by mento
Same deal as the other "GOTY (Adjusted)" lists, filling a few gaps in the below table to ensure I'm all up to date. There's a few unplayed stragglers from 2012 I'm curious about but I think after a decade and change I'm fairly set with this list. The last monumental addition was Tales of Graces F which I played only as recently as 2021; most were either played on the year in question or the one immediately after.
2012 was the last year that the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii dominated the gaming scene (that is, if you don't include the increasingly robust PC gaming market): the Wii U showed up right at the end of this year, disturbing very little given its lukewarm reception, and then the PS4 and Xbox One made bigger splashes when they landed in the following holiday season. An imminent new generation would tend to have companies focus on current-gen swansongs that pull from those outmoded systems as much as they could while the rest of the industry geared itself up for pastures new, but I find that most of my own list is comprised of smaller or niche games. There's a lot of beginnings and endings here too: Game franchises that got their start in 2012 that are still going strong today—if not through direct sequels than at least by leaving a legacy of imitators—while others were promising new IPs that sadly proved to be one-and-dones.
| GOTYs | (Adjusted) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Showing 1-10 of 35 items
(First Played (FP): 2013) Though Spelunky technically got its start earlier, 2012 was when it really garnered attention via its cartoonified XBLA debut. The first, or at least the most influential, of the "roguelite" genre that defined itself by taking the brutal, run-based nature of its namesake ASCII RPGs to a new format (in this case, a platformer), Spelunky had a claw-like grip on our ba-, uh, hearts as it defied us to uncover its secrets and survive long enough to see its deepest depths. A whole other route, twice as hard to find and thrice as hard to complete, ensured that even if we stomped that giant golden head we were far from considering ourselves Spelunky masters. Between Patrick Klepek's daily Spelunky attempts and an achievement set that extended the difficulty to masochistic levels, I was glued to this thing for the better part of 2013. I'm still not sure if I love it or despise it, but I can't seem to argue with the amount of time I was willing to spend getting hurled into spikes or shotgunned after every miscalculation.
(FP: 2021) This was a really pleasant surprise, and I continue to kick myself that I had a copy of Graces F for damn near eight years before I finally decided to play it. Look, I'll be frank: the story and characters, usually a high point of any Tales game, aren't exactly stellar in this case. Everyone also has the weirdest looking costumes, from protagonist Asbel's Disco King popped collar leisure suit or Hubert's baby blue trenchcoat with dress-like trains, and the prologue with the kid versions of the characters felt mostly superfluous and could've been presented in one flashback or several. Yet the gameplay. The gameplay! Tales has rarely been bettered before or since (the dodge rolls of Arise might've put it on an even level) with its combination of melee A-Arts and conditional B-Arts, distinct for each character, and the regenerating technique points that made throwing out strong combos a breeze. On top of that you have the way titles are built into the character progression (something else Arise brought back) and the mighty Eleth Mixer: a means of producing items from thin air, including post-battle restorative meals, thereby making item usage that much more palatable for someone like me who always hangs onto anything in finite supply in any given RPG. A seriously underrated entry in the franchise and very close to the top of my personal Tales ranking. Why'd I put it off for so long??? Agh!
(FP: 2012) Sleeping Dogs represents, to me, the zenith of the open-world crime game started long ago by GTA and its ilk. The combination of gunplay, martial arts, driving, and general faffing around made its version of Hong Kong such an appealing location to explore, either while the streets were slick and reflective with rain or the sun was shining brightly down on its colorful harbor and marketplaces. The undercover cop story was strong too thanks in part to supporting roles like the protagonist's unlucky childhood friend and the various underworld figures you'd either work with or bump heads against (or both). I never did play any of its DLC, giving me ample reason to revisit if I ever get the urge.
