2016 is an interesting year for me to look back on. It has been one of the busiest and stressful years I have experienced in my life, and I would dare to say that my list of games reflects that a bit. I started and completed my senior design project over the course of this year, continued working in tech support, and tried to make time for developing a social life and being more outgoing than usual. Overall this led to me drifting away from larger games that I have to sit down and commit a lot of time to at once, and moving toward experiences that I could take in short bursts or carry along with me. I really found myself enjoying slower paced games, and games that had a relaxing quality to them.

To start things off, I'll just get a few additional honors out of the way. These are games I either didn't have time to finish or they didn't quite make the cut for one reason or another. I'm hoping I can come back to them in 2017, but if not, oh well.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
2. Deus Ex Mankind Divided
3. DOOM

Fair Warning: While I won't be going out of my way to spoil games, #1 and #2 on my list do touch on story beats that a potential player might not want to know.

10. The Jackbox Party Pack 3

The Party Pack sneaks its way onto my list for a few reasons. I’ve got a lot of use out of their past releases for whatever random hangout/party with friends happens to be going on, and they’re usually a good hit and pretty enjoyable. The third release brings more of a similar kind of fun, but I would venture to say that it feels like the most complete package yet. If it housed some version of Drawful in it, I would say it’s damn near perfect.

I won’t take time to explain every game here because there are plenty of other sources to go for that, but I will say that the trivia game hosted by a saw-styled murderer is my favorite new addition, and Quiplash 2 is my favorite returning game here. The T-shirt game gets a special mention here as well, but I feel like it could use another iteration to get right. As it is right now, it’s hard to feel attached to your end product when you’re just piecing together another person’s work. Am I supposed to feel pride for winning with a combination I chose, or pride for someone else winning when they pick something I drew or wrote? How am I supposed to feel good when the two come head to head and I have to vote one out? The game leans more into the idea of winning by combining other people’s efforts together, but honestly I feel more successful when my original drawing or text creations do well instead. It creates a weird chaotic contradiction that holds the game back for me.

9. SUPERHOT

SUPERHOT is an interesting game for me because I didn’t know a single thing about it until I saw it on the Steam summer sale. I remembered hearing some people talk about it so I figured why not give it a shot. What I found was a game that didn’t necessarily hook me in the sense that I couldn’t stop playing, but I found myself wanting to come back for little bite size chunks of it. I’d complete a chunk of the levels to a point where something story based would happen and kick me out to the menu, and I’d be good. I’d be ready to move onto something else like some Overwatch or some other game. At least until I’d feel that itch again to drop back into that puzzle/fps experience that SUPERHOT brings to the table.

I’m actually kind of glad that I didn’t rush through the game, and it led to the game lasting a lot longer than it probably should have. I don’t have too much to say about SUPERHOT, it makes you feel cool and that’s just cool.

8. Darkest Dungeon

Here’s a game that I will never technically beat, and I can say that with great confidence. It gets hard to the point of losing me after a while. I may like my games beating the hell out of me and kicking dirt into my eyes as I scramble back onto my feet, but there comes a time when it feels like too much of a grind. Unfortunately, Darkest Dungeon hits the point of being too much. That’s okay, though, because what comes before that point is enough to leave me walking away satisfied. Sometimes you don’t have to complete every little checkbox the game has written down, you know?

I have to give Darkest Dungeon some credit for its style as well. The narrator makes me smile a big stupid smile more often than I probably even realize, and I just love the artwork. It’s dark and it just looks very unique.

The gameplay is also something that I don’t get a whole lot of nowadays. It’s a rouge-like kind of game, for whatever that’s worth, but at the same time it feels like a pencil and paper RPG more so than a lot of other games. I initially described it to a friend I was showing it to earlier in the year as being like playing a D&D session that’s entirely focused on the dungeon parts. Oh and the DM is a complete asshole.

7. Dark Souls 3

Woah, okay, my past self from earlier in the year just had to stop for a second, and think about why Dark Souls is so low on this list. I really liked this game, and still do. Dark Souls 1 will always hold special place in my heart because it was just such a unique experience for me, and Dark Souls 3 comes pretty close to challenging that spot. I don’t know if I’d say it’s the best Dark Souls game, but I definitely like it more than Dark Souls 2 if that means anything.

