#as in older type JRPGs and monster collecting games

[quibbs126]

Also this update vaguely gives me Spectrobes vibes

But that’s probably because that’s literally the only other space themed game I’ve played, other than a Star Ocean game like, a decade ago that I can’t remember

But also it’s kind of the music? But again, maybe it’s because it’s the only other space game I know

[thefloatingstone]

If you had the chance to design a magical girl themed video game, what kind of game would you make?

My first instinct would be to say a “fighting game” simply because fighting games are an easy way to show off attacks and cool powers, but after thinking about it for a little bit, I think I will instead have to go for a JRPG.

The reason being is because, although a fighting game DOES show off cool fighting moves, fighting games are not exactly known for their stories. And I feel what sets Magical Girl concepts apart from other “characters with powers” type stories is what they decide to focus on as their core concepts. Those core concepts being, for the most part; being female empowering, either by having girls fight bad guys using feminine coded powers and attacks, OR by using whatever form their transformation gives them to better the lives of others around them, OR using the form their transformation (and any extra power they get from transforming) to better their own lives and achieve dreams and goals they might have for themselves.

The “using cool moves to fight” comes larger from the magical girl tropes Sailor Moon started (or rather that Cutie Honey started by Sailor Moon popularised). That being “fighting bad guys, protecting the earth, the power of friendship”. And indeed, Sailor Moon DID get several games, many of which were simple Bejewel type puzzle games, but also included one of the first games being an arcade machine fighting game

But it really WAS just “a fighting game” with no real story to speak of.

But Sailor Moon is NOT where magical girls started, and even after Sailor Moon, there have been a large number of magical girl shows that have nothing to do with fighting bad guys.

Creamy Mami, Fancy Lala, Full Moon wo Sagashite and others are all magic girl shows where the transformation turns the main character into an older girl where she gets to live out a dream of being a pop idol.

Mahou Yosei Persia, Minky Momo, Sweet Mint, Cosmic Baton Girl Comet are all magical girl shows where the main character is an alien who has come down to earth to spread happiness and joy in some manner.

Pastel Yumi is also about bringing people joy and happiness except she’s not an alien.

Fighting bad guys is a much more “modern” version of magical girl stories than we think (or at least as “modern” as mid 90s is these days) and so simply having a fighting game with cool moves would not really do the concept much service. What would make it different than having a fighting game where you only play as the female X-Men for instance?

So I think a MUCH better option would be a JRPG, with an emphasis on female friendships, building female empowerment as a theme (without making it some kind of activism or “message” game that’s preaching to you) and using the powers that come with your transformed form to better the world around you, in JRPG fashion, with turned based combat.

There IS actually….. a magical girl JRPG that was released very recently called Blue Reflection, where you play a young girl recently returned to school after a very bad injury to her leg caused her to have to stop ballet. She discovers she has magical powers when an encounter with another girl at the school gets her sucked into a sort of “shared unconscious” environment of all humans. Certain people in her school have formed some sort of “unbalance” in themselves, where one emotion is complete overpowering all OTHER emotions, and this manifests in the subconscious world as monsters which our main character has to fight in order to restore balance to her schoolmates and also save the collective unconscious from being damaged by the presence of these unbalanced emotions. The game also have a heavy theme of building female friendships and overcoming past trauma and rebuilding one’s strength and confidence.

So… THAT is basically everything I could want for a magical girl game!! Like… EXACTLY that!! But there’s just one problem…… the game isn’t very good. It’s turn based battles get rather monotonous and running around the collective unconscious is also tedious and not very interesting. On top of this, it seems that Koei Tecmo did not give this title as much time and budget as they give their Atelier games as, although the art and colours are beautiful, the character models are extremely stiff and lack any kind of expressiveness. (I’m also not a big fan of the Magical Girl outfits either, nor am I fan of the “one eye changing colour” thing. But more than that i REALLY hate how overly sexualised the Magical Girl outfits are) On top of this the magical attacks and even transformation sequence is rather uninspired, the attacks especially feeling more like generic spells you’d see in an MMO rather than having the flair and energy you’d see in a magical girl anime for instance. And despite its unique and interesting premise, it lets its own art style down by coming across as rather boring with not much to show for itself. On top of this, the show features some pretty gross fan service as well. And again, seeing as these are 15 year old high school girls……. eeennnhhhh…….

(dear Japan. Please fucking stop this. At least in games you made for a female audience)

Sailor Moon also had a JRPG back in the 90s which has since gotten a full fan translation. I haven’t played it but I’ve heard its plot is pretty much on par with the tv show on one of its average to good episodes. Maybe not as good as its greatest story arcs, but good enough to be considered a longer Sailor Moon plot.

