This year's list is shorter and more incomplete than what I’m used to doing. I had some life stuff happen (don’t worry, all good stuff) and a consequence of that was having less time to play games and getting wayyyyy behind on new games. I did also have some old games that I played that were quite time-consuming that could have easily accounted for multiple smaller games, but alas….

Anyway, I wanted to have at least something written down for the year, even if it is a bit late. One note before we get to the list: at the beginning I usually like to include novelty awards for all the other games I played this year but didn’t rank in case you were thinking “well, but did you play ________?”. But frankly, I don’t have much more than a top 10 (and 1), so it’s mostly just old games, and then the 2022 games in some order that I’m certain will change once I catch up on them. Enjoy, I guess? [edit 3/5/24, moved Elden Ring from And 1 to #1, knocking off Norco and added Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as the new And 1 (lists are weird, okay?)]

Novelty Awards

2022s Old Games of the year: AI: The Somnium Files, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, Psychonauts, Scarlet Nexus, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II, Death's Door, Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, Psychonauts 2, Beat Saber, Superhot VR, Ghostrunner, Heaven Will Be Mine, NEO: The World Ends with You, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Nuclear Throne, Tribes of Midgard, Persona 4 Golden, OPUS: Echo of Starsong

Best figurative “killing it” on wheels: OlliOlli World

Best literal “killing it” on wheels: Rollerdrome

Best minigame: Monkey staring contest in Norco

2023s long list of 2022 games I will (try to) play but haven’t yet: Horizon Forbidden West, Stray, Live A Live, Splatoon 3, Tinykin, Immortality, AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Return to Monkey Island, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Remake, Marvel’s Midnight Suns and the rest of Xenoblade Chronicles 3

And 1: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

It seems like this spot this year is going to be my “super long games I didn’t finish” spot, because after having Elden Ring here for a year, I’ve now got Xenoblade. I’ve only played like about ten hours of this and I’ve never played any of the other games in the series, but this seems very cool? I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I see why some people love this game so much, but I’m hopefully going to chip away at this one until I do. Probably not for a while though at this rate.

Best parts so far: Eunie, Eunie, and Eunie

10. Genshin Impact (2022)

Look, I know that this is now three years in a row that this is on my list. And going forward I think I’m going to just put it at ten by default to leave room for the more recent games. But still, by sheer time played (and a fair amount of enjoyment), I can’t make a list for myself for 2022 without mentioning it. Early this year I got a new phone which happened to be able to run it and so that was why I ended up still playing a lot of Genshin this year as an easy way to keep up with dailies. But there were also new characters, new regions, new story beats, and now a goddamn card game that still kept hitting with me this far in, which, if nothing else, is very remarkable. I am gradually getting concerned that I’ll burnout on it all eventually. But until then, the perennial #10 spot is yours, Genshin.

50-50 record on character banners in 2022: 7-2

9. Signalis

I only get the guts to play a survival horror game maybe once every few years. But once I pulled myself together, it turns out Signalis is a really good one of those. The kind of limited ability to fight is usually what bothers me about this genre, but here it ended up being pretty compelling for whatever reason. I spent a little more time than I wanted to by the end juggling my equipment like a madman, but I think it’s actually a good thing that I cared enough to want to be that efficient with how I managed everything. I didn’t exactly grasp what was going on in the story, which was partly the point I guess, but the creepy vibes and lore were plenty to keep me invested in the space. It was nice lil’ check-in with survival horror, we’ll see how long it takes until the next go-around.

Most distressing hole jumped into: Ummmm, this one

8. God of War: Ragnarok

I haven’t finished this yet but I’ve played enough so far to see that this is another heaping helping of what the 2018 game did. Which isn’t entirely fair to say, because more accurately it’s making me feel like I did playing the 2018 game, but now with the added experience of four years, which makes it something different and more impressive. The timing worked out to where more God of War was exactly what I was in the mood for anyway. It’s taking me forever to finish because I take forever to finish every game, but I have a decent sense that this is around how I’ll feel about it if it hits even just some of what it’s going for.

Low-key best improvement: Auto-pick up of items is just **chef’s kiss**

7. Pentiment

I love a good central space in a game, and Tassing from Pentiment is a great one. I spent probably more time than I needed running around trying to make sure I talked to everyone and saw everything, and even then I likely missed a lot. I have the map of the town pretty much fully downloaded along with the stories of its many inhabitants across different times, which is a huge accomplishment for a game. Sometimes time skips end up being pretty jarring for me, but the pacing of each of its acts was so good that I was actually excited after each time one ended to see how everything had changed in the subsequent years. To say nothing of how great the art style looks and how cool the fonts are. The fonts, people! This year had more than a few games come out of nowhere to really deliver, but Pentiment is probably the one I least expected to end up being so interesting to me.

Actual biggest mystery remaining: How the persuasion system works, I swear half of the time the result didn’t match what I did

6. Marvel Snap

What a delightfully insidious game. The games are so quick that I can just casually finish one, then two, then suddenly I’ve played like a few dozen hours since release. The chaotic, yet somehow manageable amount of combinations coupled with the different location abilities also made it so that it was almost impossible to have the same kind of match twice. Even if I ended up losing it was fun to laugh at the absurdity of some of the final results (okay, maybe some were pretty tilting, but still). I haven’t been this into a card game since I spent like a summer playing Hearthstone every day, which I guess tells you how long it’s been and how exceptional I think Marvel Snap is.

Number of games played while driving: 0, I'm not a maniac

5. Tunic

Tunic is partially to blame for pulling me away from Elden Ring, which is about the highest compliment I can give. You're telling me I can scratch the same kind of itch but in one-tenth of the time? The map and manual of this game are still clear in my mind this many months after playing it and I think that is super impressive the way that a game can imprint this knowledge without any kind of setup and without explicitly telling you anything. At the end of the game, I didn’t quite have the drive to do absolutely everything to get the best ending, but I had a fantastic time with all the rest.

Best Accidental Discovery: I was at the shrine screen and accidentally dropped my controller, which caused it to hit the button to try and upgrade one of my stats. And that's when I figured out THAT YOU COULD EVEN UPGRADE YOUR STATS IN THE FIRST PLACE

4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

Hey, it’s a 2022 release, it counts! So I’ve played the Sky games and Cold Steel I and II and love ‘em to death, but when I got to the end of Cold Steel II and it was like, “let’s (re)introduce and/or name-drop about 15 characters from the two Crossbell games that aren’t officially out yet in the U.S.”, I decided to wait and play at least one of these games before moving on with Cold Steel.

If that sounds confusing, that’s only because it is. But anyway, regarding Zero itself: even though this is now the sixth one of these I’ve played, Zero still does what Trails does with the best of them. The new cast is very charming, the story is meticulously and expertly well-told, and the music is solid to great with a few bangers. The surprising amount of time that they spent resolving the Renne stuff from Sky might seem to some like it's taking away from wanting to be a new, independent storyline, but as someone who's all the way invested in the crossover aspect of these games I was incredibly glad to see it.

In some sense, I kind of went into this wanting to play it to better enjoy Cold Steel III and IV, but with Azure hopefully coming pretty soon after Zero I’m just as excited to keep hanging out with the Crossbell Crew™. And then I’ll get back to the other Trails, because these games never stop coming out, apparently.

Best banger: "Inevetiable Struggle", how apropos

3. Neon White

Neon White is a perfect example of a game that as soon as it was shown gave me something I never knew I wanted, but then I wanted it IMMEDIATELY. As someone who played a fair amount of CounterStrike surf maps back in the day, the kind of movement and the look of Neon White really reminded me of those times in the best way. And then I guess they also threw some anime on top? I was pretty okay with the story; I didn’t skip anything but also didn’t really retain much other than Steve Blum’s dulcet tones as the main lead. But wow is the movement just totally carrying this game on its back all the way up this list. It’s wonderful and ramps up to where you’re zipping and bebopping so quickly that you don’t even have time to react, all while guiding you towards and rewarding creativity and improvisation. Speedruns of this are gonna be nuts.

Actual biggest sinner: Me, for playing this on the Switch

2. Citizen Sleeper

What I thought was going to be a neat sci-fi story turned into a mini-Persona, for one because I can't help myself in making the comparison but also because its system of spending limited time and resources with a ton of different interesting characters had my brain firing on all of those fronts. Optimizing the characters' storylines and managing money and resources was super compelling and turned into an unexpected power fantasy when I eventually broke the economy of the game. This is probably because I play too many long games more than any other reason, but this was one of the only games that I just plowed through and finished very quickly, which is increasingly rare for me and usually the mark of a great game.

Chosen ending: Grow Vast and Strange, which is all we can ever hope for really

1. Elden Ring

I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I played like 12 hours of this the first week it came out, and just kind of stopped. It's probably the combination of just being overwhelmed by the size of it and lack of direction and me also playing like 10 other games around the same time. And seeing just how much of a landmark it's become as 2022 went on only made me feel more guilty for not getting to this one as a decent-sized FromSoftware fan.

Anyway, I finally picked Elden Ring back up about a year later and finished it after several more months. But I’m ready to call it now; it’s Game of the Year. Could I have reasonably done this much earlier since it was pretty obvious that it was special? Yes, but also why not just take my time and enjoy this ludicrously large feast of a game? This is probably the easiest Game of the Year that I’ve ever had to give, even if it’s this late after the fact. Cheers, FromSoft; sorry for taking so long and looking forward to that DLC.

Laziest character creation: I picked samurai and named him Jack

Thanks for reading.

This year has been, well, another year for games. A lot of newer games didn’t always hit me in a big way this year, but that sure didn’t stop me from trying. Here’s a few things to know about the list: in past years for me, the “And 1” spot was traditionally for a game that either might not have otherwise made the list due to a technicality (port, expansion, remaster, early access etc.). Really in this case though it's just an extra spot to make a mockery of my own dumb rules and write about something I played a lot of that didn’t come out this year. Also my list proper has plenty of other technical exceptions too so let's not think about any of this too hard. I also like to include novelty awards at the beginning for all the other games I played this year but didn’t rank in case you were thinking “well, but did you play ________?” (you probably weren't but that's okay). Anyway folks, enjoy the list and until next time.

[Editor’s note 1/14/23: Added Chicory: A Colorful Tale at #9 and OPUS: Echo of Starsong at #8, shuffling the list around by dropping The Forgotten City and Halo: Infinite and moving Life is Strange: True Colors to #7]

Novelty Awards

2021s Old Games of the year: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Paradise Killer, If Found…, Helltaker, Astro's Playroom, Observation, Gears Tactics, Hustle Cat, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd, Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, Bugsnax, Demon's Souls (2020), The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Super Mario 3D World

Most cursed time loop in the year of time loop games: 12 Minutes

The “More cyberpunk than Cyberpunk” Award: The Ascent

Best game I should have played more of: Griftlands

Best actually helpful companion character: Bowser Jr. in Bowser’s Fury

Game I'm most surprised I put 20 hours into: Pokémon Unite

Best banter: Necrobarista: Final Pour

Best shadow drop (again): Deltarune: Chapter 2

Best banger of an opening theme song: World Flipper

Most as advertised: Unpacking

Best preview of 2023s Best Soundtrack winner: Unbeatable [white label]

Best ziplines: The Forgotten City

Best grappling hook: Halo: Infinite

2022s 2021 games I will probably play but haven't yet: Psychonauts 2, NEO: The World Ends with You, Sable, Get in The Car, Loser!, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, and the rest of Scarlet Nexus

And 1. Let’s talk about Trails, shall we?