(FP: 2016) If a Ys game came out in any given year you better believe it's making my top five. Ys Origin is perhaps the only one in the series with a small barrier to entry—it's a direct prequel to the first two games, relying on the player recalling aspects of the lore regarding its central Tower of Darm location—but the focus on a single dungeon that escalates ever further into the sky and its triple protagonist structure incentivizing multiple playthroughs gives it a personality unlike most of the more generically adventuresome Ys games to follow. It's also one of the three Napishtim engine games, ensuring a very fluid and rapid action-RPG experience bolstered by a sublime synth metal soundtrack (seriously, its rearrangement album by Falcom's in-house live band is one of my VGM all-timers, especially "Silent Desert"), making it a hard game to dislike unless you really shy away from a challenge. When you're in its flow, nothing tops an Ys.
(FP: 2012) Though speaking of flows, the one thing that's easy to forget about Dust: An Elysian Tail is just how smooth its wuxia-inspired swordplay feels as you run around gliding and spinning your sword to produce more effects than simply a defensive barrier. What often gets the most focus when talking about this game is how it's a solo project by newcomer Dean Dodrill, even though the hand-drawn art style is stellar and the gameplay and length are both industry veteran tier in their quality. The year's best explormer by an easy margin.
(FP: 2012) Operation Rainfall's big success story was Xenoblade, which debuted in my part of the world the previous year, but its other two localization wins were no slouches either. The Last Story has the best pedigree of the two, developed by Mistwalker's Hironobu Sakaguchi and given a synonym-heavy name that isn't fooling anyone. Narratively similar to FF9 (and, uh, Aladdin) and mechanically more akin to a Gears style cover shooter, the game may be on the short and sweet side but there's some really imaginative ideas going down in what might've been mistaken for a Final-Fantasy-but-not also-ran. Though speaking of, Uematsu's more unhinged here than ever and I'm all for it.
(FP: 2013) Then there's the other OpRainfall game. Much like its heroine, Pandora's Tower requires one to develop an acquired taste in a hurry due to its very time-intensive structure as you explore a series of towers in a Zelda-y action-adventure kinda way while ensuring that you come back home promptly with a quality piece of monster flesh in tow whenever the in-game timer beckons. It feels restrictive at first but the level and game design is built with it in mind given all its various unlockable short-cuts and efficiency-boosting upgrades. I also just like any game that factors chain weapons into its gameplay, whether you're whipping dudes around or latching onto parts of the level to launch yourself upwards. All in all, it's a deeply strange game that found a fitting home on the Wii like so many others.
(FP: 2012) Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios are happy enough producing three Like a Dragon games a year now but back in 2012 they took a chance on this third-person cover shooter about a task force of anti-android commandos who infiltrate Japan to locate a reclusive robotics genius after one of his "hollow children" (robots indistinguishable from people) shows up on American soil. Fitting the theme, the game attempted to live demo a few AI-assisted notions like a voice recognition system and a conceit where you could grow trust with NPCs by not shooting them in the back repeatedly. I just remember the game being a whole lot of chaotic fun, with viscerally pleasing sound design whenever you shot a robot to pieces. Also, Big Bo.
(FP: 2012) The first Theatrhythm was quickly made obsolete by its remaster/sequel Curtain Call (and again much later by Final Bar Line) but it still figured out an ingenious way to craft a Final Fantasy rhythm game that was entirely apposite to the charms and conventions of the franchise while ably celebrating its vast legacy of high-quality music. Building these musical stages around character parties of the player's choosing and factoring in a bunch of RPG mechanics gave the game a depth and longevity beyond just replaying each track until you mastered it.
(FP: 2012) Dishonored was where Arkane finally hit the big time (for as much as I liked Arx Fatalis) and found a real bizarre inspiration for its supernatural stealth-'em-up Thief successor by couching everything in some speculative Moby Dick universe where whale oil became some miracle phlogiston super-fuel and its 19th century setting was suddenly capable of mechanical steampunk marvels like combat automatons and fatal laser force fields. Add to this already compelling setting an engrossing and personal revenge story and no end of magical powers that make your quiet murdering all the easier (unless you skipped them for the sake of an achievement, like I did), and some weird business with rats eventually rising up and taking over if you were a little too kill-happy and you have one of the most darkly memorable games of the year.