I like the idea of using a magical  girl battling monsters as a manner to handle internal problems and difficulties, by having the magical girl confront demons that other teenagers might have and battling them. But I would have liked to see the concept used better. Persona 4 I think used this premise MUCH better. And I also like the idea of the main character going through some difficulty that she herself has to grow from. I would just like to see some more enthusiastic transformation sequences and using the magical girl attacks as more than just a generic “spell” type attack you’d see in an MMO. I would use the “signature magical girl attack” as a sort of “limit break” like the old Final Fantasy games would have, which you would have to power up with smaller attacks before you can unload the big guns in a finishing move.

And if it were up to me, I’d also use a colour palette and art design for the backgrounds and setting inspired by late 90s anime, rather than the modern sleeker “moe” style of art.

[dumb-american]

The Rebuild of Final Fantasy VII: Your Expectations Will (Not) Be Met

I apologize for the stupid title and I promise I’m going to talk about the Final Fantasy VII Remake, but I have to get this out of the way first. Sometime in the mid 2000s, acclaimed artist and director Hideaki Anno announced that he was going to remake his beloved anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion the way it should have been the first time, free from technical and budgetary restraints. Evangelion had a notoriously strange ending when the original anime aired, consisting of character talking over still images, abstract art, and simple animations. It was highly polarizing and controversial. Anno, for his part, received death threats and the headquarters of the studio that produced the anime was vandalized. Soon after the initial uproar Anno would direct The End of Evangelion, a retelling of the final two episodes of the anime, and that seemed to mostly satisfy the fanbase. Looking back now, The End of Evangelion wasn’t “fixing” something that was “broken,” no, it was a premonition: a vision of things to come. Why remake the ending when you can just remake the whole damn thing?

The mid 2000s also saw the birth of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII: a sub-series of projects expanding the universe and world of the video game that had “quite possibly the greatest game ever made” proudly printed on the back of its CD case. The Compilation consisted of three games, all on different platforms, and a film. First was Advent Children, a sequel to Final Fantasy VII, where three dudes that look like discarded Sephiroth concept art all have anime fights with our beloved protagonists, culminating in a ridiculous gravity defying sword fight between Cloud and Sephiroth. Before Crisis and Crisis Core are prequels that expand the story of the Turks and Zack Fair, respectively. Then there’s Dirge of Cerberus, an action shooter staring secret party member and former Turk Vincent. Were these projects good? I’d say they were largely forgettable. Crisis Core stood out as the obvious best of the bunch and I think may be worth revisiting.

As a business model, the practice pioneered by the Compilation would continue on and eventually brings us FFXIII (and sequels), FF Versus XIII (which would later become FFXV), and FF Agito XIII (which would later become FF Type-0). If that’s all incredibly confusing to you, I’m sorry, I promise I will begin talking about the Final Fantasy VII Remake soon. Suffice it to say, both Final Fantasy VII and Neon Genesis Evangelion have a certain gravity. They punch above their weight. They are both regarded as absolute classics, flaws and all. And yet, in both cases, the people responsible for their creation decided that their first at bat wasn’t good enough and it was time to recreate them as they were meant to be all along. I think this way of thinking about art is flawed, limitations are as much a part of the creative process as vision and intent. Yet, we find ourselves in a world with a remake of Final Fantasy VII, so I guess we should talk about it.

From this point forward, there’s going to be major spoilers for every Final Fantasy VII related media. So, be warned.

So, is the Final Fantasy VII Remake any good? To me, that’s the least interesting question, but we can get into it. FFVIIR is audacious, that’s for sure. Where Anno condenses and remixes a 26 episode anime series into four feature length films, the FFVIIR team expands an around 5 hour prologue chapter into a 30+ hour entire game. Naturally, there will be some growing pains. The worst example of this is the sewers. The game forces you to slog through an awful sewer level twice, fighting the same boss each time. This expanded sewer level is based on a part of the original game that was only two screens and was never revisited.

Besides the walk from point A to point B, watch a cutscene, fight a boss, repeat that you’d expect from a JRPG, there’s also three chapters where the player can explore and do sidequests. The sidequests are mostly filler, but a select few do accomplish the goal of fleshing out some of the minor characters. You spend way more time with the Avalanche crew, for example. Out of them, only Jesse has something approaching a complete personality or character arc that matters. The main playable cast is practically unchanged which was a bit surprising to me. I figured Square-Enix would tone down Barret’s characterization as Mr. T with a gun for an arm, but they decided, maybe correctly, that Barret is an immutable part of the Final Fantasy VII experience. Also, it’s practically unforgivable that Red XIII was not playable in the remake considering how much time you spend with him. I don’t understand that decision in the slightest.

