So every year I intend to post a top 10 of the year, only to postpone until I finish a few more games, which leads to me never actually making one. So this year I'm going to let a few games make the list even though I haven't finished a few of them. I actually played a good number of releases this year though (versus older games) so I think the list is respectable.
My Mobile Game of the Year (Oh god why do I have a mobile game award)
Fire Emblem Heroes- It’s far short of an actual FE game, simplifying much of the environmental navigation to almost nothing, but in some ways I like the short and to the point action here. As far as time-wasters on a phone this is pretty good. The fact I’m still checking in almost daily after the better part of a year must mean there’s something to it (and let the record show I haven’t spend any money on it).
Best Old Game of the Year
BlazBlue: Central Fiction- Kind of fell off the series around the first Chrono Phantasma, but caught up this year with CP Extend and Central Fiction. As the final game in the main series for the foreseeable future, I’m not sure I love every system tweak and addition but it’s still BB, with a pretty damn big roster of characters at this point, and nearly all of them are fun to use. Still love the feel and look of the series. Also, I kinda like the story in the last couple games? Compared to the first couple of I actually understand what going on (for the most part). Shocking I know.
Honorable mentions- Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma Extend, Suikoden
Most Surprising Game of the Year
Tokyo Xanadu eX+- Wasn’t sure how much to expect from this considering I had heard a lot of mixed things about this game, but I’m kind of shocked how much I’m digging this game. I’ll go into detail in the actual list.
Honorable Mention- Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, Snake Pass, Monster Hunter Stories
Most Disappointing Game of the Year
Horizon Zero Dawn- It says something about this year that my personal most pick isn’t all that disappoint. I really like the Horizon’s premise and the general look of the game. And most the moment to moment stuff feels fine, but it lacks any hooks to keep going. I’d like to think I’ll go back and give it more time, but I don’t like the odds of me actually committing to it at this point.
Dishonorable Mention- For Honor
Notable Games That Might Have Made My Top 10 Had I Play Them
- Yakuza 0
- Nioh
- Wolfenstein II
- Tales of Berseria
- Xanadu Next
On to the top 10!
10. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
After not liking the direction the series has gone in the last few releases it’s nice to have a game that not all about pairing characters and making them smooch. It still boiler plate Fire Emblem but it's a nice change of tone, and the character designs in this one are actually pretty good. I how much it retains the weird quirks of the original release too. I’d love to see some of the Super Famicom-era titles get similar remakes too.
9. Nier: Automata
Although I’ve never played a Yoko Taro game before, I’d heard enough about his games, and especially the following the original Nier had, that my ears perked up when Automata was announced and revealed to have brought Platinum on board to bolster the gameplay side. Ultimately I have mixed feelings on it. Generally I do think the enemy encounters are lacking despite the Platinum pedigree and even ignoring the dull, backtrack-heavy sidequests there is far too much tedium to get to the better parts of the story. But, the game does have a unique vision and story sensibilities, and takes on some heavier topics unflinchingly without feeling heavy-handed about them in a way you don’t usually see in video games. Overall I’m glad I’ve played it, but it’s not one I would necessarily recommend to most people. If you go in thinking you have to play it just because you’ve heard about the rabid follow the games have there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be underwhelmed to be honest. Cool game, though I’m not in love with it.
8. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
Ys has always been straight to the point about what it is: snappy action-rpg action set to some rockin’ tunes in some nice fantasy settings, and the newest title in the series dutifully delivers that. It more than just another Ys game though, because is easily the biggest game in the series, both in terms of environment and number of things you can do. I’ve been taken aback multiple times at the scale and variety of stuff to do in the game. I haven’t finished it, in part due to other games and partly because I figured I might as well wait for the new localization patch (one of the most bizarre events of the year, considering it isn’t that bad, but the Ys fanbase is ferocious I guess). I do intend to finish it though, as it does seem to be a high-tier Ys game.
7. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The most talked about game of the year and the most impactful Zelda since Ocarina. I wasn’t sold on it from previews, and Zelda games always are met with critical praise, only to diminish in hindsight. But it was clear Breath was generating more than the usual acclamation, so I took a chance on a Wii U copy as a last hurrah for the system. I wasn’t as head over heels as a lot of folks were, but the game does have a really strong core of exploration and feeling rewarded for combing the world. There’s always something interesting visible on the distance, and the way Nintendo was able to create a world of that size still have a carefully crafted feel to it is incredible. I might not have always found something that interesting when I got to my destination, and I might not have been having that much fun moment to moment, but the hours melted away as I ran, climbed, and glided my way through Hyrule.