Alright everyone, buckle up, this is actually the first ever And 2 (and a half?), because that’s what I played of the Trails games in 2021. I started with Trails in the Sky last year and things were good, but this year it really caught fire when I finished the second half of Second Chapter, then played Trails in the Sky the 3rd and then Trails of Cold Steel I. Like, if we’re being real here and not considering release date it’s probably a toss-up between 13 Sentinels, Trails, and my actual #1 for my favorite thing I played this year. And if we’re talking about why I didn’t play as many new games this year, here’s reason #2 (more on reason #1 later).

Okay, but what is Trails? They are turn-based JRPGs spanning multiple sub-series that all take place in the same industrial fantasy universe that I would describe as very Full Metal Alchemist-y. Trails games go absolutely at their own pace and have so much dialogue it’s like playing a visual novel with an occasional RPG on top. And that can be fantastic! The world and characters that are being built here are, on paper, pretty tropey and nothing that you likely haven’t seen before. However, the story elements are all so meticulously done and well executed at such a scale as to be really exceptional. In some ways, it’s almost like you’re replaying an old favorite game even on the first playthrough. But I mean that as a compliment, because though I frequently feel like even though I can guess where most of the beats are going, I’m excited to get there rather than indifferent.

It’s amazing too to think that I could make an argument for any of these games I’ve played so far to be the best of the series. The (relative) tightness of the first Trails in the Sky’s story with one of the most devastating cliffhanger endings; compared with the way that Second Chapter delivers on the promise of said ending and then some. Even The 3rd, which is a shift in focus and mostly consists of side stories, is an outstanding fanservice package with some of the best storytelling of the series. And then there’s Cold Steel I, which structurally and thematically is like Fire Emblem: Three Houses before there even was Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but like what if we spent twice as much time and only covered the equivalent of about half of Three Houses (all of this is still complimentary, by the way). Time will tell if all the gratuitous worldbuilding will pay off in the rest of Cold Steel, but even separated from how the rest of it plays out I might say that Cold Steel I is my favorite of these so far, and why I’m so psyched to continue. Forget all (or at least some) of the new 2022 releases coming that will get delayed to 2023, my most anticipated games of next year are already out.

Biggest detail I miss going from Sky to Cold Steel: The fun quips that you get when you try to open item chests again

10. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission

You know what the 10 spot is good for too? More exceptions. I mean, Yuffie’s Very Own Episode is enough of a game on its own (especially if you spend three hours playing Fort Condor like I did), but it also is just as it says: an intermission that, to me, functions as a glorified hype builder for the next game. I played the original FFVII in between playing Remake and this, so I knew Yuffie’s deal enough to look forward to her debut and, well, they certainly made her a lot. But whatever, she’s great. It helps too that Yuffie is about as fun to play as Tifa is in the Remake, and even though some aspects of her playstyle like the synergy mechanic might be limited to this game, she should hopefully be even better as part of the main party. Though I hope that they keep some of that story tension where at first, she’s a total rascal just trying to steal their stuff.

The plot of Intermission is about as fun and inconsequential as they come, and it was often more exciting just briefly seeing some of the old characters again. However, the ending bits showing the main story both continuing to deviate (Zack’s still alive??) while still following some of the original (Cloud and crew are heading to Kalm) are very fun especially now that I actually know the story of VII. Or at least, I thought I knew the story. I haven’t looked into any of the rest of the Compilation so I didn’t know who the hell Nero was, but that didn’t stop it from being entertaining anime BS. All of this aside, seeing a little more of Midgar and these characters was excuse enough and well, it does have me hype for the next game. In like, five more years when it’s out?

Best “Cowboy Bebop chase scene” energy: "The Runaround"

9. Chicory: A Colorful Tale

I can’t draw at all and I played this on PlayStation anyway so I didn’t really doodle all that much in the world of Chicory. But still, it made me feel like I could draw, even if it was badly. The rest of the time it made me feel like I was playing a pretty fun Zelda-like. However, Chicory definitely ends up being more than the sum of its parts, a game with the good(?) kind of vibes that I am here for, where it’s about as wholesome as it is kind of depressing and you get some real ups and downs along the way. The music kicks ass too. Not much else to say really other than check it out if you haven’t already!

Best outfit combo: Pretty much any of them?

8. OPUS: Echo of Starsong

Here’s a game I had forgotten, then remembered, and then I think forgot about again until it got a Switch port, at which point I’m glad to have finally played it. In some reviews I saw there was a, frankly, reckless comparison stating that Echo of Starsong was basically a Makoto Shinkai film made into a game. My issue isn’t that it’s wrong, but that if you just throw that out there then goddammit you’re gonna get me to play it. A lot of the components are here: great soundtrack, great style, a love story across time and/or space, etc. And with its sci-fi stylings, it’s only about a few steps away from Voices of a Distant Star and that’s rad.

However, OPUS also has the benefit of being a longer and slower-paced experience and uses that to build out a lot of fantastic lore and culture. Like, really fantastic; I don’t think I can overstate this. Although the game itself is pretty lightly interactive to the point of almost being a visual novel, the game’s couple of spaces are really good looking and I was glad to (space)walk through them. Besides that, it has probably the best galaxy map screen since Mass Effect. Having finished Echo of Starsong, I knew going in that there are other older OPUS games that are in this same universe and now I’m very interested in checking those out too, because of how well built the world of this game is.

The “You got Game Passed™!" Award: Me buying this on Switch about two weeks before it got announced for Game Pass

7. Life is Strange: True Colors

If you like Life is Strange and its ilk, you already know what you're in for here. These games are mostly about a vibe and mood and music to me, and on all counts you can't say that this entry isn't exactly what Life is Strange is, even if it’s getting increasingly familiar. But still, the ”slice of life drama with some kind of supernatural element” sub-genre has become one of my favorites of the last couple years. Even if I wasn't that excited about the initial pitch (i.e. THE PSYCHIC POWER OF EMPATHY), if there was a chance to reach the highs of previous Life is Strange games I was going to take it.

There are actually meaningful improvements in True Colors to make it stand out in the series. The environments and animation look great and by extension add a lot of character to everything, especially Alex, who rules six ways to Sunday and carries the majority of the game. Look, I’ll also admit, despite being a fan of Before the Storm, I forgot that Steph was from that game. Buttttttt she’s great too and Steph and Alex together is just about a nonstop charm train. As a main source of conflict the “investigate the mining company” plotline was beyond silly, but there were enough character moments going on around that to compensate for it. The LARP, the Spring Festival, the flashback sequences in chapter five, and the Steph DLC are pretty different, but equally compelling highlights. Though True Colors’ overall contribution to Life is Strange may not recapture the specific magic of the first one to me, it’s nice to see that more Life is Strange still hits in 2021.

Most awkward silence: Watching the Nextlander playthrough have to go through the licensed music scenes in streamer mode

6. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

I have a long, but spotty, history with this series where I played the heck out of the PS2 games but then never owned a PS3, so there was a huge gap until the 2016 remake, which was wonderful. So now, it’s both weird and cool to still be playing stuff like this (and Halo, for that matter) almost 20 years later; and that they’re both great!

It’s almost easy to forget after looking at it for however many hours, but the game looks absurdly good in motion. What I frequently enjoy in Insomniac games (whether it’s Ratchet, Sunset Overdrive, or Spider-man) is zipping around and constantly cycling through weapons and all of that is fantastically on display here and runs super smooth. The charge boots, grappling, dashing, and side-flipping all feel familiar but have their own distinct flow in Rift Apart. I may not always be thinking about how unique or innovative Rift Apart was, but I am frequently thinking about how much fun it was and how it was a cozy bit of gaming nostalgia.

Favorite hallmark of when I played the PS2 games: Is it even a Ratchet & Clank game without an arena sequence?

5. Persona 5 Strikers

Look, if there was any license that was going to get me to try a musou game, congrats you found it. Not that I really have anything against a grind or musou in particular, but I almost always need to have a story to go with it that I can look forward to. And luckily, that’s just what they have here. While the canonicity (I hope that’s a word) in Strikers is unfortunately kind of weird since it continues from original Persona 5 and not Royal, it was still great to get **most of** the gang back together, and for a fun summer road trip no less.

They certainly get a lot of, ahem, mileage out of the road trip framing for sure. Walking around the different cities and buying every kind of regional food I could is the kind of virtual tourism I can get behind, even if it was mostly to break up combat and restock. I appreciated too that the structure was pretty relaxed in that you could enter and exit dungeons at any time to recover, because following the Persona template of hammering on weaknesses was, while very satisfying, also pretty expensive SP-wise. Besides that though, the shift in combat was otherwise so seamless as to be remarkable and was enough to keep the game fresh especially so soon after Royal for me.

While the main group largely coasts on what their characters were at the end of Persona 5, the newcomers add some wanted personality. Sophia is easily the best of them, and while it’s kind of wild that Persona now has had multiple party members who are an AI, it works well both in today’s context and in the overall plot. Zenkichi is fine I guess for a cop, but at least his daughter Akane rules. And Ichinose is about the most predictable, but still amusing turn for a character there is, and your eventual confrontation with her speaks to a lot of the appeal of both the Phantom Thieves and of Strikers as a whole. They might just entirely be about friendship and fighting for others, but they just keep coming like this unstoppable force and win over just about everyone in the game with their charm and perseverance, and gosh darn it, they got me again this time too.

Best new bop or, alternately, Best “Hit it, Boys!” energy: “Axe to Grind”

4. Inscryption

This one’s a fun one. It’s been a while since I played a game almost for spite, but Inscryption and the fanfare around it really brought it. I like card games just fine (even if I suck at them) and would’ve totally gotten around to this one eventually, probably once there was a Switch port. But the overwhelming praise and also the constant tiptoeing around spoilers for this game got me to get it and pretty much plow through it in a week just to see what all the fuss was about. And at the end of it all, the game is neat, it’s exceptionally neat. I think that I still appreciate everyone else’s enthusiasm about the game more than my own enjoyment of it, which is just fine!

The mood and atmosphere don’t quite get any better than they do in the first act, but also I think that it lasted exactly as long as I wanted to before I was ready to move on. The additional twists and turns were nice too, although the freedom to create your own deck from scratch in Act II was almost paralyzing for me and I never really experimented once I found a solid strategy (i.e. Ouroboros). All of this leading up to a finale that has a ton of wild moments, but the game loading up a fucking Duel Disk genuinely had me in stitches and really took the cake in terms of shock and delight. And by those measures, Inscryption is certainly one of the best.

Most OP Deathcard: a 7/7 that costs one blood to play and can be sacrificed infinitely just called “Damnnnnn”

3. Deathloop

I’m so glad this game ended up being good. It had been announced and shown and then shown again so many times that I didn’t need any convincing, but still I was worried about the final experience. As a regular fan of Arkane’s previous output, Deathloop comes together in a way that in retrospect seems obvious but could’ve easily gone wrong at multiple points in its execution. Taking the powers and level design from Dishonored but encouraging players not to be afraid to try things by having and requiring players to reset and try again just works here. The way I felt when I replayed Dishonored 2 and just went full chaos is how I felt pretty much all the time playing Deathloop experimenting with multiple builds and approaches (even if sometimes Shift and a silenced weapon are the answer to everything), and that is an incredible feeling. This was one of the few games that I just straight up consumed this year and anything that can hold my singular attention like that is increasingly rare these days.