The game’s general systems and mechanics, materia, combat, weapon upgrades, etc. are all engaging and fun and not much else really needs to be said about it. I found it to be great blend of action/strategy. Materia really was the peak of JPRG creativity in the original FFVII and its recreation here is just as good. The novelty of seeing weird monsters like the Hell House and the “Swordipede” (called the Corvette in the original) make appearances as full on boss fights with mechanics is just weaponized nostalgia. In general, the remake has far more hits than misses, but those misses, like the sewers and some of the tedious sidequests, are big misses. It is a flawed game, but a good one. If I were to pick a favorite part of the game, I’d have to pick updated Train Graveyard section which takes lore from the original game and creates a mini-storyline out of it.

If that was all, however, then honestly writing about Final Fantasy VII Remake wouldn’t be worth my time or yours. The game’s ambition goes way further than just reimagining Midgar as a living, real city. There’s a joke in the JRPG community about the genre that goes something like this: at the start of the game, you kill rats in the sewer and by the end you’re killing God. Well, when all is said and done, the Final Fantasy VII Remake essentially does just that. Narratively, the entire final act of the game is a gigantic mess, but if you know anything about me then you know I’d much rather a work of fiction blast off into orbit and get a little wild than be safe and boring.

In the original games, the Lifestream is a physical substance that contains spirits and memories of every living being. Hence, when a person dies, they “return to the planet”. It flows beneath the surface of the planet like blood flows in a living person’s veins and can gather to heal “wounds” in the planet. In the original game, the antagonist, Sephiroth, seeks to deeply wound the planet with Meteor and then collect all the “spirit energy” the planet musters to heal the wound. The remake builds on this concept by introducing shadowy, hooded beings called Whispers. The Whispers are a physical manifestation of the concept of destiny and they can be found when someone seeks to change their fate, correcting course to the pre-destined outcome. Whispers appear at multiple points throughout the game’s storyline both impeding and aiding the party. The ending focuses heavily on them and the idea that fate and destiny can be changed. We receive visions throughout the game which some will recognize as major story beats and images from the original game. After dealing with Shinra and rescuing Aerith, the game immediately switches over to this battle against destiny and fate that you’re either going to love or hate. The transition is abrupt and jarring. While Cloud has shown flashes of supernatural physical abilities throughout the game, suddenly he has gone full Advent Children mode and is flying around cleaving 15 ton sections of steel in half with his sword. The party previously took on giant mutated monsters, elite soldiers, and horrific science experiments, but now the gloves are off and they’re squaring up against an impossibly huge manifestation of the Planet’s will. Keep in mind, in the narrative of the original FFVII, the Midgar section was rougly 10%, if that, of the game’s full storyline. This is, frankly, insane, but I’d be lying if I didn’t love it.

The Final Fantasy VII Remake, with its goofy JRPG concluding chapter, is forcing the player to participate in the original game’s un-making. We see premonitions of an orb of materia falling to the ground, we see an older Red XIII gallop across the plains, we see a SOLDIER with black hair and Cloud’s Buster Sword make his final stand, we see Cloud waist deep in water holding something or someone. We all know what these images represent, they’ve been part of imaginations for decades. But the Final Fantasy VII Remake allows us (or forces us, depending on perspective, I guess) to kill fate, kill God, and set aside all we thought we knew about how the game would play out post-Midgar. The most obvious effect of our actions is the reveal that Zack survived his final stand against Shinra and instead of leaving Cloud his sword and legacy, helped him get to Midgar safely. I have my doubts and my worries about the future of this series. I’m not sure when the next part of the game will be released or what form it will come in, but I can’t believe I’m as excited as I am to see it.

Of course, part of me wishes they’d just left well enough alone. Remakes are generally complete wastes of time and effort. Not all, but most. Maybe I’m, to borrow a term from pro wrestling lingo, a complete mark here and I just love JRPGs and Final Fantasy VII so much that I’ll countenance close to anything bearing its name. I’ve tried my best to be as critical and fair as possible to the game and I hope that if you’re on the fence and reading this I’ve maybe helped you decide if it’s for you or not. I think the Final Fantasy VII Remake is worth your time if you’re looking for a good, meaty JRPG. It’s not perfect and it’s final act is insane, but that just makes me love it more.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like for Zack, Cloud, and Aerith to face Sephiroth in the Planet’s core? I know 15 year old me did. And he may get his wish.