I do have a good amount of problems with it though, in fact almost everything that's not exploring for shrines is not great. The combat, while probably the best in the series, still isn’t great or even interesting, and there’s a noticeable lack of enemy variety. Weapon degradation makes said fighting more of a hassle than it’s worth usually. Navigating inventory is pretty clunky for as much as you have to engage with it (and I’m generally not super fussy about UI), as is changing weapons. There isn’t much of story, and while that might be understandable in a game with as much freedom as BotW the bits of story that are present are pretty dull anyway. There hardly any characters that leave an impression, and some of the voice direction is dodgy. And there are a few story sequences around the divine beasts where the hand-holdy and overly verbose “old Zelda” briefly makes an appearance.
Yeah, some of those complaints are a bit nitpicky, but I definitely would have loved the game a lot more if some of those things were better, or if the game had a story and characters I actually cared about. Ultimately, I’m not as into free-form styles of gameplay that the people who really love this game probably are. That said, I’m a pretty jaded former-fan of the series, the fact that it even made it this far up my list is no small feat. It will be interesting to see where the series goes from here, and what parts they’ll focus on in improving. I would love to see other lands beyond Hyrule rendered with this level of detail.
6. Injustice 2
I’ve been very hot and cold on Injustice 2 this year, to where I’ve had a hard time pinning down its spot on this list. I really liked the first Injustice, in fact I think it’s the best game Ed Boone’s team has ever produced, and I’m not even a big superhero/comics guy. Its mechanics were a significant step up from even MK9 and the supers, stage transitions, and clash presentation added a lot of fun cinematic flair to the proceedings. Injustice 2 doesn’t deviate significantly but is a more refined and probably better game, even if I didn’t love all of the roster selections and the stage transitions weren’t as good overall.
But after I had my fill I dropped it pretty hard, even for me, a casual fighting game fan that usually moves on after a couple months regardless of my much I like a game. Maybe it was partly because of personal circumstances, but I do think it was partially due the loot box gear system built into the game. Now it isn’t actually that obnoxious or intrusive as many other systems that have made headlines this year (even though WB is a pretty crappy publisher when it comes to that kind of stuff). I never felt any pressure buy any microtransactions, but just the fact that you must deal with it at all becomes a drag after a while. In theory having a bunch of cosmetic customization sounds cool, but then you stick stat bonuses on them and it becomes even more off-putting, but you might as well since a lot of the single player is geared around it, but then you start spending so much time in menus doing inventory management, which not what I want in a fighting game, even more so for characters I don’t use much. And what is the reward for doing most of the single-player content? More boxes. It all starts to drag too much, and the dlc selections have yet to draw me back to it.
On the other hand, I can beat up people with Swamp Thing, and Swamp Thing is awesome.
5. Persona 5
Oh boy the big one. My most anticipated game of 2017. And 2016. And 2015. Possibly my most anticipated game of all time (it’s definitely in the top 3). Persona 3 blew my mind. Persona 4 somehow charmed its way even closer to my heart. Love them both to bits. To say P5 had some tough acts to follow is an understatement. I can understand why the Atlus took so long with the follow up, even as I worried that they might have let the iron cool too much to recapture the magic of the modern Persona games. Well the moment of truth finally arrived. The verdict: P5 is a great example of the heights the genre can achieve, and finds a great balance between retaining the charms of the unique formula of the modern Persona games, while still tweaking and refining the formula and tonally feeling different enough to stand apart from its predecessors. In most respects its about all you can ask for, and I had a really good time with it. I could make some minor mechanical quibbles about the battle system or how social stats are handled, but for the most part it’s a great sequel.