Most killed visionary: Charlie, for the obvious Shift upgrades

2. Genshin Impact (2021)

I guess I’m one of those people now. You know, those sickos that have an ongoing game on their list every year. And to have it this high too?! But by time played, which is not a perfect metric by any means, here is reason #1 why I didn’t play as many different games this year. Plus, there's been more than enough content in this year to justify ranking the game again in 2021. It sucks and is weird that a decent amount of it was limited to event periods that new players wouldn’t be able to see, but Inazuma alone is huge and killed it with the world design and exploration, which is what I enjoyed so much last year about the game at launch.

Additionally, getting a PS5 this year and being able to run at a smooth framerate was one of the most game-changing experiences I've ever had. It became so much better to play and it became a further excuse to dive way deeper into the meta and team comps and synergies, which I was already pretty into at this time last year. New characters, weapons, artifacts, and buffs always kept that drive going, for better or worse, but for what it’s worth I do feel pretty proud of the roster I’ve built throughout the year. Although, this is also the time to mention that if the monetization of this game is something that you don’t want to mess with at all I totally understand.

Now then, thinking back to what I said last year, recklessly comparing it to Breath of the Wild. I….I don’t think it’s that ridiculous a comparison; I really might like Genshin just as much. Though the similarities in structure are clearly there, I think that they both accomplish different, incredible things. If you’re telling me that there will be a new region and story events like this every year going forward, then it’s going to be hard to think of any year out of the next few where I’m not considering Genshin for my end of the year list. And that sicko thought still boggles my mind.

Biggest “Yoooooooooo!” moment: If you know, you know [Inazuma spoilers]

1. NieR Replicant ver. 1.22474487139….

There’s now a NieR game, a Persona 5 game, and a Life is Strange game in my Game of the Year list, what is this, 2017 again?? After the magical experience of NieR: Automata, I looked into the original, read through a few wiki summaries, and was just about prepared to play through the game itself when this remake was announced. So sure, I maybe knew about “the big thing” going into it, but I was surprised to see that in practice, it was actually a pretty small thing that gets introduced really late in the game. Before all the Project Gestalt business, there’s a lot of story about you and just the best party of weirdos getting into adventures (very sad adventures, but adventures nonetheless) that’s the real heart of the game here, which is something that you can’t always get out of wiki summaries.

Also, wow did Automata just do a lot of the same things structurally and thematically that the original did. Not that that’s inherently good or bad, and in fact because I played Automata first I’m naturally more biased towards it. But even if I were to say that the original is 85% of the way there to how I feel about Automata, that’s still plenty powerful. The world in Replicant is pretty small and narrow by today’s standards, but there’s such a feel to the space that makes me just want to spend time there (the music definitely helps). To that end, I went through the foolhardy task of upgrading every weapon to max, which is probably five times worse in the original compared to Automata and without a secret ending or any significant reward. [Not to go too off topic here but Shouts to A More Civilized Age for accompanying me through the grind, because sometimes with that soundtrack you can have too much of a great thing]. That kind of supreme time wasting spending is still a special quality, no matter the game. Something as weird and wonderful as NieR gaining the popularity to get this remake is a true gift, and even this late to it I’m just happy to be here again, in this incomparable headspace that NieR creates.

Most sentimental endeavor: Growing a whole field of Lunar Tears, because I use my time wisely

Thanks for reading.

2020, huh? I played some old games, played some new games…. Alright nailed it, moving on.

I feel like this list already scoffs at any semblance of very arbitrary rules, what with its remakes, reissues, ports, and what have yous. That said, in keeping with tradition here's a few things to note: The “And 1” spot is for a game that either might not have otherwise made the list due to a technicality (port, expansion, remaster, early access etc., so much for that but whatever, I like having the extra spot) or just something I think is flawed or rough but wanted to write about anyway. I also included novelty awards at the beginning for all the other games I played this year but didn’t rank in case you were thinking “did you play ________?”.

I had an idea way back in July for a dumb gimmick for this list, or as I like to call it a “fun motif” to tie everything together so see if you can pick it out and hope you enjoy the list. [Editors update 1/22/2021: Added 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim to the list at #10 (for now), knocking Cyberpunk 2077 off] [Editors update 3/13/2021: Moved 13 Sentinels up to #4 and added Paradise Killer at #10, knocking Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout off]

Novelty Awards

2020's Old Games of the year: Neo Cab, Later Alligator, Judgment, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Batman: Arkham Asylum, A Plague Tale: Innocence, Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den, Valfaris, Steins;Gate 0, Final Fantasy VI, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, What the Golf?, Golf with your Friends, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, The World Ends with You -Final Remix-, Final Fantasy VII Not Remake, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter, Touhou Luna Nights, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Dicey Dungeons

Most 90s (was there ever any competition?): Murder by Numbers

Most distressing lack of a map: Carrion

The “Too much of a good thing?” award: Superhot: Mind Control Delete

Best podcast game: Trackmania (2020)

Best video game shotgun™: Super Shotgun in Doom Eternal

Best ice fishing: Tell Me Why

Best game for one weekend: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

The “I actually liked playing the Hulk…” award: Marvel’s Avengers

Best sequel to an over 20-year old game (again, not sure there was competition): Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time

Game I'm letting cook for a few more months: Cyberpunk 2077

Best footnotes: If Found...

Best PS+ game: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

Most ridiculous excuse for doing warehouse box puzzles: Helltaker

Best capsule machine trigger feel: Astro's Playroom

2021’s 2020 games I will probably play but haven’t yet: Resident Evil 3 (2020), Ghost of Tsushima, Demon’s Souls (2020), Bugsnax, Yakuza: Like A Dragon

And 1. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore

Or as I like to call it, the reason I no longer need to get a Wii U. I really thought about it a few times but ultimately held out hope for a port. And that’s part of why it’s here; from what I can tell this is the same 2016 game but with DLC and minus the second screen features of the Wii U. But you know why else it’s here? This game slaps.

As someone who’s frame of reference for Shin Megami Tensei starts and ends with Personas 3 through 5, Tokyo Mirage to me does a lot of interesting things with that framework and also does it in a pretty digestible length in comparison, “only” about 50 or so hours. For example, there’s not any kind of time pressure with schedules or deadlines to complete tasks, and the game even encourages you to take a breath to catch up on side activities during the intermissions, which are clever ways to break up main story chapters. I also appreciate more condensed, but also more impactful “S-Link” equivalents represented by each of your party members’ side stories that usually reward you with not only a cool cutscene or music video but also a special attack or skill that then references that cool moment in battle.

This is of course to say nothing of said party members, who I think together with some of the ancillary characters comprise a cast that I would put up there with any of the aforementioned Persona games. And yeah, he is a bit of a dope, but having an authored main character is something kind of nice too that makes the character interactions a little more natural. Anyway, I could go on; I haven’t even talked about combat (which is good) or the main story (more than serviceable) or the music (great) or the text message emotes (very funny). But if my experience sounds even a little like yours and you’re curious, definitely take the trip and jam with these cool kids.

Best track (from best girl): “Reincarnation” by Kiria

10. Paradise Killer

Or as I like to call it, Paradise Styyyyyler. It looks like a lost PS1 game in a good way and has such a vibe created by its music and writing that is easy to like and difficult to forget. I definitely had trouble early on navigating the map (pro tip: get the double jump) and figuring out what was going on (also pro tip: don't take weeks in between sessions like I did at first). However, once things clicked there was a great period where I was the investigation "freak" that Lady Love Dies (by the way, did I mention your character's name is LADY LOVE DIES) is sometimes referred to as, tearing my way from clue to clue and basically clearing the entire list of leads to investigate.

Taking that information into final trial is a great culmination of your efforts and really makes good on the idea which the game presents of there being a difference between facts and truth. Do you include every detail of every facet of your investigation, knowing it might lead to more of these people you probably liked facing justice? Or do you wield these facts to present a truth that convinces the judge of the story that you want to tell for the sake of your interests? I may not have been creative or shrewd enough to really experiment with it but knowing about all of the options you have for the trial makes the legwork (and boy, is there some legwork) worth it. Also there’s a great “oh damn, there’s lyrics?!?” version of the main theme over the credits, which is always welcome. Give Paradise a chance if you can, it's definitely something, if nothing else.

Best canned dialogue timing: Finding the demon corpse in the council chamber and LD’s random response being “Nani the hell??”

9. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Or as I like to call it Ori and the “Who else liked Hollow Knight?” (**raises hand**). And that’s fine by me. Hollow Knight is a great game to pull from, especially when keeping the fluid movement of the previous Ori game and giving more clear direction on where to go and what to do than Hollow Knight ever would. The combat expansion and the spirit shard builds were plenty in terms of new features to carry this sequel, to say little about how it still looks and sounds as fantastic as Blind Forest did for its time.

It was great to have gliding and bashing available relatively early on to make room for the new abilities, and yet the experience rarely felt so difficult as to be overwhelmed by the progression. I still also think that the chases were good and still the best way to do boss fights in a platformer, though it was interesting to see how movement was mixed into the more combat-heavy boss fights. I don’t know that the story is any kind of good compared to the original with just how weird it treats the antagonist, but the, again, fantastic soundtrack is at least something to take away from those cinematic parts. Overall, Will of the Wisps was an amply smart sequel that came at the right time while we all wait for Silksong.

Favorite combat ability: Hammer, hammer, and hammer

8. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Or as I like to call it, someone had some leftover Spider-Man in the fridge. And that’s not a diss, I love leftovers! I had leftovers today! Why am I yelling?! It’s like you had your Spider-Man and put some really good sauce you had in your fridge on it and you got this… um I’m losing the metaphor here. This is about the quickest I’ve gone in a game from 0 to “oh right, I remember exactly how these games work”, which was great because it was another reminder of how awesome Spider-Man (2018) was.

Although as I say that, there is a little extra variety here added to the swinging, stealthing and gadgeting that make Miles unique. The new abilities are really good additions (invisibility during stealth and easily-gained stun abilities? Yes please) and almost make you feel overpowered in a fun way. And speaking of being breezy, this game and world are paced exceptionally well to be able to advance the story, do some side stuff, then repeat so before I knew it I had hit about 85% completion when I finished the game without ever really going that hard out of my way. Miles’ story similarly gets in, gets out and works super well within its scope, really channeling the “friendly neighborhood” feel while still including big, bombastic moments. While the likely assumption is that both Peter and Miles will factor into an inevitable follow-up, Pete can take as much time off as he needs, Miles has got this down.

Actual best Spider-Man: Move over Pete and Miles, where’s the sequence where you play as the bodega cat?

7. The Last of Us Part II

Or as I like to call it “You Ain’t Seen the Last of Us” (sorry). When it was first announced, I shared the pretty common thought “Did we need a sequel here?”. A few years of development and about 30 hours of game time later, I still feel we didn’t need it, but I’ll take it. You do get a good improvement gameplay-wise and, story aside for now, it stands out as an exceptional stealth action game. Or at least, it’s my kind of stealth game meaning combat is still as good when the stealth is broken early and often. Playing on normal for me was the right kind of balance of scrounging but also not being afraid to burn through consumables on an encounter. And in terms of rummaging around abandoned locations and admiring the detail The Last of Us Part II is second to none.