[jake-richmond]

The Magical Land of Yeld RPG is now on sale from Indie Press Revolution, DrivethruRPG and the Modest Medusa Store! Somewhere there is a door. A door to a magical land. A land of secrets and treasure. Of exploration and adventure. Where children can become heroes, discover their inner strength and stand against monsters and magic. And once you enter, the only thing you have to fear is that you can never go home again! The Magical Land of Yeld is an all ages tabletop role playing game based on the fantasy world of the popular comic Modest Medusa!  Features: - A self contained role playing game, including special instructional comics that help you learn how to play! - Build and customize a child hero, with 9 Friend Types, 8 Heroic Jobs, 6 Advanced Jobs and 6 Monster Jobs! Plus hundreds of items, spells and "special dice" to collect and master! - Explore the magical land of Yeld with unique map, calendar and travel rules! As your children travel and explore they'll grow older and stronger, but they'll have to find a way to escape Yeld before their 13th birthdays, or they'll become monsters and be trapped in the magical land forever! - Fights come to life with team based tactics inspired by classic JRPGs and adventure games like Secret of Mana, The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy Tactics! - Use the Monster Formula to create custom monsters, or choose from over 100 ready to play Monsters! - Over 500 illustrations and 25 pages of new comics by Modest Medusa creator Jake Richmond!

[kayawagner]

The Magical Land of Yeld

Publisher: Atarashi Games

Somewhere there is a door.

A door to a magical land. A land of secrets and treasure. Of exploration and adventure. Where children can become heros and stand against monsters and magic.  And once you enter, the only thing you have to fear is that you can never go home again!

The Magical Land of Yeld is an all ages tabletop role playing game based on the fantasy world of the popular comic Modest Medusa.

Features:

- A self contained role playing game, including a simple and fun dice system! Learning is easy with special instructional comics!

- Build and customize a child hero, with 9 friend types, 8 Heroic Jobs, 6 Advanced Jobs and 6 Monster Jobs! Plus hundreds of items, spells and "special dice" to collect and master!

- Explore the magical land of Yeld with unique map, calandar and travel rules! As your characters travel and explore they'll grow older and stronger, but they'll have to find a way to escape Yeld before their 13th birthdays, or they'll become monsters and be trapped in the magical land forever!

- Fights come to life with team based tactics inspired by classis JRPGs like Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy Tactics!

- Use the Monster Formula to create custom monsters, or choose from over 100 ready to play Monsters!

- Over 500 illustrations and 25 pages of new comics by Modest Medusa creator Jake Richmond!

Price: $16.00 The Magical Land of Yeld published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[kingofbluebell]

Video Game Forecast 2017

Due to some computer trouble and my lack of time to edit this week, I'm pushing the first anime review on this blog to next week. I want this review to be a good first impression for the greater anime community, and besides, if I rushed it out I'd be letting myself down. Instead, I'm going to ramble on at length about the upcoming games for 2017 that I'm excited to play because people sure love making lists on this topic. Yes, I touched on most of these games in post two weeks ago, but I didn't flesh out exactly why I was excited for them. As always this list reflects my personal taste which is sure to be different from anyone else who reads it. I'm trying to square away some other projects before the first load of games comes knocking at my door so let's finish this quickly. Just like with my other list posts I'll include a table of contents at the start for easier browsing.

Dragon Quest VIII

Gravity Rush 2

Yakuza 0

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Persona 5

Nier Automata

Super Mario Odyssey

Yooka-Laylee/A Hat in Time

Etrian Odyssey V

Kingdom Hearts 3

Dragon Quest VIII 3DS: Unlike the feelings of disappointment that grew as I reached the end of Dragon Quest VII, there is a precedent for me to enjoy this game a whole lot more. Dragon Quest VIII is one of my favorite games of all time, and the ability to easily play it anywhere is always a boon in my book. Sure the lack of the orchestral score, decreased resolution, and a voice actress change are making me hesitant to play it, but at its core, it's still Dragon Quest VIII: the pinnacle of the classic JRPG.  I'll get used to the new voice for Jessica as I did for Chie and Teddie in Persona 4 when Golden came out and like that enhanced release, I'm excited to test out all the new features chief among them being the lack of random encounters. To me, this was the major thing holding back the original Dragon Quest VIII, even if the encounter rate was relatively unobtrusive, and with Akira Toriyama's iconic monster designs seeing those slimes scuttle across the world map is going to be a delight. I'm also curious to see how they've extended the story, especially with the inclusion of the two bonus characters. Plus I want to see what outfits I can put on my favorite guy Yangus.  Unless another game appearing later on this list gets localized this year, or I muster up the will to plow through the Shin Megami Tensei IV duology I can't see another game vying for time in my 3DS this year.

