I found Nioh to be a very decent game. Lots of colors, Soulsian combat and depth. The story was shallow, but lets you know there was more happening in it's world. Your protagonist's interest is more fixated.

From a long time ago, I still get your lists....

#1 - Disgaea 5

There. Fixed.

Hell YEAH Shenmue 3! Im waiting for that since I backed it.

@bybeach: Thanks man! Yeah Nioh is a game that interests me for the combat only. I played some at PAX East and thought to myself that I like fast paced Dark Souls. :)

This list wasn't meant to be anything special. Just a traditional selfish list for myself that I'll probably consult twice a year when i go to buy stuff or notice something I think might be cool. Probably 80% of this I'll never buy or play, just things I think I might enjoy.

When I first got on GB that's more or less how I used the site, stuff like achievement tracking, wishlists to keep note of games I find interesting etc. Only after reading other user's list like Mento's did it occur to me that I could do something more fun with them that other's might enjoy too, which is what I've basically made the last several years instead. I honestly thought about just remaking an existing list of mine just so I wouldn't disturb people who understandably might expect something more exciting.

@sparky_buzzsaw: ha! i should add D5. Thanks for the reminder man. Truthfully I don't know if it's for me though, as much as I'd like the combat My tolerance for grinding just isn't what it used to be. Too many shiny baubles in my backlog. And given some of the massive games on this list, I have to wonder if I have enough hours in my life to even play what I already have.

I wonder if D5 will come to Steam now that the oldest game is on there.

@eder: That's cool you did that! You are part of making magic happen (hopefully).

Even if Shenmue III is horrible I want to experience it from a curiosity standpoint. If nothing else I'm glad for fans they get a continuation of the story. Few things worse in entertainment media than never finding out how the story ends.

@slag: The architecture for transferring over D5 shouldn't be as troublesome as the PS2-PS3 games, so I gotta imagine it will happen someday.

In any case, the nice thing about Disgaea is the grind is (largely) unnecessary, especially in any of the games after 4. Sure, it unlocks a bunch of post-game content, but you could easily get your fifteen or twenty bucks worth of SRPG goodness before the grind kicked in, beat the story, play out a few side stories, and touch on a bit of the Item World and Chara World stuff.

In any case, I largely kid about those games, but I really do think if more people picked them up, they'd find some silly shit to genuinely enjoy. Aside from the anime. Fuck anime.

@sparky_buzzsaw: ah that's good to know! If I buy it, I'll try it mainline it then. Though knowing myself I'll still burn myself out anyway because I'll feel compelled to get all the things. :)

Last time I really messed with these games was the La Pucelle/Phantom Brave/ D1 days, so it's been a while.

Have you played Divinity: Original Sin 2? I was surprised how much it plays like Bioware game with SRPG combat. I'm really diggin it.

@slag: I haven't. I've got a few CRPGs from the last few years to catch up on, but the writing's been leaving me utterly mentally drained, so when I play stuff this year, I'm usually going for something brainless or actiony. I'm gonna take a large-ish break maybe in February or so, during which I plan to do nothing but relax, exercise, and watch way too much Netflix. If it drops seriously by then, I'll have to pick it up.

Exactly! People who wonder why we want this game so bad. Its not that we want to find more sailors or drive forklifts. We want to see the END.

@sparky_buzzsaw: Totally understandable. Especially as I've gotten older I've got phases where I just need to veg out at the end of the day. I think that's one reason I've gotten back into 2d platformers in recent years. It's nice to have something where you can just play at the drop of a hat.

If you recharge a bit in Febuary or whenever, I think you might take a lot to this D:OS 2 given your taste for turnbased SRPGs. CRPGs and me haven't always gelled given my roots as a console gamer, but man I really dig the combat in this one. Scratches all the same itches Final Fantasy Tactics did, SRPg combat with a job system like customization.

My understanding is the first one uses a similar combat system, so I bet you can pick that one up on the cheap fairly easily if so inclined.

Hope you keep truckin with your writing!