But that story though…. I feel the same way about it as how I feel about Red Dead 2 where the production, the fidelity, the performances, the spectacle is real and it’s, well, spectacular. But what’s it in service of? I don’t really get (or, at least, I don’t sit well with) what’s to be taken from the story. Before there even was the confirmation of a Last of Us 2, I thought that a way to make another game in this series work would be the kind of “Tales from The Last of Us” framing where it’s in the same world but with few to none of the same people and places. And they almost do it! You see part of that game here but then it gets muddled in picking at old wounds, making sure any of that ambiguity with the first game’s ending is uncovered and then beaten to death. It certainly doesn’t ruin or change how I feel about the original, but man it sure tries to sometimes and, again, doesn’t feel necessary.

In any case, that’s a lot for a game that ultimately, I liked but also disappeared from my mind surprisingly quickly after playing it. For most games, that’s not the end of the world, but for something called The Last of Us Part II, well yeah.

Best use of the touchpad: Playing the guitar minigame; you can even pick individual strings based on where you swipe! Very neat

6. Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition

Or as I like to call it…. um, I’m not sure what else you call it. It feels like I played this game so long ago and I remember it like a fever dream, which feels very appropriate for what Kentucky Route Zero is doing. I experienced the whole story for the first time with this release so I’m kind of bringing all of that to bear here (no, not like that room full of bears). Even so, I think that even if I were just ranking act V on its own it’d be here as well, though my favorite is definitely IV. The framing for V is so goddamn cool having the cat be your way of interacting with the world and being able to rotate and view the episode from the same spot (hey look at that, here’s where you play as a cat).

This game to me is just about taking in a vibe and an aesthetic and that is difficult to describe (can you tell?) how valuable that is. Not that there aren’t standout moments that I can’t pick out across the acts (Lower Depths, The Distillery, Rum Colony), but just reading a summary or a description doesn’t always convey that. So, maybe just take the overall recommendation, keep in mind that it has a slow-ish start and see for yourself.

Favorite interlude: Un Pueblo de Nada, especially since I finding out about the live action accompaniment to it (wevp.tv)

5. Genshin Impact

Or as I like to call it the RWBY RPG I didn’t know I wanted. I’ve been pretty addicted to this game, and not so much in spending money, but in spending more time than I ever would have thought building up characters and researching tier lists, builds, team comps etc. I haven’t been and usually am not super into this kind of steep progression of numbers going up and a slightly obnoxious number of different ranks and levels with their own materials and currencies. And part of me still is wavering and wondering about staying invested but.… well there’s anime. These characters are all so enticing and I just want to be able to utilize everyone all the time and mix and match different teams again and again. And there’s not just combat chemistry, I really enjoy the character story quests and want to see all the different ways in which these characters can hopefully interact with each other going forward.

However, it remains to be said that it may just be untenable for some folks to mess with the gacha aspects of this game. The game is built pretty considerably against progressing everyone and progressing quickly, so you are frequently faced with the choice of putting the game down or spending more money, which on its face is unpleasant, even if that’s nothing new for this territory. So even while I’m kind of gushing about the game, its structure may not work for everyone and that’s totally fine. Also, I’m playing this on PS4, and it runs terribly in spots (using Venti’s ult basically tanks the framerate every time). So there’s that.

It’s going to be interesting to see how I feel in a few months or even a few years given there’s a lot still to come content-wise (and hopefully performance-wise too). Though this is truthfully how I would rate the game as it stands now, this game could get even better depending on how it’s supported, and it’s been the best out-of-nowhere surprise this year. This sounds ridiculous to think much less to say, but there is actual potential here for me to like it as much as the Breath of the Wild it was most inspired by.

Best gacha luck ever: Getting Venti, Keqing, and Fischl in one 10-pull

4. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Or as I like to call it the “whoops, why didn’t I play this earlier?” game of the year AKA the Yakuza 0 Award. I finally picked up and played through this game only after the end-of-year buzz it received, but man the more I played of it the more perplexed I was that I ever decided to wait on it in the first place. 13 Sentinels probably has the most sustained feeling of “Wait, what is going on? Why is _____ here? Now there’s androids/clones/talking cats too?” that I have experienced and for a long time it seemed like the story was recklessly writing all sorts of checks that it would be unlikely to cash. And yeah, maybe not every revelation that drops gets explored (like, so Yuki is Natsuno’s mom, did I miss something or did nothing come of that?) but anyway the devs, I assume, properly realize that the characters are what’s important and focus on them. The early character building in the prologue as well as capitalizing on the characters' relationships by the ending ultimately helped the story stick the landing (take a drink!), with the sci-fi absurdity being a great spice to enhance the character drama.

And it’s a really good cast, too. They do meet the standard description of “tropey, but a well done version of the trope”, but the interconnectedness between the characters and how they weave in and out of each other's stories adds a lot to their charm. The performances are also quite enjoyable (I played 90% of it in Japanese but the English seemed good too), with a remarkable level of consistency given how many characters there are as well as some real standouts (Yuki, Natsuno, Tomi, Shu, I'm sure we all have our favorites). Especially when you have to repeat a lot of the same scenes to get different outcomes, it helps to be excited to see and hear these characters rather than wanting to skip through these sections (though the option is there if you want). Thinking about it, that's probably why it took me longer than I thought I would to beat it, because I was happy to take my time in these scenes with their excellent set design and too-perfect golden sunlight.

I've said nothing so far about the tower defense side of the game, and that's about how it should be. The Seaside Vacation level is great and the final battle is impressive from the preposterous number of enemies on screen, but otherwise, it's there to provide a nice pacing break in between character stories. Pacing things out and slowly peeling away at this wildly layered story has been wonderful and I'm glad that the hype didn't end up being overstated. Now if only I can get my hands on some yakisoba pan...

Favorite anime reference: Fuyusaka's chapter title "Iori Who Leapt Through Time"

3. Hades

Or as I like to call it, “Hades? Hey Deez Nuts!” (Again, sorry. Wait no, come back). I’ve previously said about Pyre that I’ve liked each Supergiant game more than the last, and somehow the upward trend continues. The Gamefeel™ here is just so smooth and really works in that rolling ball of death sense that I haven’t seen since Dead Cells, which admittedly wasn’t that long ago. But where Dead Cells had light, nice touches of style and personality here and there, Hades is in your face with it and it works excellently. And that is mostly what’s kept me playing a run-based game for longer than I ever have before.

It was a long ramp-up to finally get there, but I escaped on attempt 36 and, like your pal Sisyphus at work, that was all it took to get the Bouldy rolling. Suddenly I got about six clears in a row and I was delighted in experimenting with just a few select boons to utterly break the game and destroy fights that were previously giving me so much trouble. Some of that can come down slightly to luck; It is slightly more frustrating late game to get keys or darkness repeatedly when I mostly just want boons to get the clear. But ultimately, I got the clears to see credits and am just endlessly impressed at how they’ve integrated narrative into this genre as if this was just a totally obvious and easy thing to do. That I'm even talking about, much less praising, the story for a roguelike-lite-whatever is really something and has probably ruined me for other rouguelikes. In the best possible way to be ruined.

Number of pets for Cerberus: All of them. Every single one.

2. Final Fantasy VII Remake

Or as I like to call it, way better Kingdom Hearts or, alternately, ~Terminal Reverie~ [9.887Q] Re/Union. I know what you’re thinking, “Better than Kingdom Hearts? Isn’t that most games? (ba dum tsss)”. But be nice, this game is pretty cool y’all. I hadn’t played original VII before playing this and even then the only other game in the series I played was VI immediately before this (yes, I know that’s not how the story works). And yet, after finishing VII Remake I was so excited for the future of this remake series that I went back and played original VII and appreciated even more how much game they got out of a pretty small section of the original. And it’s not padding or stalling, it’s giving way more to these characters and the world and making enough changes to events to intriguingly leave the rest of the story up to speculation.

That’s all pretty much a known quantity about this game, sure, but more personally I’ve got this to thank (and FFVI, for different equally good reasons) for being an exciting on-ramp into this series which has previously been a blind spot. I know that most won’t play as great as VII Remake, or won’t look as good (*cough* original VII *cough*) but so far it’s been a fun historical journey where I can often appreciate these old games on their own merits. I have XIII and IX downloaded at this point (again, I swear that I realize you don’t have to play them in order) and I’m looking forward to (slowly) digging into this series, most of all whatever the next entry in the remake is.

Best “Embellishment”: Remember when there’s just a big dance number in this game, and that Cloud has got some moves?

1. Persona 5 Royal

Three years later, another campaign, another 100+ hours over about five months, and another unforgettable experience. It feels a little strange going with a game that is both better in just about every way but still has the same components and occasional problems of the game from three years ago. Not to mention, oh right, I’ve played most of this game already. But looking at everything else released this year, with plenty of other reissues, remakes, reheats, etc., and looking for what comforted and affected me the most this year, I think I feel just fine placing it here. Considering the impossible what if scenario (despite what the song says) where I were playing Persona 5 for the first time through Royal, it would probably be one of my top 10 games of all time. Anyway, the way to best try and talk about this is to get into Royal story stuff which is heavily concentrated at the end, so maybe skip the next two paragraphs if you want to avoid spoilers.

It’s great to have the threads of Royal woven in throughout the main game, even if they make for the slowest of slow burns because this stuff doesn’t hit in a significant way until like hour 100. But boy does it hit and hit different. Waking up in the new year, hearing new music, and seeing pretty boy Morgana is a great “oh s***, it’s like this?” moment that’s definitely enhanced by playing 100 hours of mostly familiar story arcs beforehand.

The Royal “epilogue” I guess you’d call it (is 20+ hours still an epilogue?) is also a worthy payoff for both Kasumi and Maruki and in a way it fixes/mitigates a problem I had with the original ending, that being the final boss is kind of just the kill a malevolent god move again, albeit in spectacular fashion. But now, even though you still do that sequence, you then are confronted with a much more personal and interesting villain with a familiar face who, well, I guess also has the power of a god. Anyway, that all sounds ridiculous and going into the details would just make it even more so, but believe me when I say the Royal content is super well done in a way that I imagine is seamless for newcomers but still very much in conversation with folks who played the original. Kasumi becomes more than just the genuinely adorable confidant she originally presents as, Maruki becomes a compelling perspective on all the trauma and hardships of the group, and Akechi…. well he just turns it up to about 20 and I found it hilarious.

The new music is great, though that’s like bringing sand to the beach at this point. And the Thieves Den is a limited but fun space to check in on every once in a while (I have it up now as I’m writing this just to vibe with the soundtrack). I could list improvements on and on and we’d probably be here for longer than it would take to play the game (or at least maybe the prologue). But if I can get sappy for a moment, as you do when making these dumb lists, because of it’s length and my preference to play it in short sessions I can basically split this year into days where I played P5R and days where I didn’t. And despite all that was going on during those times, the days I played it I remember as good days. I didn’t expect that I would get this much out of an upgraded replay of, admittedly, one of my favorite games of the last couple years, but that’s Persona 5 Royal for you.

Or as I like to call it: One Last Surprise

Thanks for reading.

