Hailinel's Top 10 of 2012: Another GOTY List Post

Neat list you got there. I played some of those but none of them ended up on personal list which i'm working on. Just shows how diverse this medium can be.

I only played about 8 hours of Xenoblade but nothing about it grabbed me. The combat felt like a worse version of Final fantasy 12. Not being able to stop and control other party members kills it for me. Plus i felt it was trying to be a combination of MMO and JPRPG while ending up a poor version of both.

@Demoskinos said:

@Hailinel said:

@Mento said:

As I suspected, we have at least three items in common (four if I felt comfortable including Xenoblade Chronicles, since it was a 2011 game from my perspective). It'll be interesting to see how well XC and The Last Story do on ThatFrood's collated community GOTY list, given how the Japanophile quotient around here is deceptively higher than the site's official coverage of such games would suggest. The Last Story especially, seeing how divisive it seems to be; us loving it and PixelPrinny and VGK hating it. Though it does have one thing over Resonance of Fate in that you can actually figure out how to play the damn thing without some form of internet help guide. Not since Knights in the Nightmare had I gotten so lost with a game.

I also wish I had given Virtue's Last Reward a shot, seeing it on the GameSpot list of nominees was kind of a surprise. I still need to play 999, alas.

For the time being, though, I'm wrapping up as many Indie games as possible before I start on my GOTY stuff. It's wearing on my sanity a little, I won't lie.

I'm interested to see how the games appear on ThatFrood's list, as well. I guess now that I've played it, I should go back and check what others have said about The Last Story and see how our opinions differ.

But man, if if Resonance of Fate is as indecipherable as Knights in the Nightmare, that has to be freakin' crazy.

What story wise? I can't speak entirely about the story because I never actually finished the game but from what I played I followed.

No, gameplay-wise. I keep hearing that RoF practically requires a FAQ just to understand how to play it with any sort of understanding because the tutorial is apparently awful at doing its job.

@JasonR86 said:

@Hailinel:

Wow, you've made a list of 10 games that I've not played at all. We enjoy a weird hobby.

We do indeed.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

Neat list you got there. I played some of those but none of them ended up on personal list which i'm working on. Just shows how diverse this medium can be.

I only played about 8 hours of Xenoblade but nothing about it grabbed me. The combat felt like a worse version of Final fantasy 12. Not being able to stop and control other party members kills it for me. Plus i felt it was trying to be a combination of MMO and JPRPG while ending up a poor version of both.

There's definitely an MMO influence, but I actually like how it plays better than FFXII. And not being able to control my teammates isn't so much of an issue.

@Hailinel: Hmm. I don't know that I'd agree. I never used a FAQ myself. I think its easy enough to understand the basic concepts its just a game that finding your footing in it is going to take patience and a LOT of failure to get to the place where you understand it on the level that you are able to adapt and react to situations on the fly.

@Hailinel: I liked the idea behind aggro and all the positioning type moves but my team mates were bad at manage aggro that I could not play well. As someone who played a lot of WOW back in the day I felt like it took steps towards a MMO style but lacks minor but important details.

For instance I could not track quest progress and lvls and aggro type of monsters were had to see. Grounded I did not play much but It never compelled me to continue. I also felt that it would of been a better game on any other system. As I don't like the Wiimote or Classic Controller for that type of game.

@Hailinel: Nice list, great to see Kid Icarus on there.

If I ever do play, Xenoblade Chronicles, I'm either either gonna piss on it after a few hours or love it wholeheartedly. Or something, there should be some emotion there somewhere.

@Hailinel: I didn't get further than chapter 3 in Resonance of Fate (because while the combat was interesting, everything else about the game was pretty dull, and whatever story was in there didn't engage me at any level) but I feel like I managed to get a good sense on how you played it on my own, and I never used a FAQ. This isn't any sort of defense of the game though, it pretty much drops you into the world with very few directions, and you could even run into random battles (which will mess you up when you don't even know what the different buttons do) when just trying to make your way to the tutorial (which you are also not proberly directed towards IIRC). But with enough preserverence, it's very possible to figure out.

The tutorial is probably similar to a lot of fighting games in that it tells you what tools you have and what they do, but in no way indicates why or in what situation you should use these tools. It gives you all the parts that you need to build a house, but withholds the blueprint. Also, you don't know what kind of house it is you're supposed to build.

So while figuring out the importance of Bezel management (it's fucking crucial!), the different weapons usefulness and positioning on your own had its charm, it's not something I feel should be required when you have to beat your head against the game's difficulty for several hours to do so.

I don't think I've touched a single game on that list. However, it's nice to see diversity when it comes to GOTY's instead of the normal mainstream AAA+ titles that seem to make their way up there.

