Category: Games

I was a little skeptical about the idea of randomly bringing God of War to a Norse setting, especially while keeping Kratos as the main character, but the plot of the game is surprisingly good—much better than the action focused prequels—delivering one hell of a redemption story, and the game-play—though completely revamped—kicks ass as well.

A remake of Resident Evil 2 that retains enough of the old game to feel nostalgic, but offers just the right amount of changes and tweaks to feel fresh.

Octopath Traveler started strong with eight relatively interesting characters beginning their adventures, which I thought would intertwine and mold into one epic story like a fantasy novel, but they somehow never do. The characters go through their individual quests (that don’t even acknowledge the presence of other party members and grow more and more formulaic by every chapter) and that’s it—they only somewhat come together with the secret final boss and even there, just barely.

I feel like the fantastic localization was kind of wasted on such a weak story, but then I might’ve dropped it, or at least skipped the text, if it wasn’t so beautifully written (or if I played it in Japanese which, as I could tell from the voices, was just as generic as the plot), so I guess it wasn’t completely for nothing.

That said, with its flexibility at party building, and always keeping you on edge with all sorts of nonstandard tricks, I really enjoyed the game-play, especially the secret final boss—it reminded me why I like turn-based games.

The second season of Telltales Sam & Max follows a similar formula to the first, but the episodes are a little bit better defined and the plot is actually more coherent and interesting this time around.

A good if not particularly mind-blowing satirical city builder with some obtuse mechanics that I think I still didn’t fully figure out by completing its campaign.

Though it’s fascinating to play a full game in VR, and Serious Sam is actually very well calibrated for it, you can’t help but see how outdated the game is–both in visuals and game design. It doesn’t take long for the game-play to become painfully repetitive, and there’s little else the game offers.

The Old Hunters adds even more lore to an already fantastic narrative, but taking place in a dream it allows for a bit nonsensical level design, and also doesn’t feel as significant story-wise as the original game.

That said, as usual with From Software, it’s more of an expansion pack than a mere DLC, and is easily a must-play for any Souls series fan.

A somewhat bizarre puzzle platformer that’s a bit dull to play once the initial novelty of dismembering yourself wears off, but then it also offers a heartfelt and thought-provoking story rife with all sorts of horrific symbolism.

Pillars of Eternity II follows its prequel in its attempt to recapture the magic of Baldur’s Gate. Unfortunately, while it’s definitely loyal to the computer role-playing game tradition and offers quite polished combat, I felt like the world it constructed as well as the plot it followed weren’t really the best.

Ironically, the story itself was very interesting and held lots of potential, but it’s told mainly through semi-menial tasks with you helping various trading companies and locals fight for resources with neither of the sides being too interesting. On top of it, the companions are also quite underwhelming, with basically the least interesting ones from the original game making a reappearance.

That said, Pillars of Eternity II is still a good game that can scratch that traditional computer role-playing itch you might have, but it definitely could have been better.

Though I thoroughly enjoyed the first Tomb Raider remake, I felt like the second had lost some of its charm through large chunks of poorly designed content, and the third game only seems to follow the same trend.

I could neither get into the story nor enjoy the game-play that much, even though it’s technically the same as the first Tomb Raider remake that I loved. There aren’t as many flashy action sequences, and the game is simply poorly designed with long stretches of dull content that even the shootouts fail to spark any life in.

It honestly feels more like most of the game has been designed by a random map generator rather than a human being.

The conclusion to Blazblue’s epic story that adds even more playable characters to a whooping total of thirty-six.

…And the English localization seems to have improved slightly since Chronophantasma.

It’s been a while since I checked any of the Yakuza games as they always felt clunky and full of redundant boring content that bloated the experience… but apparently, unknown to me, they’ve been improving with every release as Yakuza 0 feels like a Yakuza game with most of the grievances I had with the previous installments in the series fixed.

It has an interesting story with likable characters, side-quests are actually kind of funny (though still a bit too unnecessarily plentiful), and the game-play feels tight and rewarding.

A quirky adventure game where you relive a single day to save guests of a certain casino from murders.

Shin Megami Tensei IV returns to the roots and tells a very similar story to that of the original SMT… which is kind of underwhelming after Nocturne, but then it also retains the characteristic dark atmosphere and the awesome hardcore game-play that just never grows old.

As an early access game Visage is very rough around the edges, but holds a lot of potential. It’s without doubt one of the scariest games I’ve ever played and I imagine it could outright stop your heart in VR.

I just hope it gets finished properly as there was a sense of developers running out of ideas toward the end of even this demonstration version of the game.

This was another great year for gaming, and while it didn’t see as many great JRPGs as last year, with Dragon Quest XI being nice but nothing particularly special, and Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Octopath Traveler kind of continuing the already paved path, there were a lot of notable indie games, especially platformers.

My favorite of the year was Celeste that combined fantastic game-play with a pretty good story, but then we also had The Messenger that brought back the classic Ninja Gaiden of all things to life, Iconoclasts that really caught me off guard with its fascinating setting and characters, Yoku’s Island Express that combined pinball with platforming, The Missing:JJ coming from the crazy guy responsible for Deadly Premonition, Guacamelee! 2 which carries the already established legacy, Dead Cells which is equal amounts frustrating and fascinating, Just Shapes & Beats which is a rad if very short experience, and though I didn’t like it that much, the audiovisual spectacle that’s GRIS.

The other indie games include my second favorite game this year, the underwater survival and exploration simulator, Subnautica, that’s though rough around the edges is a beyond incredible experience in VR. Then there was a detective-like game Obra Dinn which is probably like nothing you’ve played before, and Unavowed that does a worthy homage to the 90s adventure games.  And I nearly forgot my new favorite turn-based game, Into the Breach, which though short is mind-blowing addicting.

It really makes me think that indie games might be the way of the future, though we had some pretty cool triple AAA titles as well this year, like Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War (2018), Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Monster Hunter: World. …All of which I have yet to play, but I’m sure at least one or two of those would end up in my personal top ten of the year.

There was also a resurgence of the city builder genre with a worthwhile successor to Theme Hospital and an ice-age themed survival builder Frostpunk, which turned out to have a much more involving narrative than I’d expected.

For better or worse, Guacamelee! 2 is just like its prequel. It offers the same kind of pleasant experience, but it feels a lot less fresh the second time around.

I was never a huge fan of Disney, so I’ve got to admit, when I first heard of Kingdom Hearts it sounded like a pretty stupid idea to me, but the first and especially the second game of the series ended up growing on me as they had just enough of the Final Fantasy flavor to keep me interested… and the Disney worlds were surprisingly fun to explore as they still were something I experienced and enjoyed as a kid.

Birth by Sleep, though a prequel and not as grand as the two flagship titles, still offers a pretty genuine Kingdom Hearts experience and is definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of the series.

It’s just too bad that the convoluted naming and ever-changing platforms of Kingdom Heart game releases have made it so aggravating to even figure out what order they are supposed to be played in.

Soul Calibur VI offers the same awesome and flashy fighter game-play as its many prequels, but it barely feels like a new game at this point. It being a reboot not only takes you backward in the story, it means you have a smaller roster of characters to select from (as it takes place before they’re introduced).

It feels more like a step backward than forward, and I don’t think I’d be able to tell the difference between it and V or even IV if I was looking at the screen from a distance.

An interesting strategy and computer role-playing hybrid that plays like an RPG version of Heroes of Might & Magic. It’s just too bad that its story reads like bad fanfiction.