Gravity Rush 2: Sure the dream to have this sequel be another defining title for the PS Vita is long since dead, but the combination of this game existing at all and the befuddling presence of the Vita in 2017 is more than enough to satisfy me. The original Gravity Rush translated very well to the PS4, and demo proves the controls have been refined even further. Being built from the ground up for the PS4 has not only improved the controls, but the brief glimpse of the vistas we'll be able to float through are anything to go by the developers certainly know how to make use of the rest of the PS4's hardware. I hesitate to classify Gravity Rush as a sandbox series, but that's mainly due to my reticence to play many of them now. Most of these games are heavily padded with additional objectives and exist on a playfield so large they become overwhelming. Gravity Rush also contains the myriad of collectibles and repetitive side missions of increasing difficulty however it doesn't immediately hit me that I've done this all before. The series' unique movement options and that said movement options only improve with every digression from the main plot certainly aid in this feeling, yet there is clearly something more. The original Gravity Rush's world, possibly stemming from the fact it was originally a portable game, felt compact and that translated into a more focused experience. I can't wait to see how I can mess around with the sequel's settings, but I hope the developers give me more ways to interact rather than more ground to cover.

Yakuza 0: If there were any franchise that exemplified the tenets I mentioned above it's Yakuza. The way folks over at Sega have gone about expanding the fictional city of Kamurocho, not by expanding the map but instead increasing the number of locations the player can explore in the same space is nothing short of genius game design that reflects actual urban development. This cost saving measure has not only allowed longtime fans to become familiar with the city as they would their real-life neighborhoods but also for the developers to make it come alive by including dozens of unique side activities on top of the already expanding and satisfying combat mechanics. While I'm still relatively new to the Yakuza franchise, my time playing the PS2 entries of the franchise make me excited to play more. I have no reticence jumping into a game further down the development timeline because I don't mind going back to older eras of 3D action games with their relatively stiffer controls. From what little I remember Yakuza 3 is a large step up from the PS2 era titles, and besides the story, design and charm of the franchise are more than enough to get me going back to older games even after playing the most refined game the series has to offer (in English).  I'm just happy Sony and Sega are giving this franchise another chance outside of Japan. Even though prequels tend to get a bad rap in most media the Yakuza series storytelling pedigree has me excited to see how Kazuma and Majima turned into the men we've grown to love. In fact, the game being prequel has also given me the opportunity to sell the concept of this game to as many of my long-time GTA, martial arts, and crime-fiction loving friends as I can. The two-year localization wait for this game is almost at an end, and I can't wait to delve into the opulent world of 80's Japanese crime.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age: I've been a fan of the way Yasumi Matsuno crafts RPGs since before I could easily pronounce his name. His approach to story and characters are as nuanced as the game mechanics that encapsulate them. In my opinion, they're some of the few RPGs that have a real balance between their gameplay and narrative aspects which is saying a lot given the tendency for Japanese RPGs to rely more heavily on the latter for player engagement. The world(s) of Ivalice is one of the most intriguing fantasy settings ever created in any medium and while it saddens me to say we may never get another chapter in its story I'm more than happy to return to its grandest one. Final Fantasy XII was already a huge game within the constraints of a PS2 title, and I'm sure this PS4 upgrade will do its sweeping landscapes justice. More importantly, I'm excited to experience the Zodiac Job system after all these years. The original's license board being fully open for each character, while certainly gave multitudes of customization options, felt almost too broad to the point it became unwieldy to manage. Having a more focus skill set for each playable character will go a long way into making the fights more strategic. After playing Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir I'm curious if this collection will give us the opportunity to use either system for character progression though I'm doubtful it will. What I don't doubt is this title coming out in 2017. With news of more delays on Kingdom Hearts 3 and the Final Fantasy VII remake not to mention the impossibility of any localized version of Dragon Quest XI so soon, this HD remaster will be a solid stop-gap title for Square's RPG market.