Ugggg anime, no thanks...

@Hailinel: I'm sorry if you've been asked this question already, but did you play anything other than Japanese games this year? Genuine curiosity!

Aside from Asura's Wrath (which I really enjoyed) I've played none of the games on your list, and I still felt this year was a great year for games. I think it's awesome that the range of great games out there is so large.

@Hailinel: Big thumbs up for putting KI:Uprising on there. I've just picked up my unfinished playthrough again yesterday and I've just gotten past the first big "event" in the story. Palutena is seriously my favorite character this year. Yes, I've played TWD lol. Xenoblade and Uprising are sure to land on my list as well. But I still want to finish some games before I write mine down.

@dudeglove said:

I love how your headline makes it sound as though you think we care about your tastes

I love how you don't get the joke.

@Claude said:

If I ever do play, Xenoblade Chronicles, I'm either either gonna piss on it after a few hours or love it wholeheartedly. Or something, there should be some emotion there somewhere.

You should at least give it a shot, Claude. That bad disc you got a while back shouldn't put a stop to that.

@JackSukeru said:

@Hailinel: I didn't get further than chapter 3 in Resonance of Fate (because while the combat was interesting, everything else about the game was pretty dull, and whatever story was in there didn't engage me at any level) but I feel like I managed to get a good sense on how you played it on my own, and I never used a FAQ. This isn't any sort of defense of the game though, it pretty much drops you into the world with very few directions, and you could even run into random battles (which will mess you up when you don't even know what the different buttons do) when just trying to make your way to the tutorial (which you are also not proberly directed towards IIRC). But with enough preserverence, it's very possible to figure out.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Basically bragging...is what I'm trying to do.

The tutorial is probably similar to a lot of fighting games in that it tells you what tools you have and what they do, but in no way indicates why or in what situation you should use these tools. It gives you all the parts that you need to build a house, but withholds the blueprint. Also, you don't know what kind of house it is you're supposed to build.

So while figuring out the importance of Bezel management (it's fucking crucial!), the different weapons usefulness and positioning on your own had its charm, it's not something I feel should be required when you have to beat your head against the game's difficulty for several hours to do so.

Yikes. Well, at least you didn't need a FAQ!

@Galiant said:

@Hailinel: I'm sorry if you've been asked this question already, but did you play anything other than Japanese games this year? Genuine curiosity!

Aside from Asura's Wrath (which I really enjoyed) I've played none of the games on your list, and I still felt this year was a great year for games. I think it's awesome that the range of great games out there is so large.

...Double Dragon Neon? It's on the list, dude. Also, I played Dragon Age II, which is something that made me wish I was playing something else. I do have ZombiU sitting on my shelf, waiting its turn, also, a few other downloadable games (Mighty Switch Force, Trine 2, Nano Assault Neo).

But you are about the great range of games that are out there!

@DeF said:

@Hailinel: Big thumbs up for putting KI:Uprising on there. I've just picked up my unfinished playthrough again yesterday and I've just gotten past the first big "event" in the story. Palutena is seriously my favorite character this year. Yes, I've played TWD lol. Xenoblade and Uprising are sure to land on my list as well. But I still want to finish some games before I write mine down.

Palutena is one of my favorite characters from this year, as well. The writing really does a lot to bring out personality in her and the others.

Seeing this list makes me miss the last couple of generations where a top ten like this would have looked almost normal. Couple of questions:

I love Dynasty Warriors, but the lack of English voiceovers kind of scared me away from Orochi 3. Is it difficult to keep up with what's going on just by reading the popups in battle?

I suck at pretty much every fighter that isn't Smash Bros. Would I have fun with Persona 4 Arena if I loved Persona 4: Golden?

Ohh interesting to see Hakuoki on there. I enjoyed that.

I should get back to Xenoblade one of these days. My interest in it fizzled out around the place with all those floating islands in the lake and modernish city. It just started feeling too "single-player MMO" for me at the time, with so many side-quests, that I burned out on it.

The Last Story... hehehe.

P4A would prolly get a special mention on my list just for Elizabeth's ending, alone. I never did stick with it after finishing the story though; went back to SFxT (which I admit is an inferior game in nearly ever respect, but I just like the fighting and characters a whole lot more *shrugs*)

And the rest... I haven't played so I have nothing to say about those. Although interesting to see Double Dragon on there. Did you play Dust: An Elysian Tale or Mark of the Ninja this year?

@Sidoran said:

Seeing this list makes me miss the last couple of generations where a top ten like this would have looked almost normal. Couple of questions:

I love Dynasty Warriors, but the lack of English voiceovers kind of scared me away from Orochi 3. Is it difficult to keep up with what's going on just by reading the popups in battle?