It's been another year for games. I kept busy. There was certainly stuff, nay, good stuff, to play. I still have some catching up on a few games I couldn’t play in time, but I’m also definitely looking forward to 2020 which should have, well, more good stuff. Anyway a few notes about the list: The “And 1” spot is for a game that either might not have otherwise made the list due to a technicality (an expansion, remaster, early access etc.) or just something I think is flawed or rough but wanted to write about anyway. I also included novelty awards at the beginning for all the other games I played this year but didn’t rank in case you were thinking “did you play ________?”. Thanks in advance for reading and hopefully you find some of your favorite games of 2019 here too. [Edit 3/5/24: Very belatedly adding Trails of Cold Steel III in at #5 so I can rant about Trails, knocking A Short Hike off of the list]

Novelty Awards

2019’s Old Games of the Year: Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, Florence, Cytus II, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Steep, Iconoclasts, The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, We Know the Devil, Yakuza Kiwami, Soma, Gris, Quarantine Circular, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, Analogue: A Hate Story, Hate Plus, Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII, Return of the Obra Dinn, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (Switch), Rez Infinite, The Red Strings Club, Mario Tennis Aces

Best damn intro cutscene: Pikuniku

Best damn outro level: Ape Out

Best intro to deckbuilders: Steamworld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

Best proof that I suck at deckbuilding still: Slay The Spire

Best exercise in muscle memory: Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled

Best rocket-powered fist surfing (not a euphemism): Devil May Cry 5

Best Titanfall consolation prize: Apex Legends

Second best Titanfall consolation prize: playing the mech class in Borderlands 3

Best solitaire variant: Eliza

Biggest 180° on art style (didn't like it at first): The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (2019)

Somehow second best Zelda game about collecting instruments: Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda

Prettiest game: Gears 5

Best rummaging simulator: The Outer Worlds

Best rummaging simulator, but on crack: Void Bastards

Hardest game of beer pong I’ve ever played: Afterparty

The “Better Quit While I’m Ahead” award: Only playing up to Chapter 3 in Death Stranding

Best video game shotgun™: Actually, it’s the Coach Gun from Remnant: From the Ashes

Best (also most?) character art: Indivisible

Best substitute for Tetris Effect DLC: Sayonara Wild Hearts

The "Okay, I didn't actually play these games but will at some point next year".... award: Disco Elysium, Judgment, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Best game played in one sitting: A Short Hike

And 1. Steins;Gate: Elite

In a year with some strong remakes and remasters, anime time travel ends up winning the day with an often complex, sometimes problematic, but always affecting tale. I had only heard the name Steins;Gate floating around over the years without any sense of what it was about or even what kind of game it was. Anyway, I finally found out about the anime and watched the pilot before finding this release and thinking “why not ‘play the anime’?” as the game’s description suggested. What I found was what I would describe as a “AAA” visual novel, with some really nice visuals and full voice acting wrapped in some snazzy menus.

Also what makes this game a good fit for this category is I for sure have a few problems with the game. Okabe kind of sucks for about the first half (which is like 15 hours!), and it many times has some poor treatment of its female characters, to say the least. This is a smaller gripe, but to get the true, best ending is also really difficult to stumble upon naturally the first time through and also has multiple requirements throughout the game, making it hard to just go back to a single save. But you know what? That’s where I think I realized how much I liked this game. Because, on a replay, even though I found out it has a nice, easy option to skip through to each decision point, I actually found myself stopping frequently to play a bunch of scenes again, not quite wanting to story to end just yet.

Finally, Makise effing rules, mostly because she gives Okabe shit a lot of the time but she also makes for a surprisingly compelling, and comically tsundere, love interest during the course of the true ending path. I did really like the version of time travel presented in Steins;Gate too, with all its painstakingly science-y explanations of the physics involved as well as all the ethical and existential questions like “do the bad things I do in these timelines matter?” and “what’s the ‘real’ timeline?”, etc. This confluence of time travel, friendship, retro PCs, catgirl maids (don’t ask, nya), and other wild things was a better experience than I could have hoped for and where there was nothing now the name Steins;Gate brings with it some pleasant memories.

Number of “muahahahahaha”s: I lost count after about 32

10. Kingdom Hearts III

Alright look… LOOK PEOPLE. Let me try and explain this weird, dumb journey as best as I can and then you can decide whether to throw this list in the garbage. I started this year having never played a Kingdom Hearts game, but ultimately I decide to play III. I listened to all of Waypoint’s Lore Reasons (twice!), watched the videos they referenced, read the summary on The Orange Groves at least three times, and finally watched all the cutscenes for 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage. This silliness takes about two months, give or take. And when it comes time to actually play the game, it somehow works. I recognized that when this game does decide to actually get to the plot it has some moments that I had wanted to see for weeks, and longer-time fans for years.

As I say that though, I remember too that I probably spent about two-thirds of this game wondering where the capital P Plot is and how there is just the thinnest explanation for why I am traipsing about these Disney settings. I imagine series fans are probably laughing at me for thinking this is anything new for Kingdom Hearts, but I digress. Either way, the last quarter or so of the game made it probably worth it, and this is one of the better examples of me enjoying the things around a game more than the game itself. To borrow a phrase from somewhere, you don’t tell the story of gaming for me in 2019 without mentioning Kingdom Hearts, and if you told me that a year ago I’d have thought you were a little bit Goofy (h'yuck h'yuck).

Actual best crossover moment: When they just decided they wanted to be Ending E from NieR: Automata (spoilers in link)

9. Life is Strange 2

Well, I kept my promise. I worried last year that Life is Strange 2 might not finish in 2019 and I would have to arbitrarily put it in ranking limbo for another year. But thankfully, episode five came in under the wire and DONTNOD put out a totally solid second season that I’m worried people might have already forgotten. It wasn’t going to be like season one and, to its credit, didn’t try to be. Admittedly, the supernatural bits in this season don’t always feel as well integrated mechanically as they were the first time around, though that may also have to do with my soft spot for time travel BS (see And 1 above).

However, the relationships at the center of this game, and the quirky cast of characters you meet along the way, feel right at home in this universe. You’re regularly on the move over the course of the story, so sometimes it feels a shame to have to dump each new setting and characters for a new set (NOT *CLAP* ENOUGH *CLAP* LYLA), but I thought that there's enough continuity where it matters. The story also does way better than it perhaps should have at walking the line tonally between some of the cheesy innocence of the original with more heavy and serious subject matter. Not that the original was all sunshine either, but this season has a kind of maturity to it that I think best differentiates it as its own story. It’s kind of hard to point to one particular moment or flash point with this season where everything just clicks, but again I’d say it’s solid throughout and if you have any kind of fondness for the general space that the original played in, you should check it out.

First and final mention of how good Game Pass is: This and about eight other 2019 games I played were on it at some time or another

8. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

For me, comparisons between this and another melee-based action game higher up on this list are unavoidable as are a few parallels between this and Respawn’s last single-player campaign effort in Titanfall 2. And while this does have, you know, Star Wars going for it, when held up to those high expectations it didn’t quite get up there for me. Like, you know, maybe the movement and parrying doesn’t feel as good (or, more likely, I still suck at parrying) or the exploration in between isn’t the most compelling and there also isn’t a killer equivalent to Effect and Cause.

But enough of that, a good Star Wars game is plenty reason to be excited. This game’s scripted moments and lightsaber duels rule as does your little buddy BD-1. And I gripe and complain, but the times where I could throw a dude off a ledge or reflect back multiple blaster bolts were still fun as hell. You’ve got a pretty efficiently told Star Wars story here too, with fun side characters, a good villain, and enough ties to the larger Star Wars universe to feel significant. After this, I could honestly be equally excited for either a sequel or another entirely different game from Respawn and that kind of anticipation is pretty unique.

Biggest handicap: Not realizing that extra stim canisters were a thing you could find and playing all but the last level with only the initial two that they give you

7. Control

You know, moment-to-moment this game wasn’t so different to me from Quantum Break **collective gasp**. What I mean is they both have pretty solid combat systems that take a little bit to get going but once they do it is a great joy to zip around and wreck fools. However, one HUGE difference this time around is that Control has a much better vibe and setting than Quantum Break ever did, and that ended up making all the difference in how memorable this experience was. The in-game lore and the story bits and pieces were all delivered with just this consistent styyyyyle that kept me involved throughout. I do think that the end of this game and the main story payoff are kind of a bummer (something it also shares with Quantum Break), but I sure appreciated the road to get there.

Best use of Finland: Ahti just stealing every gd scene he’s in

6. Tetris 99

I had pretty much experienced the explosion of Battle Royales from the outside looking in, but finally with a few small tweaks I jumped in and joined the craze with Tetris 99. Turns out, these games were asking the right question with "where we droppin'"?, just instead of Loot Lake and Skull Town it was “right in that I-block shaped hole”. Anyway, you probably already know what it is (Austin Walker voice), so I'll just talk about a personal experience. It's May 2nd, I've been playing at least a game everyday since it's come out, and I finally get that W after about 350 games played. I'd won some team matches before in shooter BRs but this one, as they say **checks notes**, hit different. I was pretty late to the party, but hey, it's still a party and still led to one of the most memorable moments for me this year.

Favorite theme: Get to my number one and take a guess [Fire Emblem]

5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

In my never-ending endeavor to catch up on Trails games, I’m writing this entry in 2024 having just finished this game but not having started IV yet. It’s also worth noting that I didn’t start playing Trails games until after a certain very similar game high up on this list (I don’t know why I’m being coy, it’s Three Houses). I only mention that because it’s funny how Cold Steel I in particular was essentially doing the same thing as Three Houses but four years earlier and in a world that I like more. Even still, sometimes the order you play stuff matters, who would’ve thought? Anyway if that unnecessary preamble wasn’t enough to tip you off, my thoughts on Cold Steel III (much like the game) are going to be long and messy, so buckle up folks.

I came into this game pretty much loving every other title in the series so far in different ways. I also entered it having no idea where they would go from the end of Cold Steel II. And after finishing III, I still kind of have no idea? Each of the other entries that are basically a “Part I” (e.g. Sky I and Cold Steel I) do a good job of telling a mostly complete story, but with a great hook at the end to tell you what the next game is going to be about; Cold Steel III definitely makes a lot of noise towards its finale, but also just kind of…. ends…. without a clear direction. This could all be largely moot if Cold Steel IV ends up delivering but in the moment, it’s an ending that leaves me to wonder what all the lead-up was even for.

Compounding the problem is that the lead-up was all really good. The individual chapter arcs are good. The new characters are good. The expanded roles for existing characters are good (I never thought I’d care this much about Altina or Aurelia after Cold Steel II). It becomes a bit formulaic in how all of the old characters come back (Mass Effect 3, anyone?), but did I cheer every time an old friend showed up? You bet. The abrupt ending of Cold Steel II kind of hampers the delivery of III in that you want to still include the original party, but trying to balance them with new characters ends up being an unwieldy and delicate act. Previous Trails games to me always had this balance between new elements and callbacks right, but with the scope of Cold Steel III being bigger than ever before it feels like, for the first time, the story is breaking a bit under the weight of all of Trails's worldbuilding.

All of this said, the outlook I like to have is that I’m only complaining because I care so much about the series and want it to be better. The fact that it’s only number five on a great list of games instead of a shoo-in game of the year is barely even a disappointment. I still love and care about the majority of what Cold Steel III is doing, even if it leaves IV with a lot of work to do in order to bring all of these wayward arcs home.

Biggest Tease: How about not mentioning Estelle like ten times over the course of the game if they're not going to show up in this one, eh?