But I don’t love it. I obsessed over P3 and P4 after seeing the end credits, P5? I was just ready for it to be over and move on. I’ve puzzled over my relative lack of affection for a game that has so many strong points over and over, and again and again it comes back to: the writing. I didn’t really care about any of the characters with the partial exception of Futaba and maaaybe Yusuke, and even they pale compare to most the previous two casts. The story lacks propulsion for a good 50-hour middle stretch. A lot of the plot points and characters feel recycled from the previous games, sometimes to a headscratching degree. And worse of all the thematic material did not resonate with me at all, heck I don’t think I even agree with all of its’ thesis (but that’s a discussion for another day). I kept waiting for it to take a more nuanced, self-reflective turn that never actually occurs. It’s possible some of it is more specific to Japan than its predecessors, but high school students blaming those gosh darn adults for messing everything up just comes across as absurdly broad and not believable for characters their age. It just isn’t as strong as it ought to be. And on top of that the localization is strangely rough and inconsistent in spots, which might be not as big of a deal in some games, but in a game as narrative-driven and dialogue heavy as a Persona game it’s a significant drag. Considering it’s from Atlus, a publisher whose localization department I hold in high esteem, well, it’s an unexpected bummer.
Narrative problems aside, I don’t want to leave the impression I didn’t enjoy my time with it or undersell the strength of what it does well. It’s an audio-visual feast, off the charts in terms of style and has overwhelming confidence in it’s vision. Shoji Meguro continues todisplay why he might be the best composer in the industry right now. And the marriage of social sim to turn-based rpg, while no longer as novel as it once was, is still very engaging and satisfying—there’s really nothing else like it. In so many ways P5 is a genre tour-de-force. Which is all the more reason it’s a shame that it’s in service of a core narrative that feels somewhat shoddy in comparison. Not many rpgs hit the highs P5 does, but I do have hopes that Persona 6, which will be led by some new voices in leadership roles, will be even better.
4. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
While it doesn’t do anything that different from the previous games, I had been long enough since Danganronpa 2 that V3 was a reminder of just how good these games are at what they do. Tons of style, weird and goofy music tracks, gonzo characters and situations, and lots of humor (some of it darker than anything yet in the series in my opinion). That said, it’s probably my least favorite of the mainline games, as there are some diminishing returns setting in. But then you get to the ending and my god is it a beautiful train wreck. Maybe didn’t have the complete impact it would’ve had if I had gone in completely blind (I had heard enough about the polarizing ending to guess the direction it would go in), but all in all it’s pretty amusing how it works on multiple levels and feels in the spirit of the series.
But seriously Spike Chunsoft, quit while you’re ahead. We don’t need more Danganronpa.
3. Tokyo Xanadu eX+
A late entry to the list, the original Vita version got a North American release this summer, but the enhanced PS4 version snuck in with a December release. As you might guess from the cover it’s essentially an action-rpg take on Persona, meaning modern Japanese setting, high-schoolers dealing with paranormal shenanigans, bonding events, etc. Fairly derivative stuff, essentially Ys meets Persona meets Trails. Falcom’s never been afraid of using tropes, although Xanadu’s story might be a step too generic at times, and is the game’s biggest fault. Also the narrative logic is pretty shaky at times. Persona is inspired by Jungian psychological concepts, whereas this game stuff just boils down to “negative emotions, blah blah blah, go fight monsters.” Or “Obtained a psychic weapon, yadda yadda yadda, upgrade with materials at these shops.” An unusual amount of stuff that makes video game sense but not justified narratively. Not a big knock against it, just comes across as goofy even for video game conceits.
It isn’t all bad though, in fact a good number of characters come out better than I was expecting. I was dreading dealing with the main character, who has the most cliché mopey, sullen jrpg protagonist character design you can imagine, only to find he isn’t nearly as heavy-handed as was bracing myself for. In fact companions will even give him shit for his emo demeanor--it's kinda great. The fact that a truly impressive amount of npcs in the game are unique and have little side stories running parallel to the main one (like the Cold Steel games but even more so) makes the world fun to explore even when you are revisit the same areas a bunch of times. There’s also some nice moments that give characters nice shots of humanity, more than you would expect from the generic veneer.
