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MilesTheWolfman

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My 2015 GOTY List

Alright, here goes! My Game of the Year list for 2015. Please note that I didn't purchase a whole lot of games this year, so you might see some recurring themes.

With that in mind, I hope you enjoy! I might decide to stick around and keeping blogging. I kinda like it here.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Super Mario Maker
  • Rocket League
  • Undertale
  • The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage
  • Binding of Isaac Rebirth/Afterbirth
  • Persona 4 Dancing All Night
  • Rock Band 4

Thanks for checking this list out!

Brian Shapiro(MilesTheWolfman)

List items

  • Some may consider putting an expansion on the list cheating, but there are going to be people that list Destiny: The Taken King, so I think I'm perfectly okay with making Heavensward my favorite game of the year. At some point around 2010 or 2011, I found a collector's edition of the original Final Fantasy XIV in a game store lying around for 50% off. Being a huge FF nut, I decided to pick it up only to realize that none of my computers would be able run the game, and being in high school without a job, I couldn't afford the monthly payments. Fast forward to 2013 when FFXIV 2.0: A Realm Reborn was released. Considering that I had linked a Square Enix account to having the CE of the initial release, I was able to download the client for A Realm Reborn for free. Having a computer that could play it, I cashed in my two weeks free trial, and started. And my entire view on MMOs still didn't change. They were boring to me. Standing around, waiting for cooldowns, this wasn't the type of game I'd imagined at all! Fast forward one more time to around January of 2015. As part of my internship with a company that some friends owned, they convinced me to start a new character and come play with them. Now that a class/job that I was interested in became available, I was eager to get started. It's now December of 2015, and even though the community on my server, Cactuar, can sometimes get frustrated at people that don't know the newest content, every time I'm able to subscribe for a month, I'm absolutely hooked. Learning the mechanics and felling great beasts from Final Fantasy Lore is a thrill like no other. This game had completely changed my view on MMORPGs, and even on MMO-style combat. It's because of this game that I'm able to play Xenoblade Chronicles X with an open mind and not flounder about bored because I'm just auto-attacking. Plus, I mean, I can be a catgirl ninja. Who the hell doesn't want to be able to reinvent themselves as someone else and go on great adventures, making friends along the way? Heavensward does drag a bit, and it's certainly not perfect, but it's my choice for Game of the Year without a doubt.

  • This is going to be a divisive game, I'm sure of it. Back in January, one of my best friends from across the pond gifted me the game on Steam. He told me to try it out, see if I liked it, after I expressed some interest and curiosity about the title. Needless to say, the next day, I spent the money and bought the season pass on my PS4. (My computer didn't run the game the smoothest, so I decided to play it on console where I'd hopefully have better luck with a consistent framerate.) The first episode of Life is Strange is probably my favorite, considering my high school career wasn't the best, but the quirky characters all had their own defining points and individuality. It really felt like I was in high school all over again. Despite my complete and utter lack of interest of the indie rock genre/hipster music scene, the music fit perfectly and I was drawn into the town of Arcadia Bay without looking back. Some of the choices don't exactly make sense, and there are a few confusing and downright silly design choices as you reach the final episode, but when I made my final choice and saw the ending that I had arrived at, my eyes began to water with acceptance, sadness, and even happiness. Even though Square Enix and Dontnod Entertainment have confirmed that a second game will happen, I don't know if they'll be able to capture the same emotions and uniqueness that Life is Strange was able to convey. The game's not perfect, but neither is life.

  • I'm going to cheat a tiny bit here one last time. I haven't beaten X, and I've barely dipped into the surface due to another addiction of mine that you'll find higher on the list, but this game deserves its spot. From the moment you boot up the game and watch the opening cutscene, the scene is set. You're given a fairly robust character creator to work with, as well. (It only took my friend and I an hour and three minutes to be happy with our characters. I timed it.) From then on, the combat system works fairly similar to Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii, but if you're not familiar with that, it's basically a single player MMO combat system. You have to mind AOE attacks as well as the cooldowns on your own special abilities. There's a lot to take in, and the environments are gorgeous. The NPCs feel like real people. They feel and talk a lot like actual humans, not just canned created characters for a game. If you've got a LOT of spare time and love Japanese RPGs, Monolith Soft's latest game isn't one to be missed.

  • This is a game that I'm sure a lot of people have higher up on their lists, and for good reason. Nintendo really knocked it out of the park with their freshest IP to date. Featuring gorgeous visuals, clever level design and a consistent schedule of new content being added to the game, Splatoon has every reason to keep you coming back for more. Outfitting your Squidkid with different weaponry and gear to suit the different game modes brings not only an individual sense of fashion to your cephalopod, but also different bonuses to your attributes as well as sub and super weapons. At this point in time, the game is a little too eSports for my friends and I to really compete since we're operating on different and busier schedules, but I'd take Splatoon over a MOBA or CS:GO any day of the year.

  • I'm definitely cheating a bit with this entry, but for two reasons: There are thirty games to play on one disc, and I don't own an Xbox One. The reason this makes the list is because it takes nearly all of the old classics, and makes them accessible to everyone again, or with certain titles in mind, for the first time. If you collect or play retro games, you should know how expensive Conker's Bad Fur Day is as a loose cart, let alone complete in box. Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie are slightly less so, but they'll still put a dent in your wallet. Not to mention having access to the NES classic, Battletoads! Oh yeah, and for the first time ever on console, the Battletoads arcade game. With each of the thirty games also having challenges tailored specifically to them, there's a lot of extra content to each game beyond just playing through them, and at it's relatively cheap price point, if you own an Xbox One, there is no reason not to own Rare Replay.
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