I want to try and think of something intelligent and witty to say here rather than just rank Dark Souls 3 against my past Dark Souls experiences, but it gets to a point where there’s not much left to say about Dark Souls. I've had previous entries including Bloodborne on past lists, and I usually talk about what parts of Dark Souls I like. That stuff is all here again. I think that might be why it is finding itself in the bottom half of my list. It’s a fun game and I like what the series brings to the table, but in the end it is just more Dark Souls.

I do think it’s the Dark Souls game I will return to the most often in the future. It just feels like a nice package, and there’s not much I dislike about it. The jail section in particular might be one of my favorite Dark Souls’ sections. Enemies that actually drain my max HP over time in combination with all of the little traps and the haunting atmosphere made for a tense and memorable experience. I really enjoyed a lot of the callbacks to Dark Souls 1 as well. It made my heart tingle with joyous nostalgia.

6. Overwatch

Overwatch is the first FPS game that I have really got into in years. It’s a genre that really used to resonate with me, but after a while I just found myself less and less interested in it. Overwatch created a fun place for me to have that FPS experience while messing around with friends in a way that is more engaging than the typical military shooter. I really enjoy Overwatch’s lore and overall style. The Pixar-looking graphics, the light-hearted humor, and the lack of anything overly serious to weigh the experience down mixes together in a way I really enjoy. I don’t play competitive, so I’m being quite serious in saying I just treat this game as light-hearted fun. I haven’t had the time to subject myself to the more serious mode yet, but I might look into that more now that my time has freed up a bit. Or maybe I’ll just continue to treat the game as dumb fun.

I do really enjoy watching the competitive scene though. Esports and all of that. Hopefully that Overwatch League ends up working out for those involved.

5. Civilization VI

I’m a huge Civilization fan and have been since as long as I can remember. I started playing hotseat on Civilization II with my brother when I was 6 in 1999, and it’s been a series that’s near and dear to my heart ever since. We’ve had some ups and downs, I didn’t much care for Civilization III, but it’s always come back to make up for any differences between us.

I won’t say that this game is as good as Civilization V with all of its expansions, because it just isn’t. It can’t be, and it would be unfair to make that comparison. It is, however, much better than Civilization V was at its release. This version of the game makes a lot of smart additions to the series to give it a fresh feel while improving the overall experience in general, but it does have some short comings that will hopefully be touched on in the coming years.

4. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine

I really debated whether I should include this or not, and if I did include it should I dock its position because it’s technically DLC. In the end I decided to say who cares, and include it as if it’s a fresh game. The Witcher 3 was my game of the year last year, so it’s not a surprise that an add-on to it scores major points with me. It’s a nice self-contained story separate from the main game with more content and better quality than a lot of games that were released this year. I won’t sit here and dote on the game too much because I don’t want to waste your time, but I will say that the Witcher trilogy has given me a new series to love. I’m currently reading the books and loving those as well.

3. Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is my surprise hit of the year. I remember watching the quicklook and thinking, oh that looks neat, but then dismissing it as something I wouldn't be that interested in. I’ve never really been into farming RPG’s before. I have never touched harvest moon or anything like it. I did like Animal Crossing a lot, but while it is similar, it’s not quite the same thing in my mind. I actually have the Steam Summer Sale to thank for me giving this game a chance. I don’t know what it is about the relaxing nature of the game, but it is exactly what I needed this year. The back half of this year was a really stressful one for me as I finished up my senior design project, and Stardew Valley provided an outlet for me to just escape and unwind. I found myself quickly racking up a good 80 hours without even realizing it.

I actually don’t have too much to say about it because it’s just a good game in general. There aren’t any strict goals that I had to follow which I liked. I was free to just focus on farming and building up interactions with the people of Stardew. From mining to fishing to picking up shells on the beach the game is just enjoyable. I don’t know that I’m going to go out and start trying every game that is in this style, but I think this year I found the one that works for me.

2. Pokemon Sun/Moon

Pokemon in the top 5 of my list, and not just top 5 but a shockingly close contender for my favorite game of the year? Is this 1998? Not quite, but Sun and Moon just so happens to be my favorite Pokemon game since Red and Blue. This is the first game where I feel like they are actually learning and trying to improve the broad strokes of what makes a Pokemon game.