Persona 5:  The changing tides of Japanese game development, as well as the maturation of my taste, has made the (Shin) Megami Tensei series overtaking such giants as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest my favorite JRPG meta-franchise. Even almost succumbing to "Persona 4 Fatigue" and being let-down by Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE are not enough to change my mind. Persona 5 has a lot to live up to and from what little I've allowed myself to hear and see it has certainly impressed those who've played it. I'm grateful to have not been spoiled on any of the major plot developments and even many of the finalized game mechanics in the extended wait between the Japanese and global localization. I'm not normally the type of person to care about spoilers, but I've managed to hold back my excitement this long so why throw it all away at the eleventh hour? I haven't seen a new trailer for the game in at least a year, and I've gone so far as to avoid the English VA introduction videos for fear some of their characters are introduced too far into the story. I expect to either set up a myriad of blacklist programs or just take a sabbatical from most online interaction until I beat the game once so as not to be "tainted" by even the most benign meme. Sure I might become a hermit for a few weeks once the game arrives, but it'll be worth it to finally get to enjoy another full-fledged JRPG from masters of the craft.

Nier Automata: Rather than a screenshot I'm starting off this section by showcasing a very telling tweet from Drakengard/Nier creator Taro Yoko. There seems to be an unexplainable amount of pressure for this game to be amazing, and I'm still trying to break down how exactly we got to this point when at E3 2015 there were so many people confused about "the weird guy in the creepy mask".  It's not like after the reveal of Nier Automata the rest of the franchise was made more readily available to a wider audience to get them acclimated to the franchise. The first two Drakengard games weren't released on the PS3 or PS4, and I don't believe Nier is eligible through streaming on PS Now or is backward-compatible with the Xbox One. You would think after the unfortunate state Drakengard 3 released in, being plagued with slowdown and having a third of the content locked away as DLC that cost as much as the base game, that the series would have stopped there. In fact, most fans were shocked Drakengard 3 came out at all. Despite the odds, it seems some folks at Square Enix must enjoy Taro's work and want let him continue to lead projects, which for people like myself is a delightful aberration in this industry. I wouldn't say I'm the most knowledgeable Drakengard/Nier fan, I haven't spent much time looking at the fan-translated supplementary materials, but Nier is still one of my favorite games of all time, so that's why I have high hopes for its sequel. Outside of folks like myself, I believe everyone else's hopes lie are with the developer of Nier Automata: Platinium Games. Despite some recent disappointments, which can partially be blamed on rushed development cycles for licensed products, Platinum Games have been responsible for some of the most mechanically complex and energetic games of all time. Their reputation certainly precedes them at this point, and I think a lot of people believe they'll bring a similar flair and finesse to the combat in Automata. However, after playing the demo it's clear that Nier Automata is going to play a lot closer to the original Nier than Bayonetta. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but that means that 2B isn't the next evolution of cyborg Raiden. Combat in the original Nier was a simple hack and slash with some interesting magic mechanics, and I believe Platinum's involvement with Automata will go a long way in smoothing out the combat in ways Taro's previous team at Cavia was just not capable of doing. From what the demo provided it's clear that Platinum succeeded at this without sapping a lot of the particular flavor people look to get from Taro's games. Personally, I'm ecstatic Taro gets to work with a team known for massive and intricate boss encounters because I can only imagine how much they'll be improved compared to those found in the original Nier.  My biggest wish for 2017 would be for Nier Automata to be a resounding critical and financial success not only for Taro but also for Platinum. After the cancellation of Scalebound and Activision pulling out of licensed game development it'll be a rough time for them to find another project so soon and they could certainly use a big win.

Super Mario Odyssey: While everyone else seems blown away by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild the game that piqued my interest more at the Nintendo Switch presentation was Super Mario Odyssey. Seeing Mario in a more sandbox oriented platformer for the first time in over a decade immediately grabbed my attention, and the idea of Mario going on a globe-hopping adventure will aid in making the cliche level tropes you see in most platformers have some distinctive flair. I must admit seeing one of the areas called "New Donk City" made me giggle more than the realization that a lot of the elements in the trailer mimic the original Sonic Adventure. More important to my potential enjoyment of the game was seeing all the additional movement abilities Mario as acquired for this new title. Mario can now swing as if he's performing an uneven bar routine and his hat, that is somehow sentient, can be thrown to act as an additional platform to reach greater distances. I'm unsure if the fan favorite "long jump" has made the transition to this title but it would surprise me if it didn't. Despite all of this I don't think Super Mario Odyssey, despite coming after a collection of solid titles, will be enough for me to purchase a Switch. My infatuation with portable consoles will have me buying the console eventually, but I'll be waiting until I hear more about that new Shin Megami Tensei game.

