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Mezmero

My cat doesn't meow so much as she grumbles.

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My Favorite 10 Games of 2020

Played/not-played, this-year/that-year, make/Remake/Remaster/redo. These are the games I liked the most in 2020.

Honorable Mentions:

Spelunky 2 - I adore the styyyle and structure of these games but I think I've determined that I just suck at playing them. Even though I've played a variety of rogue-esque-ish-lite-likes over the past few years Spelunky's skill ceiling just eludes me for whatever reason. I've seen enough streams that I know what I'm suppose to do I just can't make it happen consistently enough to feel like I'm making meaningful progress.

Tales of Vesperia/Berseria - This is the first time I've played any Tales game and I happened to play two great ones back to back. This year I felt I just needed the comfort of a good ol' fashioned JRPG and somehow played through two of my new favorites of the genre, and from the same franchise no less. Sure they're kinda generic in spots but the overall competence and production quality greatly elevated my enjoyment.

List items

  • As much as I love all of Supergiant's previous games Hades is truly an inspiring success story that I want to throw all of my enthusiasm behind because damnit it deserves it. It takes my long time love of Greek myth, my new time enjoyment of rogue-lites, my adoration for Supergiant's unique visual/narrative flavor and culminates into one of my all-time favorite games.

  • Confession time: this game is still unplayed on my shelf. It's just that I have so much love for vanilla Persona 5 that a better version of it is probably still better than any story based game that I have played in the past year.

  • Remastered(PS4). I'm extremely late to the party on this but what a terrific game! Kat's a wonderful character, the world is extraordinary, and the gravity shifting mechanics are fun and novel. I realize how bizarre it must seem to include a remastered Vita game this high on my list but knowing that this is a dead franchise passed GR2 makes me want to give this game some overdue praise when I can.

  • This is the one title I added to my list at the very last minute in the rollover between years. I have not played something this relaxing in quite a long time. The charming characters and flow of tasks makes me feel like I'm getting a microcosm of an Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon experience without needing quite the level of commitment. And yet the structure of the game is a lot more emotionally affecting than I was anticipating. Along with the gorgeous art and soothing music this was a no-brainer to sneak onto my end of year list.

  • For some reason I was getting back in JRPGs in a big way in 2020. Something about this long form style of game served as comfort food in such a rough year to be alive. The way that Like A Dragon takes a classic throwback approach to JRPGs and sets it in modern times works in a way that's almost transcendental. It's not a perfect approach as some of the anachronisms can interrupt the game flow but there is still such a massive amount of content to explore that I find it hard to complain too much as value propositions go. As a series Yakuza is always riding the line of absurdity, melodrama, and badassery so switching to this genre almost seems like a natural fit. Making a great game with a great main character gives me hope that there's still tons of creativity that this studio has to offer.

  • Yes I'm long time fan of the original FFVII and yes the trappings of the ending sequence annoyed me to no end. However I can't deny that I enjoyed most of my time playing this video game. The treatment of the characters and the preexisting fiction are brilliantly done and I was shocked how engaging the combat system was. Not sure what they do with it from here but I'll say this game was more successful than not.

  • Over the years I've become so numb to 'sci-fi-crazy' and yet 13 Sentinels almost uses that over-familiarity of tropes against you with some surprising poignancy. Not gonna lie, although I enjoyed the tale this game was spinning I never felt challenged at all playing through it. It can be pretty satisfying destroying enemies in droves during the tactical portions but I wasn't in danger of losing through the entire campaign. It being easy isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just that it's already a long game and at a certain point it feels like going through motions. At the end of the day there's really nothing quite like this in the visual novel space and I'm overjoyed that Vanillaware could bring it to fruition as I'm not sure anyone else could.

  • Played it this year for the first time and it's a fantastic detective game. I hesitate to say that it's close to "edu-tainment" in terms of testing your audio and visual comprehension. I would love to see this concept fleshed out just a bit more in the future but I could also understand letting it stay as a timeless and special classic for the ages.

  • No matter how far game design has come most popular game creators can't help but make cool, stylish, and often squeaky-clean protagonists. The one in this game however is a gross, hideous, and scary thing that exists only to consume. This was a short, fun game for what it is. But what is it...? Where did it go...? AHHHH GAWD MONSTER!

  • I have a lot of nostalgia for the Streets of Rage games, maybe even more than I have for the early Sonic games. Although this genre of game has become much more niche than in its glory days, this throwback of a sequel concretes this series as one of the very best. There are probably any number of better games that I played over the past year but also... yo you can play as Streets of Rage 1 character models. Good enough for me!
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