First of all, the villains are so much more tolerable this time around. The whole evil team that wants to create a world that they think is ideal by either intentionally or unintentionally destroying it was okay for Ruby and Sapphire, but when it became the framework for every game after I rolled my eyes HARD. I’m so glad the story is much more contained and personal this time around. They focus more on a slower paced story and focus more on the characters which does a lot to help the game.

Instead of a team trying to destroy the world, we have a team of misfits who have failed to succeed at the Alola region’s trial challenge. Basically the replacement for the 8 gym leaders that other regions have hosted. Left as failures who feel like they aren’t really worth much, they gather under Guzma who is basically the king of misfits. He formed Team Skull because he wasn’t good enough to become a trial captain, and now wreaks havoc in a way that makes you think he just wants to be noticed by society. Oh and did I mention they all are designed as stereotypical white gangsters in a way that actually kind of works? When they were first revealed, I got really worried about how cheesy this could be, but they really leaned hard into their own joke. There are a lot of moments and dialogue that left me feeling like they understood just how stupid this stereotype is, and that really brought it to a place where I enjoyed it. I felt like I could laugh with them rather than have to awkwardly sit there trying to think of a way to tell them that it isn’t that funny.

While Guzma and his goons are presented as the main opposition for most of the story, the most interesting aspect of the plot comes from a family. A family torn apart by the mother’s obsession with opening portals to another dimension where creatures live that the game dubs Ultra Beasts. I won’t go into the fine details on her motivations and why she does what she does, but their explanations are surprisingly believable and well thought out. The player inevitably finds themselves in opposition to Lusamine because her plans threaten to release these dangerous creatures onto the islands, and Guzma aims to aid Lusamine with his team and resources. Why does he come in and help her you might ask? Well, it is as simple as she is the only character who values him as a person, or rather she does so as long as he is useful. It might be a little cheesy, but it’s kind of sweet in a way.

This story is greatly helped by her children being characters that we get quite a bit of time to interact with up until this point. As a player, you’re given a good amount of time to get to know the children which makes the tragedy of seeing their family in shreds much more effective than if it had just been some random villains with an evil plan. While it’s very simple and could use a bit more fleshing out to really hit a home run, I was really impressed since my expectations of a good Pokemon story are nonexistent.

As for the more mechanical sides of things, the game makes a lot of changes to the usual formula. I’ve already mentioned the Island Challenge earlier, and it replaces the gym leader system. Rather than fight gym leaders, now you fight Totem Pokemon which are basically super powered versions of specific Pokemon. They generally come packed with good strategies to use against your team, and will use the new SOS system to call in allies to make it a 1 vs 2 fight. They call in allies that will spam healing abilities or status effects while the Totem Pokemon tries to beat the hell out of you. I’d say it’s a definite improvement over the gyms in the older games. After a while, gyms simply became something that slowed you down slightly on your journey. They were never really challenging because you’d simply bring a Pokemon of a type effective against the gym, and win without any thought or effort. The trials do still have some issues with this, but the SOS system and the buffs that the Totem gets help to alleviate this a bit.

The AI is smarter this time around which is nice. They won’t spam useless moves constantly like the previous generation, and will typically choose the most effective attack against you rather than it seeming like a dice roll between their available moves. All of this makes for a more interesting experience. It didn’t feel overly hard, but I did find myself losing team members and running through items during important fights.

I’m about as surprised as I can be that this game felt as good as it did. Before it released, I was thinking it might make it low on the list like number 10 or 9, but it really surprised me. I really like this game.

1. Fire Emblem Fates

It's worth mentioning that I am considering Conquest, Birthright, and Revelation to all be one package for this. One expensive, three part package.

I’m going to take a pause for a moment of silence for any old school Fire Emblem fans who dislike the direction the series has gone in.

I’m sorry. I really am. I hope one day a middle ground is reached between fans of the old games and the styles of the new ones. I feel slightly obligated to mention that I started the series with Awakening and haven’t played any other releases prior to it. I feel a little ashamed because I do really enjoy the series from what I have played, so maybe one day I’ll go back and see what the old games are all about.

With that out of the way, I really like Fates. It is by no means perfect, and I’m not even sure I would say it’s an improvement over Awakening. It does some things better, like some of the core gameplay mechanics, but at the same time falls short with things that Awakening handled much better.