Yooka-Laylee/A Hat in Time: I'm putting both of these in the same paragraph because my thoughts on each of them are the same. Before Super Mario Odyssey got announced, these were the only 3D sandbox oriented platformers (have to find a better name for that before I take a deeper look at these games) on the horizon after the genre died out just at the start of the 7th console generation. I may not be the biggest fan of Banjo-Kazooie (certainly not its sequel), but I played and still replay on occasion the hell out of Insomniac developed Spyro the Dragon games. I adore the freedom you get roaming large levels and using your platforming prowess combined with your ever expanding move set and power-ups to tackle the various challenges put before you. I even like collecting a ridiculous amount of different collectibles, which is why I'm one of the few people who still emphatically enjoy Donkey Kong 64 outside of the memes. All these factors, as well as a majority of the original Banjo-Kazooie team involved with the project, convinced me and many others to heavily back Yooka-Laylee. The pedigree of the developers and constant updates have put a lot of our fears to rest after some rather large Kickstarter kerfuffles soured plenty on crowdfunding. I can't say I know as much about A Hat in Time though its smaller, inexperienced team and more meager funding explains its near four-year development cycle. Still, I've heard plenty of positive things from those who've backed the project and got to try out the demos. My fondness for the subgenre will have me giving this a shot as well if it reaches its promised release date this year.

Etrian Odyssey V: Last year I fell deeply in love with the plodding and challenging dungeons of the Etrian Odyssey franchise, completing two games. As arduous as they were I enjoyed (almost) every second of my hundred hour journeys, and I anxiously awaited the next title to be localized. I can understand Atlus wanting to make sure their global launch of Persona 5 to go smoothly before announcing any concrete release dates for games, but the wait for any news of Etrian Odyssey V's English localization is making me worry. Now with the Switch the next big thing from Nintendo resources from all companies, including Atlus, shifting to support it. It concerns me that a more niche title like Etriany Odyssey will be forgotten as we move to new hardware. Still the overwhelming success of Pokémon Sun & Moon, the lack of any announcement of a Switch Pokémon RPG, and the fact that Atlus USA tends to localize games for older hardware more often than other companies has me hopeful. Will we see Etrian Odyssey V in 2017? It's possible, and if it turns out to be true this year will be an even better year for games. Until then I should probably take the time to brave Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl to make sure I'm not too rusty.

Kingdom Hearts 3: I know anything can happen now than Final Fantasy XV, The Last Guardian and Owlboy came out last year, but I'm not holding my breath for Kingdom Hearts 3. I can guarantee to be there day one, but until then I'm not even touching 2.8 until the "third" entry in this franchise gets an actual release day. Just because I still harbor deep feelings for this hot mess of a series doesn't mean I need to be beholden to its whims. I'm not fifteen anymore.

So that's all the games I'm interested in checking out this year. I've chosen a lot of safe bets this year, but a lot of that has to do with me wanting to play a lot of highly rated Japanese games that have taken a while to localize. If any of the heavy hitters on other peoples' lists turn out to be great, I'll try to squeeze them in if I have the time and cash. In addition, every year there are a handful of smaller titles that blow everyone away that few initially knew about and when those inevitably rear their popularity onto the gaming landscape, I'll try to check them out too. I'd love to hear what games the people that read this post are looking forward to in 2017 so either leave a comment here or on my Twitter.

See you next week.

[oneddashone]

Games of the Year 2018

2018 was, for me, when I finally escaped the zeitgeist of well-reviewed, non-Nintendo, big-budget AAA games. Red Dead 2, Spider-Man, God of War—in previous years, the collective siren song of each of these games' Recommended or Essential tags on Eurogamer would have been too much for me to resist, but not this year—the Nintendo Switch almost completely cannibalized my game time in 2018.

It's an object that brings me joy in a way the PS4 and Xbox could never hope to achieve. Sure, part of it is just a victory lap for a Nintendo fanboy that rarely gets them anymore, and part of it is certainly the added flexibility of the handheld/console duality at the heart of its design. But it's also something more than that. Something I've struggled to define.

Nintendo's release calendar in 2018 was, in my eyes at least, as near-perfect as you can get when dealing with something as volatile as game development. Every month there was a new and interesting big box release, a few interesting digital-only games, and probably a patch to one of your favorite games from 2017 that made it a blast to play all over again. I know that it's been criticized, and that Nintendo's stock was even down at one point because of a perceived negative reaction to the games they put out this year, but I just can't comprehend that—to me it felt perfect.

Anyways, on to the list.

