Wilsown's Top 10 (And 1) Games of 2020

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.