Top 5 Anticipated Games for 2013(For now....)

Good Day GB.

I wanted to make a list of games that I am most excited to play this coming year, and thought I would open it to other users to comment on and have a discussion around. Due to my activity outside games as of late, I only wanted to write down 5 games that I knew I would dedicate time towards, and give myself some breathing room in between. I hope everyone on the site is doing well, and that everyone has a great day.

Thank you for your time.

List items

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  1. Fire Emblem: Awakening

  As a long time fan of the franchise I am excited to finally been given a chance to play the latest game. I have owned and beaten all 5 of the fire emblem titles that came to North America, and all 5 time I have had a memorable experience with. Fire Emblem's scarcity in territories outside Japan make these specific launches seem like events that fuel impetus for the next one. It's not only a personal event for myself but my attachment to the franchise has helped launch my desires to play the past games while continuing my Japanese language studies in the process. Games just don't do that for me, and for this franchise and my history with it give me an incentive to learn a new language and maybe even effect my future career, then I am excited the most for this out of all others.

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  2. Pandora's Tower

  The "Operation Rainfall" movement was a public collective that succeeded in more ways then just simply getting three titles to North America. This group of well-spoken gamers presented an intellectual argument towards Nintendo that was not only truthful but respectable in it's own right. By not releasing Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and this for North America even when it had already been fully translated into English through their European releases was baffling for many, and made it seem like Nintendo was afraid to release these title only to result in a financial mess. I will do a personal write up for these three games, and this movement as a whole once Pandora's tower is released in North America, but all I will say is this. If Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story could impress me so much that they would both be my top two games from last year, then I owe it to myself to play Pandora's Tower and complete this trilogy, and then give credit and respect where both is due.

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  3. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

  Often times when associating older franchise among any medium of entertainment, you are bound to reflect on their individual "roots". What represents a franchise given their long history and significances within it. What began as a "horror-themed" 2D action game with the first Castlevania has been shifted and molded throughout its now over 25 year history. Lords of Shadow is the franchises latest ""rebirth" into gaming modernity as it attempts to carve its own identity in a space that is commonly seen in other franchises. Still, what won we about the first game was the presentation elements. The story, the voice acting, the music, the sense of place, all of these brought back that "feeling" of playing the older games in the franchise, and the gameplay was changed enough to make it enjoyable for the over 20 hour length of the story. From what I've seen out of the trailers, that quality from the first game is still intact and I am excited to see where the story goes from here. "Mirror's of Fate" for the 3DS looks great in its own right, and might check that out later in the year.

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  4. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

  Luigi's Mansion for the Nintendo Gamecube was a weird game. A Nintendo launch title staring a secondary character who's aim throughout the entire game was to "bust" ghosts with a vacuum in a mansion to save his brother Mario. Pubic opinion has swayed between acceptance to hatred for Luigi's Mansion throughout the years, but one thing that many on both sides could agree upon was it's originality and sense of character. I enjoyed those elements the most out of the first game, and if they can continue that going into this sequel, then I will enjoy my time with it.

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  5. BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma

  I know I'm cheating with this one, but Blazblue is just a fantastic fighting game series. Arc Systems deserves credit for creating a fighting series that not only takes the best parts from guilty gear, but develops a completely different roster of characters separate from GG's cast (granted your Ragna-Sol, Jin- Ky comparisons can be argued for) and evolve that fighting system to not only be welcoming for newer players, but still retain that hardcore level of play with makes seeing video's of Blazblue look like hand drawn paintings in motion. If I can spend hours of my day simply watching Japanese Ranbats, and tournaments then Arc Systems is doing something right with this newest iteration in the franchise, and I will anxiously wait quietly in the mean time.