The real reason the game shows up so high on this list though is the gameplay. When you aren’t running around doing sidequests or story cutscenes you are running through (usual fairly short) dungeons. If you come in expect snappy Ys combat you might be put off at how slow your character feels in comparison (I was). After a little while though it becomes apparent this is by design: this is a slower, more deliberate take on action-rpging. Because you don't move fast enough to get out of the way in a split second, it encourages being more mindful of your surroundings, and not getting greedy, or you will get blown up. It also means having to watch enemies for tells to know when you need to get out of the way of big attacks. Sometimes you need to jump and air-dash to land good hits or dodge ground attacks. Most of all it feels fair; if you screw up it feels completely on you. While it’s too reductive to describe it as an “anime Dark Souls,” it does scratch some of that same itch. The one problem with it is that it isn’t balanced well in terms of challenge. It’s way too easy on regular difficulty (I started on Hard, and bumped it up another notch after a couple chapters) and this the kind of game that needs the tension of being punished for mistakes to really work. Really cool game and the most blindsided by a game I’ve been in some time. I haven’t even finished the game yet and I’m already looking forward to a NG+ run on the highest difficulty. It’s a bit unfortunate it had a mid-December release cause it’s doing some neat things, not that it’s kind of game that would even register on the Giant Bomb radar.
2. Guilty Gear Xrd: REV 2
I know—I’m putting a minor update of an existing game at #2, above all these acclaimed games in a very strong year for the hobby. I can explain. Guilty Gear is a series I’ve admired for a distance but always found them a bit too dense to grasp, even after really enjoying Blazblue and the Persona 4 Arena games in recent years. This year though something clicked, whether it was simply putting in enough time to better grok its many mechanics, finally finding some characters that gelled with me, or some combination of time and circumstances, I finally started having genuine fun with a Guilty Gear game this year. Mind you I’m still terrible at it even compared to my usual fighting game skills, but I had some good times with it this summer. It still looks as cool as ever and the roster is starting to feel robust.
Now just give me Anji, Daisuke. Testament would be nice too.
1. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd
I’m not sure what it says about me to have this as my #1 game of this year. Yeah, I’m a Trails cheerleader, but even so I was hesitant to put it at the top. Even counting it as a 2017 game feels like a loophole. While it did get an English release this year, it originally came out in Japan a whole decade ago, and would have looked old even then. And it’s a weird entry too. Unlike the epic Trails in the Sky SC (which I’m convinced is good enough it's considered a genre stable in alternate timelines) I had heard the 3rd being described as: a) a side story, b) a black sheep entry that's more of a standalone thing c) an epilogue d) a set up to future games, and/or e) the equivalent of the appendices in the Lord of the Rings (?!). Turns out it’s a little bit of all of the above. It is strictly speaking a sequel, but it’s pretty up front that it’s not trying to outdo SC (making SC the climax of the “trilogy”), and while there is some good bits of lore and world-building here and there, the main plot is generally more self-contained than per usual for the series. The developers also “lets their hair down” more than usual, including silly things like JoJo visual references to fourth wall-breaking quiz games. Like I said, weird. Not to mention there’s a bit more fan service in this game than usual. No not that kind of fan service, I mean good kind like: you know that character whose so badass you never actually see him in battle? Well guess whaaaaat…
The structure is a little unusual too. Most of the game is essentially going through dungeon areas, broken up by unlocking story vignettes. In practice it isn’t that much different than normal jrpg flow, though it presented in way that rationalizes the disparate nature of these story segments, containing everything from lore to character backstories to what the characters have been up to since the previous game. They don’t all hit (a few are a bit too indulgent or frivolous) but there’s some great character stuff too and some tantalizing bits of world-building. Ultimately the main plot plays out a bit too predictable, despite some good character moments, but I just love revisiting the world of Trails and spending more time with these characters, as it is very much a goodbye (for now) to everyone that played through all of the Trails in the Sky games. It isn’t that ambitious of a game, and I’d be hard pressed to say it was actually the best game I played this year, but no game elicited emotion as much as 3rd did. It’s a game that knows what it is and sometimes that can go a long way. I plan to blog my thoughts about the series in detail sometime soon here, but for now I'll just say even thought the 3rd is a bit of a slight game by series standards, it's still got the heart and soul of what makes them so good.
So yeah, as much as people have been raving about this year, I don’t think I feel in love with anything this year? I feel like Jeff at the end of this year's lasts year's podcasts saying as acclaimed as the standout games have been this year, you can point out some significant flaws with most of them. Maybe I just didn’t play the right ones yet.
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