4. Outer Wilds

Roasting marshmallows, getting the band back together, and falling through black holes. This game is a trip sometimes between its folksy fly-by-night astronaut vibes and just the absolute terror of wandering through space and dying repeatedly out in the unknown. I didn’t realize that it would be this kind of game going in, but taken as an evolution of the walking simulator this has one of the most memorable spaces to explore that I’ve seen along with an equally compelling story to discover.

Honestly, what made me so much more at ease starting it was looking at the map and seeing “oh, it’s only four planets”. They certainly go a lot deeper than that, but between that and the ship’s conspiracy board of threads to follow I found it very manageable to work my way through most of the universe’s mysteries. Eventually though, what I do with pretty much every game about exploration and discovery is break out a guide to find my way through the rest of the puzzles. I don’t fault the game for this, and if anything I would praise that it took as long as it did for me to want to use a guide because I was having a great time on my own. Throw in some quantum mechanics, some timey wimey BS, and a terrific ending and you get a trip for the ages.

Number of deaths from forgetting to put the space suit on: About three too many

3. Resident Evil 2 (2019)

So in addition to the infinity of space, I’m also scared by limited in-game resources and let’s be generous and call them deliberate controls, so I have usually avoided Resident Evil games aside from about half of RE4. But somehow, I braced myself and fumbled my way through Leon A and Claire B. The police station in the game is such an extremely well laid-out and tense space that was perfect for making small, panicked runs from safe room to safe room, hopefully picking up something useful and not spending too much in the process. There’s also just a lot of smart choices that were made here between the map system and the remixing between playthroughs that are not just good additions on an old game but just good additions for games in general.

Eventually, a guide came out for this one too, somewhere around the sewer section because I didn’t want to spend any longer in there than I had to, for good reasons and bad. Anything to get me through a daunting, but super worthwhile experience is fair to me. Play games how you want, and try different types of games that you weren’t ever into before. Sometimes the quality breaks through, just like a Mr. X punch to the head.

Most egregious tension-breaking habit: Playing this game while watching the GBE playthrough

2. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

I didn’t think I’d find this experience here, but Sekiro was the best damn playing thing that I touched all year. I sucked at parries in Souls games and honestly within the first couple of hours of Sekiro I thought I might actually have to give up on it. But fate stubbornness intervened and I ended up discovering a From Software game more in line with my preferences than I thought. As someone who usually gets overwhelmed and doesn’t know what to do with all the armor and weapon options in Souls games, it was great to have one main weapon, one armor set, and a small(er) set of skills and tools to draw on. And yet, and yet, I still felt like I had tons of freedom in combat and stealth situations. Moving around too just felt great and definitely maybe led to some situations where I used that to cheese or otherwise flub through some encounters (double apes, owl father, or anything where I could get a free deathblow through stealth).

Another thing that I finally got out of one of these games is a story that I can somewhat follow without a ton of detective work, to which I have nothing against but just generally don’t prefer. The world has enough going on with it too between lots of cool environments and exhilarating boss fights to deliver another winner of a From Software combat system. Oh, and if you are wondering: yes, I used a guide on this too. I have no shame whatsoever.

Most Prince Zuko-like moment: On my last legs, getting the lightning redirect on Genichiro (castle fight) to set up the clinching blow

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I suppose let’s set the stage. I never played a Fire Emblem game before Heroes and based purely on that, it had my curiosity about what a console Fire Emblem might be like. I kept that curiosity fixed on Three Houses during its development but not until I heard the Persona comparisons did it have my attention. Then some of the early impressions started coming in, and I felt something I hadn’t felt in some time: true pre-release hype for a game. Usually the way I play games nowadays is to take note of what looks good and then try and get to it later on. I don’t usually get things day one or get really excited before release, but somehow this effin’ game broke through all of that. Sure enough, that feeling lasted through actually getting my hands on it, because I was either playing it or feeling super excited about wanting to play more.

Anyway, personal BS aside, I played Black Eagle and did both the Crimson Flower [support Edelgard, AKA the right choice] and Silver Snow [support the Church] scenarios as part of the long campaign of playing this game. My large, proud house had basically all of Blue Lion recruited and a decent amount of Golden Deer and Church of Seiros folks too, so I saw a lot of different character interactions over time. And that, to me, is where the game really excels. Looking at a huge web of social interactions and delighting at “Oh man, I wonder what ______ and ______ have to say to each other” was a great extra layer of strategy to not only win battles with strategy, but win battles with friendship to unlock more conversations.

The story structure is also wild to me. I happened to have the two separate campaigns within one house by going Black Eagle, but the variance in how these two paths play out really surprised me. I've so far avoided seeing how the other houses play out, because someday when there is time, I’d probably like to do another playthrough. That I’d be signing on for another run at this game for the chance of a new perspective on a story I’ve already mostly seen shows just how much this game occupied my time and my mind this year. Sometimes things you have hopes for come through, and this beautiful mess of systems (I didn’t even talk about how much time I spent on tea and lost items!) really brought it.

MVP, on and off the battlefield: Who else but Bernie?

Thanks for reading.

After I started pretty slow on playing games released this year, this list is now coming in hot with a heap of really solid games and some unexpected VR. A few notes: The “And 1” spot is for a game that either might not have otherwise made the list due to a technicality (an expansion, remaster, early access etc.) or just something I think is flawed or rough but wanted to write about anyway. However, since I just copied and pasted that sentence from 2017's list, I should mention that this 2018's "And 1" has a different reason than those mentioned, which you can read (or not, more likely) to find out about. I also included novelty awards at the beginning for all the other games I played this year but didn’t rank in case you were thinking “did you play ________?”. And of course, these lists are fun, dumb, and arbitrary so I’m sure mine will change over time as I check out the games I missed and re-evaluate things [Yep past me, you're right; even if it didn't change drastically]. Can’t wait to again have too many good games to play in 2019 [Right again, past me].

[Edited 6/15/19 adding nine novelty awards (from Mutant Year Zero down) and slotting in Return of the Obra Dinn at the "And 1" spot, replacing Vampyr. Also wrote in some more pithy quips denoted by brackets and slightly changed the order of the list swapping #9 with #8 and #7 with #6.]

Novelty Awards

2018’s Old Games of the Year: Tacoma, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Yakuza 0, Gravity Rush 2, Subsurface Circular, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Doki Doki Literature Club!, Hollow Knight, Yakuza Kiwami (lotta 2017 in here, huh?), Zombi, Trials Fusion, Valkyria Chronicles Remastered, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, DMC: Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Persona 3 Portable, and a replay of Mass Effect 3 with the Leviathan and Citadel DLCs

Best Austin laugh: A Way Out

Most upsetting horse injury: Shadow of the Colossus (2018)

The annual (since now) Best Late Title Card Award™: Yoku’s Island Express

Best (only?) PS+ game: Onrush

The “They better finish this season in 2019 because if not then how am I supposed to rank it??”... award: Life is Strange Season 2, Episode 1 [As of 6/15/19 it's planned to be finished by December 2019]

Best game I should have played more of: Into the Breach

Best use of a toilet flush: Minit

Best racing through Edinburgh since PGR2: Forza Horizon 4

Most incredulous Quick Look: Deltarune??

Best high-five: Moss

The “Hey, do you like Life is Strange puzzles?” award: The Gardens Between

Most enjoyable time spent save-scumming: Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

The “First phone game I ever bought” award: Florence

Best Game of the Year list recommendation: Cytus II

Most spirited single-player offering: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Best phone emotes (yes, better than Donut County): The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories

Most album cover-looking art style: Gris

Nerdiest rap battle: Quarantine Circular

Most clumsy bartending job: Me playing The Red Strings Club with Switch controls (imagine Surgeon Simulator, but pouring drinks)

Best Dr. Acula simulator: Vampyr

And 1. Return of the Obra Dinn

I put off playing this game for a long time, I guess wanting to be in just the right mindset to work through what I figured would be a difficult mystery. I generally have no patience for puzzle games, and I was for sure afraid that I would get stuck early and end up frustrated with both the game and myself. Initially though, I weaved a very enjoyable path through all of the memories, solving what fates that I could as I go. Then, like a club to the head, I ran out of scenes to see, had about 15 fates solved, and had no idea what to do next. Well s**t.

And herein lies why I’m placing this game here. I cheated, I really did. I loved the style and the freshness to this experience, but after I got through what I could I used varying levels of help from slight hints to outright solutions. After the initial guilt passed though, I was totally fine with it. Return of the Obra Dinn made me want to see the rest of the events, qualifications aside, and I was glad to have gotten over myself in order to try something new and interesting. If this sounds in any way familiar to you and you are hesitant to play it, don’t be. It’s well worth it.

Single biggest hint for me: Always check to see how far away from the scene you can walk on the ship, you often find other important events way off in the distance

10. Donut County

Not since the fishy game on browsers has consuming smaller things to grow larger been this enjoyable. This game’s just a delight. A really good example of a super-focused scope that is sanded down and refined into a tight experience. That soundtrack is so excellent, and getting to hear that end of level music became a reward in itself. There’s a lot of fun writing too, especially in the trashpedia, but also in BK’s continual denial in trying to justify his antics. Even for how short it is I thought it got a little repetitive, but I was quickly won back over with some aspect or another of the game’s great presentation.

Favorite donut (not anything in the game, I’m just thinking about donuts now): Boston kreme

9. Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

In probably one of my most unanticipated picks, a sequel to a game I never played measures up pretty nicely. For what it’s worth, this year I also got into Studio Ghibli for the first time so that might’ve had something to do with it. That art style does well for itself here between the character and monster designs and in how fluidly it animates during combat.

More than style though, what I think is most compelling about this game is its interesting mix of systems that somehow feel pretty compatible. You’ve got one part action-RPG, one part city-builder with idle game principles, and even a RTS mini-game that's unexpectedly good. The mobile/idle game elements in building out your kingdom worked for me because it didn’t significantly hamper your progress outside of a few story quests. On the flip side, the benefits you could get were really nice to have and between that and the satisfying act of recruiting citizens I enjoyed developing Evermore the most out of the game’s many hats.

The main plot to me didn’t even need to have the typical world-ending conflict that it eventually developed into, but it did at least lead to some big final battles. What generally appealed to me more in the story was a less lofty (heh) goal of trying to build a society from scratch, establishing an identity and a mission, and dealing politically with the other existing kingdoms. The game didn’t always hit on these aspects as much as I would’ve wanted, but given that it came all the way from completely off my radar to here I’d say it was a considerable success.

Actual best videogame proposal (Suck it, Marston): Evan’s fake proposal

8. Valkyria Chronicles 4

I only just played the original Valkyria Chronicles this year and loved it. And yet, I was ready to dive back into its brand of strategy and… anime. First off, the strategy is still fantastic. I was a little worried that it might feel too similar after playing the demo, but as I played more of the full game I appreciated the small, but effective changes that were made (at least, compared to the first one). Being able to more easily move multiple units via leader units or the APC ended up being huge, and the Grenadier class is engaging both to use and to fight against. Also helping a ton was the mission design. I can hardly overstate how much it helped having a lot of memorable battles that allowed me to develop my own little storylines throughout them.

The other biggest improvement (again, compared to only playing the original) were the Squad Stories. Instead of mostly having to infer a lot about the secondary squadmates, the squad stories provided a lot more to work with to appreciate these characters. They may not all be the deepest bunch, but they’re paired really well in each of the stories in ways that, honestly, worked more often than the main story did. I like a lot of the main cast too, but a certain cool-scarf-wearing dope was sometimes bad enough to drag everyone else down with him. The storybook style was and still is kind of cool, but ultimately, I spent a lot of time waiting on the main campaign to pick up and I’m mostly just left with the age-old “it has its moments”.