The overall story is less interesting than Awakenings, and Awakenings wasn’t that great to begin with aside from its first act. The children also feel very forced by comparison. It is understandable that they can’t just write time travel into the story or skip ahead in time every game, but a short little scene that describes me leaving my child in another reality where they grow up faster? Uhhhh… yeah… no.

Looking at the story, the premise has great promise. The idea of being stuck in this impossible choice between your birth family and the family that raised you is an idea that is worth exploring in a game. The problem is they don’t explore it. They make it about as black and white as it can get, and it leaves the player either feeling justified in their choice if they choose Hoshido, or like a complete idiot if they choose Nohr. The worst thing I can say about Hoshido is they’re isolationist and generally seem to mistreat people from Nohr at times even if they are allies. Even that isn’t consistent, though, and more often than not Hoshido just end up being the nice guys you want to root for.

Meanwhile, Nohr is ruled by a Saturday morning cartoon villain and his henchmen, and the rest of your family just has the attitude of “Well if you don’t want to die, try to make it look like you’re playing along.” I really wish Nohr was better written because I really enjoy a lot of the characters you can use on that path, and that path’s maps are the best in the game. Even if we could have seen the King before he went completely batshit crazy that would have been something to make me care more about the kingdom. As it is, it leaves me feeling that my siblings are alright, but screw the rest of that kingdom. They do touch on the idea of creating some sympathy for the kingdom by describing them as having a general lack of resources to care for their people while the kingdom of Hoshido enjoys their bountiful lands nearby without helping the presumably suffering Nohrians. Thus leading them to a path of warfare in order to take what they need to survive from Hoshido. But again, it’s never consistent enough to stick. The second I start feeling bad for Nohr, the King starts ranting to his ceiling dragon and laughing maniacally while everyone just kind of puts up with it. Oh and the main character is stuck in a rut of "Well maybe I can change Dad's mind." for the first half of the story. It's not like the guy tried to blow me up or anything in the prologue. He surely must be alright deep down, right?

And I’m not even going to go into how Revelations and the DLC story stuff twisted this even more because this is already going on too long.

Phew, okay, I just had to rant that out. I might have just trashed the story, but if I’m being honest I don’t really come to these games for the story. I come for the characters’ interactions and the overall strategic turn based gameplay. I really like a lot of the changes they made here on the gameplay side of things. The pair up system feels much more satisfying and controllable, and the weapon system feels better as well. The weapon triangle got an overhaul, so spells aren’t quite as broken this time around. That is also due to the stronger spells just not being quite as good this time, and the mages in general having some pretty bad bases and growths. My favorite new addition is definitely the Hidden Weapons. The Ninja class that uses them is easily my favorite class in the game, and weapons that debuff enemies at the cost of dealing less initial damage makes for fun choices in combat.

Despite my story complaints, this will probably be the Fire Emblem game I return to the most out of the two I have played. I really like it a lot, and I’ve already played each path about 5 or 6 times this year alone. Oh and shout out to the art style. There are some subtle differences in the styles between Awakening and Fates, and Fates has a really nice look by adding in some extra shading to the characters on their 2D art during conversations. It gives it a much more old school sketched look that I really like.

I might not have the most positive things to say about some aspects of Fates, but I’d say that’s because I do really care about this game. I’m not going to pretend it doesn’t have its faults, but I accept it, warts and all. I really want to see what kind of game they can put out if they can just pick up the slack of the map design and the story. Until then I’ll just go on enjoying it for what it is. A fun strategic game with characters I enjoy despite the fact that they're all trapped in a bad story line.

And that's a wrap for 2016!

I thought long and hard about how I want to finish this off and tie a neat little bow on it, but whatever. That's my list. Feel free to comment, share your experiences and thoughts on these games, or hell even just bring up completely different games that I didn't mention. If you want to recommend stuff you'd think I might like that's cool too. If you haven't noticed I generally tend to prefer RPG's or strategy games. Who knows, maybe I'll play it and try to write about it in the future. I'm hoping to start playing Final Fantasy XV in a week or two, so that is probably next up on my list of games to tackle. Oh and also...

I hope you all have a happy holiday and a great new years!