thrist-Inducing ending that left me smiling and hyped for the sequel.
Combat and the sorta-simplified orbment system (the "materia" system of the game sorta) is a wierd one; the game is very generous with mechanics, spells, food, and skills that replenish CP, and the logarithmic nature to the offense calculations leads all-too-easily to stacking strength, getting 200cp and a STR buff or two over much else (aka the "One-Shotting Bosses with Laura 'I'm Fucking Guts' Arseid" method). Still, combat is quick, flashy, and they didn't fall into the trap alot of RPGs do with link mechanics of it overshadowing everything else; they really thought it thru and even had story purposes behind it! Falcom, you so smart.
I really enjoyed my Witcher 2 playthru; it was a game that was by adults, for those they percieve as adults, and Witcher 3 continues that noble tradition.
This game frames black-gray-white moral and ethical choices in orders of magnitude better ways than other games of its ilk. You just stumble upon things going Bad Wrong with no warning and no framing of what's coming as a D&D alignment test, and even when I knew some were coming (Bloody Baron and Ugly Baby) they kept the surprises coming early and often putting me on the backfoot where I should be there. Geralt is a good-hearted, powerful man and all that can get him in many cases is in trouble, incapable of setting things right, and safe with his neck intact. All of this is tapped off by fixing a flaw with W2's narrative of indistinct social station in the language of the speakers. Various factions, races, ethnic groups, classes, etc speak much more distinctly from each other in W3's English VA and script, allowing say, Geralt's brusque manner around the emperor come off as the dangerous way of addressing him it is compared to the subservient floweriness of his attendants and officers towards him; something that was lacking in 2.
This game also does open world reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal good. It reminds me of Xenoblade with a strong Slavic flair. They're not scared to put large tracts of nothing to give off the vibe of large tracts of nothing. Camps are few, the environment of Velen behaves like it would in the northern european plain with rivers meandering into the sandy bluffs, poplars and willows in the bogs and pines and spruces on the highground, and the natural political, economical, and lore of the world has a ton of influence on the quests and makeup of the lands you travel thru. Commendable.
But there's reasons it's 7th on my list, and they constantly fight with the game's flow. W3 has a dark fetish with Detective Vision so much of our investigations with the White Wolf involve a nasty case of headache-inducing tunnel vision and highlighted clues that could have been, you know, stick out via something more subtle or just have Geralt look at it. Its combat is in this odd no man's land between Japanese APRG, intricate euro jank, and sludgy NA/WE ARPG combat that is admittedly alievated by specking like I did into bombs and swift strikes to end fights before they started to wear down on my nerves. Then you have the wierd behavior of just walking indoors like in a zillion other AAA games where the camera is too close and the turning radius is just off which for the life of me I can't understand the need to change towards. The fix helps but still.
This is a pretty fun rough draft of the intricately-interwoven politically-charged light-mechanic RPG that, along with the Trails series, helps fill the Harmonia-sized hole in my heart thanks to #FucKonami. You get some stumbles from a crew just now putting that love of Suikoden into action, in a language they're also coming to grips with expressing nuance in, the explicit stating of moral/ethical dilemmas, and a few animation quibbles. But countering this, you have this snazzy aggro system that makes tanking a thing with flair, pleasant music, and a mountain of heart. I look forward to seeing them get better with the sequels.
A wierd, wierd wierd game I picked up on a whim in a dry spell seeking out some of that Carpe Fulgur localization fun. Capyhouse has this wonderful way with their art, kaleidoscoping, tesseracts, bold colors, and layouts that show visual talent aplenty. Plus it's just so soothing to set this wierd star-creation engine into motion and then alt-tab to do something else (good QoL feature done right here), then come back to see what onmyodo wierdness I cooked up. It's grinding without the neurosis.
It's like a kiddie-pool expy of Kawazu's deranged flight of fancy SaGa titles, and despite that, still has the maddening flaws of that crazy man's work they ape in contrived arbitrary mechanics, inexplicably dropped character narratives, and general filling-space chapters. Yet I don't hate it; I think Hamauzu's intriguing OST and the general dream-like air of the game did a lot for that.