Still though, this is a really nice follow-up to one of my favorite old games I played this year and I didn’t even have to wait ten years in between. There’s still a great deal of enjoyable strategy [especially once I checked out the post-game content] and having it on Switch made it the game I've played the most on the console this year.

Most unexpected Commando reference: Squadmate Jean Matrix, who quotes the lines and everything

7. Astro Bot Rescue Mission

No amount of hyperbolic praise distracted me from having a great time with this. Being new to VR, I was glad to get that feeling that I’ve heard about so much where I could just try some motion and have it work in the game. Like when the soccer ball-kicking enemy floats one your way, and I recall my mediocre skills from high school and head the ball back at him, only for the game to recognize this and knock him out.

Details like that and all of the fun controller gadgets made this one of the most refreshing spins on a known genre. On that note, the only acceptable way of throwing the shuriken is making a motion like you are making it rain and I will not hear otherwise. This game leads to a lot of silly fun in that way, particularly in the awesome last world. And so in a way, the hype wasn’t all that exaggerated. Astro Bot does actually feel like I am playing an old classic platformer in terms of wondering what more could be possible with this potential.

Worst (in other words, best) punnily-named level: Under Tales (best theme music too)

6. Tetris Effect

Whether it’s through story, mechanics, presentation, etc., at a basic level I want to feel things when I’m playing games. So imagine my shock when the experience that had some of the most intense feelings was **checks notes** Tetris? From an excellent E3 trailer to it’s release, this game was actually the tipping point for me to finally get into VR. The promise of its eponymous effect delivered, because when I haven’t been playing it I’ve been thinking about wanting to play more of it a lot.

It’s tetris, so there’s not anything I can really say about how it plays except the new zone mode is neat in a way that I can only describe as a “galaxy brain effect” once you start getting past eight or so lines. Still, there are some other things that were new to me like insanely fast tetris or that upside-down tetris in the random effect mode that were equally mind-boggling. Besides just a fun way to procrastinate when writing this list, there’s also something to be said for having a cool version of tetris and a great showcase for both VR and a good A/V setup.

Most “This Is the Run” moment: Finally beating the last level (only on normal!) after about two hours of attempts. [I've since beaten it on hard, I'll have you know **wags finger**.]

5. Red Dead Redemption II

When it came down to it, I felt the best way to describe how I feel about Red Dead this year was through the framing of its Western inspiration. But instead of using something like, say, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly that’d be super lame to rip-off of, let’s call this The Beautiful, the Bad, and the Good of Red Dead Redemption II (it’s completely different!).

The Beautiful

• Do I even have to say it? The world is gorgeous and varied, and for at least the beginning few dozen hours I would take joy in roaming around on my horse discovering new sections of the map. This was one of the few games where I could occasionally be comfortable riding around without any particular destination, maybe taking a stop to hunt or set up camp or check in on the home base.
• The soundtrack, especially when enhancing the big moments like “May I?” and the house building montage.

The Bad

• While you could put together a really nice highlight reel of moments from this game, that’d leave you with how many hours of merely good enough stuff? This game is long to a fault, and while there aren’t many true stinkers along the way there also are a lot of beats where I questioned if it was entirely necessary that this be included. This is capped off by an excessive epilogue that, honestly, has some good stuff but generally put me off by not having enough to really add to what was already a compelling ending (it may be a small detail, but I think the credits should have rolled after Chapter 6).
• Mission design. You’re probably already aware of the formula of horseback conversations followed by shootouts already so I’ll just say that I wish you could have turned down more missions. Especially where it felt like Arthur was already conflicted about doing them in the first place, I thought it was a nice choice to be able to have for the character. Without any context, it sounds ridiculous that I would want to say no to playing the damn game, but even with a game that I liked that’s where I sometimes found myself.
• The controls. Let’s just leave it at that.

The Good

• Arthur. In fact, he’s so good that it really hurts to have to go back to John in the epilogue. Moseying around just saying “Hey there, mister!” to many a passerby just wasn't the same.
• Most of the story’s tone as it gets later in the game but before the epilogue. This part overcomes the prequel problem somewhat by having a narrative that still made me feel dread at an increasingly hopeless situation even when I was generally expecting it.
• Camp. Having a consistent place to return to and refresh between missions á la The Normandy is a rare comfort when done right, but once again I think the game does suffer by mostly losing this in exchange for the farm in the epilogue.

Anyway, that was a lot. But Red Dead Redemption II is, if nothing else, a lot so what perhaps will make this game so fascinating is the range in which people can land in their opinions of it, depending on how they experience all that it can offer.

Favorite facial hair style: The Spartan, speaking of which….

4. God of War (2018)

I swear I didn’t order them this way just for that. This game’s super good, even if I haven’t played a God of War game before. The game certainly seems like its own thing anyway and I at least knew enough about the series to realize that digging up the blades of chaos was significant. They were a nice touch, but I was surprised to discover that I was good with using the axe almost all of the time anyway. There was such a well-balanced variety of attacks to cycle through without being overwhelming that getting into a real flow with the axe was widely entertaining.

The world in God of War is also a real looker and I know it can feel a little gimmicky but I enjoyed the single-shot camera direction. Though certainly not without huge, huge moments, I liked that it would do a lot of its work on a small scale between Kratos and Atreus. And the addition of Mimir ends up being the one of best excuses for a plot exposition device, as he regales you with his mythological tales and immortal gossip. Like fellow Sony-exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn, I’m also glad that even though this is likely the start of a new set of games they tell a complete story without leaving too much hanging. Even though I didn’t dig into much post-game content, I would definitely want to see another narrative adventure with this framework.

Brok or Sindri?: Brok lobster all day

3. Dead Cells

At its best, Dead Cells is the smoothest damn game out there. Getting on a roll with the right control scheme (I switched roll and action) and a good weapon loadout could make you feel like a rolling ball of butcher knives. I haven’t gotten into a rougelike this much since Rogue Legacy, and Dead Cells I would say controls at least ten times better. The spacing in between levels also made it the perfect short-time game to knock out a level here and there, especially because (take a drink!) it’s on Switch. Thankfully, I haven’t run into any of the technical issues mentioned about the Switch version either.

I’ve only even reached the final boss once and got worked, but this is definitely a game where this is little and less of a concern. The fun has been in trying out new combos and builds on the way to what’s been inevitable defeat. But maybe one day, it won't be so inevitable. We’ll see [Edit 7/29/19: Loaded my last save from ages ago and beat it!].

Favorite combo: Infantry bow and LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE

2. Marvel’s Spider-Man

Turns out we did get that sequel to Sunset Overdrive from Insomniac but now with a familiar license and some superb web-swinging. And I looooove Sunset Overdrive people, so a lot of the same reasoning can apply here. Like free-skating my way through Sunset City (because that game to me is the modern-day Tony Hawk sequel), I often had no problem taking the time to swing across Spider-Man’s New York to get to each mission and likely get distracted along the way. I had also gotten pretty skilled at moving, shooting, and keeping the weapons varied in Sunset and so that became the same urge in Spider-Man to web swing, gadget, and combo my way through enemy encounters, to madcap delight.

It also turns out that you can definitely improve on the story of Sunset Overdrive by making things a little more honest to go with the heavy dose of snark. I largely agree and will echo from Waypoint’s [hah, I guess I should say Vice Games now] review that the Peter Parker of this game works as someone who wants to do well but faces a lot of difficulties along the way and has a bit of self-doubt. Meanwhile, the game repeatedly shows that those around him like Aunt May, Mary Jane, and Miles, can do their own brand of good for others with their own set of skills. Overall, I really appreciated the story as its own kind of power fantasy not just in the traditional sense but as a vision of people trying their darndest (and often struggling!) to do what they think is right.

Anway, instead of comparing it to Sunset Overdrive again, I’ll just say that those (myself included) hoping that this game would make them feel the same way they did playing the Spider-Man 2 game in 2004 should have their expectations knocked out of the park, almost like they were kicked into…. um, what’s the word? Overstrike, that’s it (remember Overstrike?).

Number of times Sunset Overdrive is mentioned in this entry: Too many

1. Celeste

Who would’ve thought the first 2018 game I played this year would stand the test of all of these others? It turns out terrific movement has been a common feature of my top games this year, and Celeste stands at the forefront of them all. Not in anything else on this list has there been such a gratifying feeling of progressing through an environment, complete with an at times calming and others rousing soundtrack essentially cheering you on.

This game is also one of the best examples of levels introducing and then continually riffing on a new mechanic that adds another dimension to the flow. And the chase sequences are such a nice way of having boss battles in a platformer that feels natural. It also includes just one of my favorite videogame tropes where the late game adds a near game-breaking ability with the double dash that opens up the movement to whole new heights (heh).

Finally, there’s not much for me to add about the story except that I’m glad it’s in there. For a genre where the reasoning behind the climbing and advancing is often an afterthought, it’s nice to see it here directly tied to a character’s own internal conflicts in a way that’s sincere and empathetic. For real though, the feather sequence is great and that it's represented mechanically in the game is even more so. In writing this, I just replayed both that sequence and the summit, as if there was some doubt that maybe they weren’t how I remembered them (nope sorry, still great). Instead, Celeste shows me now as it did in January that there is something powerful in working through that doubt, and that we are all better for trying, failing, and trying again.

Number of strawberries: Enough for this game to be super sweet

Thanks for reading.

This year has been unique not only for the number of great games released but also that I was lucky to have the time to play (some of) them. In celebration, I wanted to finally write something about said games and arbitrarily order them, while throwing in an extra one for good measure. I decided to use the “And 1” as a spot for a game that either might not have otherwise made the list due to a technicality (an expansion, remaster, early access etc.) or just something I think is flawed or rough but wanted to highlight anyway. I also included novelty awards at the beginning for all the other games I played this year but didn’t rank in case you were thinking “did you play _________________?”. Either way I’m sure I will get around to more 2017 games at some point because of how loaded a year this was. So here’s to 2017, in gaming at least, and it’s ongoing legacy.

[Edited 5/13/18 adding seven novelty awards (from Tacoma down) and putting Yakuza 0 at #6, moving the games below it down and knocking What Remains of Edith Finch from #10 (sorry)]

Novelty Awards

The “Wow, I actually have to brake” award: 200cc mode in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Best (only?) PS+ game: Disc Jam

Best Videogame Shotgun™: Prey

The “Now that’s what I call multiplayer support” award: Splatoon 2

Best movement progression: SteamWorld Dig 2

The “You bet I watched all those old cutscenes” award: Tekken 7: Fated Retribution

The turkey dinner award: Fortnite: Battle Royale

Best game I didn’t finish: Nioh

Okayest game I didn’t finish: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

The "barely the weirdest Mario game this year" award: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

Most loot: Destiny 2

Best “That's my boy”: Madden NFL 18: Longshot

The “Hey, that Paris mission’s alright” award: Call of Duty: WWII

Most wholesome: Battle Chef Brigade

The "Druth, you da real MVP” award: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Best use of the Looking Glass Code: Tacoma

Hardest cut from the list award: What Remains of Edith Finch

Best pizza party: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

The “Can we call more games ‘shorts’?” award: Subsurface Circular

Easiest tune to catch yourself whistling: “A Red Apple Fell From The Sky” from Gravity Rush 2

No wait, actual easiest tune to catch yourself whistling: "Your Reality" from Doki Doki Literature Club!

