Game of the Year 2019
Previously posted as a blog though this list has one difference:
It was a wild year personally, in mid-January I was taken into a room at work and told that after nearly 8 years, my services were no longer required. This left me with some time to really reset my batteries and, quite frankly, sit down and play a lot of games…I mean, I finished a lot of old games this year. It also speaks volumes that the top two games on this list were games that I dedicated a lot of time to in my first month of unemployment, no commitments, staying up till 4am like a student with no desire at that point to look for another job. But eventually I had to get off my ass and start working again as my paternal instinct kicked in when I got a dog in June. I got a new job after a 5 month break and life has been pretty good since. There’ll probably be a bit of navel gazing at the top of this list as a result of all this.
But before we get to the list proper:
Still to play: Daemon X Machina, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Disco Elysium
Best Game I played this year, released last year and re-released this year: Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age - I adored this game and it kicked off a bit of an obsession with the Dragon Quest franchise...which we'll get into later. Seriously though, this would be high on my list and I potentially could have justified it, but I didn't play the Switch port.
Best older game I played this year which was then re-released this year: Final Fantasy VIII - I tried to play through this a couple of years ago but stopped for a variety of reasons. Earlier this year, I restarted it and once I pushed through the start, really fell for it pretty hard. Seriously, this game gets way to hard a time, I thought it was great.
Best old game I played this year: Final Fantasy VI - Hey, everyone was right. Sure, some of the characters are a bit underdone but the scope of this is just so grand. It’s incredible and I can’t wait to get back to Japan and get some stuff from this game. Oh and that soundtrack made me subscribe to Spotify just so I could listen to it.
Disappointments: Astral Chain and Devil May Cry 5 – Was looking forward to both and both probably disappointed for the same reasons, boring repetitive combat that there was too much of which I just couldn’t get into at all.
Game I may potentially regret not putting on this list but haven’t played enough of: Judgment – What I played was great but I fell off for two reasons, the first was that Dragon Quest Builders 2 grabbed my attention at the same time and didn’t let go. The other was the fact that I had played through Yakuza 4, 5 and 6 the year before and was a little worn out with the style of game.