I suck at pretty much every fighter that isn't Smash Bros. Would I have fun with Persona 4 Arena if I loved Persona 4: Golden?

I didn't have much a problem keeping up, but then again, I'm the sort that plays battles over and over, so even if I did miss something, I caught it on a second go.

Persona 4 Arena is designed for people who aren't skilled at fighting games. You can get through story mode no problem mostly just by using each character's auto-combo.

@PixelPrinny said:

Ohh interesting to see Hakuoki on there. I enjoyed that.

I should get back to Xenoblade one of these days. My interest in it fizzled out around the place with all those floating islands in the lake and modernish city. It just started feeling too "single-player MMO" for me at the time, with so many side-quests, that I burned out on it.

The Last Story... hehehe.

P4A would prolly get a special mention on my list just for Elizabeth's ending, alone. I never did stick with it after finishing the story though; went back to SFxT (which I admit is an inferior game in nearly ever respect, but I just like the fighting and characters a whole lot more *shrugs*)

And the rest... I haven't played so I have nothing to say about those. Although interesting to see Double Dragon on there. Did you play Dust: An Elysian Tale or Mark of the Ninja this year?

I don't have a 360, so I haven't played Dust or Mark of the Ninja at all. I'm not sure what my interest level would be if I had access, either. I also really like Street Fighter X Tekken, and it was actually on my list earlier this year, but it was ultimately bumped off, I think around the time I added Double Dragon Neon.

Not an unexpected list, but for the most part, it's a solid list. I just cannot agree that Double Dragon Neon deserves to be on any type of Top 10 list anywhere ever in the history of ever.

I still need to play Asura's Wrath. I just keep waiting until it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 or less. I'm also glad to see some goddamn respect for Warriors Orochi, and also glad to hear from someone that respects those franchises that it's good.

Actually, I also really need to play Xenoblades and Last Story for their own respective reasons: Xenoblades being considered one of the best RPGs in a long time and Last Story being a Sakaguchi joint with Uemastu on music...and from everything I've seen, art direction that looks like Minagawa. Unfortunately, I just don't have much use for a Wii outside of those two as I've come back around full circle to PC gaming.

That looks like a bunch of Japanese bullshit. /snark :p

I've really fallen behind on games this year, I don't know if I even played enough from this year to make a top ten list. Of your list, I've only played three of them and want to play nine of the ten.

Xenoblade Chronicles- I wished I enjoyed this as much as everybody else seems to, I just didn't like the combat at all.

Persona 4 Arena- I haven't played that much of this and haven't even touched the story mode yet but the fighting is really fun.

Warriors Orochi 3- It's a Warriors game is all you need to say really. As usual I love it.

@Hailinel: Mark of the Ninja is on PC~ 25% off atm on Steam, but that'll drop lower when it hits a daily sale as it did back during Thanksgiving.

@laserbolts said:

I sensed a bunch of Japanese developed games on your list before even clicking on it.

^

@PixelPrinny said:

@Hailinel: Mark of the Ninja is on PC~ 25% off atm on Steam, but that'll drop lower when it hits a daily sale as it did back during Thanksgiving.

I'll have to take a look at it when I have the chance, though my Steam account is vastly underused simply because I just don't play many PC games. I don't even have a PC gamepad, which I imagine a game like Mark of the Ninja would require.

@jakob187 said:

Not an unexpected list, but for the most part, it's a solid list. I just cannot agree that Double Dragon Neon deserves to be on any type of Top 10 list anywhere ever in the history of ever.

I still need to play Asura's Wrath. I just keep waiting until it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 or less. I'm also glad to see some goddamn respect for Warriors Orochi, and also glad to hear from someone that respects those franchises that it's good.

Actually, I also really need to play Xenoblades and Last Story for their own respective reasons: Xenoblades being considered one of the best RPGs in a long time and Last Story being a Sakaguchi joint with Uemastu on music...and from everything I've seen, art direction that looks like Minagawa. Unfortunately, I just don't have much use for a Wii outside of those two as I've come back around full circle to PC gaming.

Well, if you ever do get a Wii (or at this point, a Wii U), those are definitely two games that are worth it. The only real shame about them both is that it took so long for them to make it to the U.S. They're very much worth the wait, though.

@Hailinel: I had a first-gen Wii, but the fan died on it and I never bothered to get it fixed. By that point, I just became an achievement whore on PC and an MMO whore on the PC. At this point, most of my gaming is now on the PC (with the exception of Forza Horizon), so I don't see me moving in on those two games anytime in the near future unfortunately.

If I can find the whole setup for cheap, though, I will definitely consider it...if there isn't a fucking Steam sale going on or something. Jesus, my wallet is hurting bad over these last couple of weeks...

respect