(Side bar: some have already scoffed at some of the inclusions here due to strict Gregorian merit. I quite like how Polygon worded their policy on their list:

You may notice the inclusion of games that were either fully released or made available in Early Access prior to 2018. Because many games change from update to update, let alone year to year, we will include previously available games that receive a significant update within the year or become available on a platform that substantially impacts how that game is experienced.

End side bar)

RECOMMENDED

Night in the Woods

Danmaku Unlimited 3

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

Yoku’s Island Express

Mario Tennis Aces

Octopath Traveler

The Messenger

Valkyria Chronicles 4

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Mega Man 11

Forza Horizon 4

Dark Souls Remastered

Diablo III: Eternal Collection

Civilization VI

Tetris Effect

Gris

I'm really happy with the diversity of games in this part of the list. From Dark Souls to Gris, there was truly something for almost any type of video game fan this year. I still think about the music from Night in the Woods, the characters from Valkyria Chronicles, and the stages from Mega Man 11. Octopath Traveler perfectly scratched the JRPG itch (even if I still have over half the game to go), and Mario Tennis Aces was the most competitive I've been in an online game since probably Arms. Danmaku Unlimited 3 is wholly underrated as a modern shmup, and regardless of how you feel about racing games, you owe it to yourself to experience the fields of rural England flying by in Forza Horizon 4—one of only two games in this list that I didn't play on Switch, actually.

ESSENTIAL

Celeste

Hollow Knight

Dead Cells

Into the Breach

Pokemon: Let's Go Eeevee

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

This part of the list is just bonkers. I feel like there have been past years where literally all of these could have finished #1.

Celeste touched me with its story—not something I've said about many games, especially those that are most well-known for their precision and difficulty. Hollow Knight was a complete joy when it landed on Switch this Spring. I immediately put dozens of hours into it and played it exclusively for weeks, and I still have more to find. Dead Cells quickly replaced all the other roguelikes I was regularly dipping into, and still hasn't given up its roost there. Into the Breach was the exact strategy game I needed to get back into that genre, at a time when I desperately wanted to get back into that genre. Pokemon Let's Go Eevee was *the* father/daughter game this year—we've played it together, sure, but we've also bonded in discussions about elemental strengths and weaknesses, correct support character strategy, the merits of grinding, etc etc etc (I’ve also started my own save file—it’s that good). And SSB Ultimate came on late but hit hard—I played it with friends every night for weeks after release. This one is gonna last well into next year and beyond.

Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, and Into the Breach were also all games that my PC friends were playing and that I knew I'd probably be into, but doubted I'd ever get the chance to experience myself. That they all made their console debut on the Switch in the same calendar year speaks to how strong that calendar was for Nintendo, I'd say.

GOTY

Monster Hunter World (and Generations Ultimate)

For all the Nintendo love on this list—and yes I realize I'm cheating by also sneaking Gen Ultimate on here—it's one of the only games I played on PS4 that takes the top spot.

2018 was the year of Monster Hunter for me. I had played multiple games in the series up to this point, but the two that came out this year completely nailed what makes these games great—and they're two totally, completely different (but equally wonderful) games.

Generations Ultimate technically came out later in the West, but it's also clearly the older game. The 'ultimate' in the title isn't marketing happenstance—this is a huge, over-stuffed collection of the 'best of' MonHun's first four mainline and spin-off games. Everything good about MonHun before 2018 is in this game, and it's as bloated as you'd expect. I played with a multitude of weapons, styles, and arts, and still didn't come close to scratching the surface of the vast amount of stuff in this game. I'm still playing it and plan to continue for some time.

Monster Hunter World, on the other hand, came out all the way back in January but is almost a completely new game. A lot of the dumb cruft from 10+ years of game history has been whittled down into one of the most intensely satisfying experiences I had this year. I played around 90 hours—some alone, some with my trusted hunting buddy Tommy, and some with a full group of hunters from Detroit Arcade Club—and I never felt like I wasted a minute. I love that they've added some light MMO elements (in the form of daily and weekly bonuses, mostly). I love that the maps are one coherent place now, and that monsters attack each other in unscripted encounters. I love that whetstones are infinite and you don't stop and cycle through an animation every time you pick a flower. There was just so much to love in this game, and it sets the table beautifully for the next ten years of Monster Hunter.

It was a good year in games. Maybe not as stuffed as last year, and certainly not quite hitting its extreme highs (I couldn't even write about Breath of the Wild last year, it was too good), but on the whole it was steady in quality and refreshingly varied in its executions. Here's to another year in games like this one.