Best use of laudanum: Dishonored: Death of the Outsider

And 1. Life is Strange: Before the Storm

This game ends up fitting this extraneous category since technically, that bonus episode is not out at the time of this writing and I’m having to render an opinion pretty soon after playing episode three [editor's note: That bonus episode is wonderful though I see why it's just there as a bonus. I still feel about the same on the main game]. However, I like the original Life is Strange so much that there was little chance in hella (sorry) I wasn’t going to have some thoughts about this game anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised how they managed to really get the Chloe and Rachel relationship so well just like how Max and Chloe worked so well previously. The soundtrack keeps tradition too by being similarly awesome. Still though, I didn’t think it would matter so much going in but the time travel aspect of the original really did add to it in a way that it feels like the prequel is missing something. Though there are obvious story reasons not to go back to time travel, the “strangeness" that this story tries to do wasn’t quite enough for me. And, while the dialogue has always been its own brand of awkward, I feel like something with the voice acting and direction outside of Chloe and Rachel could be real inconsistent and broke the immersion too frequently.

But, you know, it’s all okay to have gotten to see this addition to Chloe’s character. While at a larger level it succeeds, I only complain about wanting the execution to be better because I care, perhaps too much. Anyway, whether I thought a prequel for one of my favorite stories in games was necessary, I quickly realized upon playing that I was still so willing to want to spend more time in this world that I was glad to sink back in. And maybe that’s enough.

Best use of “hella”: Surprisingly, not even by Chloe, but by her dad at the end. I guess we know now who to blame/thank.

10. Night in the Woods

This is little surprise to anyone familiar with this game but that dialogue is fantastic, which turns out, helps when you have a story-heavy game without voice acting. The visual style also goes a long way for itself and creates both a memorable look and a nice contrast with its more serious side. It may not have been the case for everyone, but I appreciated the turn for the strange that this game’s story takes towards the end. It throws a wrench into the cycle of walking through town every day, which, though fun to see how the little things change throughout the game, was admittedly getting repetitive.

Still, the well-crafted local flavor to Possum Springs and the interactions with your friends really became the driver for me to keep at it and I was clearly rewarded with some more dialogue. Also that Demontower game on Mae’s computer is pretty good. And crimes? Crimes.

Actual biggest unanswered question: What was behind those boxes in the crawlspace?

9. Pyre

Supergiant nailed it here by getting around the one problem I had with previous games where the story would be too inscrutable for me. By having a pretty clear plot (literally) and a wider cast of characters, I was more able to connect with what was going on in addition to admiring the visual styling consistent with the previous games. Even so, it still has tons of lore in The Book of Rites and the great contextual definitions feature help the game strike a great balance of story, world-building, and character interaction.

That’s to say nothing of the gameplay of the Rites, which offers good customization that allowed for a lot of fun combinations of teams. It scratched an itch that I had for messing around with Transistor’s systems, which I was glad to see implemented here. Though I think that Pyre sort of peaks once its structure becomes laid out for you, it’s still a strong journey to that point with a lot of smart choices that made me want to see it through. Right, there’s also that Liberation Rite song. That one’s real good.

Favorite Rites Squad: “Smallball” with Rukey, Sir Gilman, and Ti’zo

8. Super Mario Odyssey

This game is a celebratory trot around the bases of what makes Mario fun. The movement is terrific, it’s filled with diverse mechanics, and the levels are heaped with stuff to do. It also literally has its own celebration in its festival sequence that passes the test of me having a big, dumb grin on my face while playing it. This has been and will be a game that I keep coming back to because it makes itself so easy to want and play. Also, you cap-ture Bowser. I could’ve just said that and you’d understand why this game’s great.

Most ri-Donk-ulous moment: Driving towards the screen in a scooter with a T-Rex chasing you, in just the middle of a random building??

7. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Like the title of one of “J”s songs, this game has a bit of a manic depression to it. It swings back and forth between B.J.’s quiet brooding and truly over-the-top situations so quickly that it sounds jarring, but it comes together well and gives it its own style. Also, the guns are still good and dual-wielding shotguns is as silly as ever.

Really though it all comes back to that story for me and its multiple twists and turns and which ends oh-so-gratifyingly. I also liked that it kept the through line of having a base to check in on throughout, but in a way that gets the pacing better. Hopefully this entry sets things up for an even more spectacular conclusion to this era of Wolfenstein. Oh, and I’d recommend the advice of playing on easy. It minimizes any frustration and that’s the last thing that you should feel playing this.

Weird idea but: How soon until we get a combined Bethesda-published Universe (wolfenstein, dishonored, elder scrolls, doom, fallout, prey, etc.) game?

6. Yakuza 0

After seeing the Beast crew play through a few chapters, I decided I needed to see the rest for myself. Cut to me getting sucked into not only the main story but also the cabaret club, slot car races, bowling, and way too much of the real estate minigame. The game world’s well-defined sense of time and place lent it a lot of charm and the tonal blend of melodrama and silliness all combined in a way I was rarely expecting but constantly appreciating. Even after finishing it myself it was also great to go back and experience it again with the Beast crew as many of its moments (Majima’s intro d’oh) are even better seeing other’s reactions to them. This was probably my most unexpected good time with a game from this year, as much as I was already excited to play and despite waiting too long to finally do so.

Favorite Fight Style: Kiryu’s Beast Style (gotta stay on brand)

5. Cuphead

Even having had a pretty good idea of what to expect from this game, I was still so impressed. The style pretty much speaks for itself, and the gameplay ends up being hugely satisfying in working your way from the point of “Well, I’ll never beat this” to “I can’t believe I ever had trouble with that”. The light customization and parry system added a nice layer to approaching different fights, and how different these fights could be mechanically was remarkable as well. The game’s just good, old-fashioned (heh) fun.

Total death count: 369

4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Aside from a little bit of the beginning of Twilight Princess, this was actually my first Zelda game. So, while the long history of playing Zelda games leading this one is lost on me, the excellence of this entry comes through quite easily. The design of that world is the star of the show for me, and when paired with the basic toolset that it gives you I appreciated just the number of different interactions that were possible. Though the story is pretty slight, the photo mechanic was the best way to package it in order for me to want to seek those memories out. But really, the story that you’re meant to get out of this are the times that you solved a puzzle in a way that you were totally-not-supposed-to-but-actually-wait-that’s-exactly-the-point.

I often feel like there comes a point in every open world game for me where I become familiar enough with the world that I choose to just fast travel and streamline my way through the game. Though this game is no exception, I'd say that this moment came much later than any game I’ve played in years. There’s such a freedom with the movement (once you have the items and stamina, of course) that it was often preferable for me to travel everywhere on foot and I was more than happy to take my time getting to a destination, letting any measure of distraction lead me to somewhere new and cool.

Most embarrassing amount of time spent with one activity: Snow bowling for rupees

3. Persona 5

Starting with my highest endorsement, the soundtrack is seriously amazing and I can’t stop listening to it even after hearing it throughout this lengthy, lengthy game. Also, this may seem like a little thing, but having really cool menus that are super responsive actually went a long way for the kind of game this is. Pretty much anything with the styyyyyle of this game is outstanding and is the easiest to reconcile.

Meanwhile, there is the matter of the story. While it for sure has its moments, with its scope I was not shocked to see stretches of inconsistency. Despite a lot of that, I ended up getting so invested in the story and setting in a way that surprised me. I had my own outside document with a schedule, different activities sorted by social stat, and tons of other reference information in an effort to best make my way through the combat and all the bits of story that I could get. In trying to explain my unexpected reaction, I guess you could say I never saw it coming that I happened to care a lot over a five-month campaign of playing this game, especially when there were tons of other games out there vying for attention.

You could also say I'm done in trying to fundamentally explain why I value this game so much. The presentation still is superb. And for me, the story just seemed to work by generally rewarding the investment that you put in with it. I suppose I had so much liked the idea and ambition of such a large investment story-wise that I was still loving it while simultaneously wanting the execution to be better. Like how I actually think that the cast is good, but that they merely aren’t given enough interesting interactions as a group. Or moments like the casino twist that are honestly neat, but just enough off the mark to be tiresome.

At least there's one last surprise with Igor towards the end that is genuinely cool which ends with you performing the Persona equivalent of a spirit bomb to summon a demon lord to shoot a god in the face. And if that's not enough for you, simply listening to the soundtrack and admiring the menus is plenty great too.

Obligatory Best Girl: Makoto

2. Horizon Zero Dawn

There's definitely some Witcher in this one, which had me on board quickly. I think Horizon even does better with the combat and its satisfying ranged weaponry. It also makes the researching and targeting of machine weaknesses a lot more useful and cool-looking when you tear off the individual parts. I even appreciated the preparation aspect beforehand like laying traps, lining up potions, and choosing weapons and had such a blast with the action once the fight started (although real talk, the four weapon equip limit is wholly unnecessary).

The story in its central investigation of piecing together what happened to the world was, in a word, awesome. Aloy is also a great anchor around which the story does some really neat things with, from her beginnings as an outsider to her true nature, which basically makes her work as two characters. Even the gratuitous story dumps were not a problem once I found a good balance between them and the combat. When that happened, I realized I had suddenly paced the game so that I could have a (stick with me on this one) “Witcher/Far Cry in the streets, Gone Home in the sheets” type of deal. On top of all this the game’s world is entirely gorgeous, even if it is less laden with possibility. It’s not often these days that we essentially see the birth of a new franchise, and from such a substantial first outing I imagine I will be staying on board to see where they go from here.

So the sequel’s going to be called: Meridian Infinite Dusk, right?

1. NieR: Automata

For this game, the metric that I went with to judge it so highly was just how much time I spent thinking about this damn game whether I was playing it or not. Despite feeling very constructed, this world has such a feel to it that it had me spending all sorts of time trying to do everything, no matter how fetch quest-y. Though the combat is not so difficult to require any of it, the chipset system, pod programs, and different weapon combinations were still fun aspects to play around with and the hacking game, though repetitive, is at least super smooth going back and forth between it and combat. But I’m burying the lead here. What has me really thinking about this game and what is responsible for the highest of highs in gaming for me this year is the story and how the game leverages it to exceptional effect.

Whether the multiple playthroughs and repeated content worked for you is probably the biggest factor in what you think of the story. For me, I have to agree with one Austin Walker’s thought that perhaps it was because I had spent that much time with these characters and this world in A/B that it makes the lunacy of C, D, and E hit that much more. I know for me that that is where the game went from pretty great to incredible. I love whenever a story can go so many places that there is a profound sense of just “how did it all come to this?” when you are at the conclusion watching what unfolds. Putting a bow on things is the glorious soundtrack, which somehow manages to be as epic in quiet moments as it is in the most bombastic.

Said 9S in a particularly impactful moment with the soundtrack flourishing: "I'm not quite sure what it means to mourn, or even if we have a soul to concern ourselves with. But I hope you're at rest, 2B. Sweet dreams. I'll be with you before long." Its just all so good and somber and epic and silly and cool and outrageous and thoughtful and senseless and wonderful. And I love that videogames, much less one videogame, can be all of that and more.

Ending E Message: “Your growth hinges on your resolve. Now then, let’s see how this really ends.”

Thanks for reading.