#playing yakuza 0 helped me an odd way to come up with something

[sepheroth]

💋 :3c

Send  💋  to shut my muse up with a kiss(no longer accepting.)

"It's..." Just as assuredly as there was much needed space left between his words, as well as there was hesitance he thought of a way to express that while he had the rights to brag about it, that wasn't really his intention at the moment. "...Nothing special..." but this is where his subconsciousness played away into view and his shoulders tensed and he hated himself for it. Nearly, his neck would have sunk between his shoulders. Had Cindy not expressed her interest in one of his hidden talents for playing the piano. He hadn't exactly offered that knowledge freely or even too often for all that matter. Why would anyone pay mind to a corporate dog's supposed talents, other than following instructional orders? He doubted anyone would have taken him seriously back then. But this was another way in which conjured up one of the few memories that every now and then had it's own way of sneaking up on him. SOLDIER had their unforgiving habit, of when he was an one of their allies, of wanting to show off what their best marketing tool could do. Sephiroth loathed of thinking of it this way, but there really wasn't any a better way to sugarcoat. There was no two ways about it, either. There was no way to make it hurt less. The alert reached back to his brain that Cindy was waiting. He could not, for the life of him say no, nor turn down that smile. This is ridiculous. Why am I suddenly thinking of all of this now...? Rang the thought that got him to tap back into what was known as reality. It served and aided for him for the better.

Now, as his shoulders unwinded themselves, he'd roll his head a little and thought of what he wanted to play for her. It had to be something that he knew by heart, something that he knew by melody alone. That in store and of mind, Sephiroth positioned his fingers as this was a mistake-proof way for him to not place much importance and thought into it. He'd have to at least try. But somewhere dangling toward the back of his head told him that it wasn't going to be no such way simple. So for now, he ignored what his head was holding conversations with him about. For at least the first few minutes at hand he had been doing fine playing swimmingly well. And he was surprised that pressure had not washed over him like a daunting tide, perhaps like akin to a mountain of anxiety. And his fingers started to relax more and more as his head and memory guided his fingers all the way through and through upon the keys. Moonlight Sonata was one of his personal favorites so he had went with that.

All his efforts started to hurl straight out of the exit way the very moment his head forced him to pay attention to his concerns that he managed to ignore for a graceful period, the time he took his eyes off that practice. The ''oh, no's and what 'if this, that and others should happen' caught up with him. Within his own ears he could tell he missed the brass clefs because he had been repeating that note for the longest, over for the last next few moments. "Tch...Why...now...?" he huffed to himself under lowered tone and said under his breath. Turning to Cindy who was all smiles, seating herself upon the piano while he played. As she'd inched closer and closer to him and assured him that he was doing find and that he didn't need to worry, he tried as he would and as best to, his shoulders stiffened again. As did his spine when his brain was arguing with him again. He would be the only one who had known that's what it was doing. Thank Shiva for that. "I'm...Forgive me...I didn't think..." his words were about as jumbled over each other and sooner within that, they become a pile of a silly mess as he tried to come up with an explanation for his flaws in front of her. Again, he had realized that perfectionism was another flaw that he had built up. No thanks, to Shinra who wanted nothing more and expected nothing but desirable results. For the time he was able to achieve that without fail until... he set Nibelheim ablaze. That thinking helped reduce the sting of his mistakes just now. It helped him be able to cope with embarrassing himself. He wouldn't be telling her that, though. Or was it, how she'd moved share seating with him the very moment while he preoccupied himself with his damnedable anxieties, she'd stop his nonsense and nipped it in a bud. She'd used this as a excuse to kiss him over at his ear, in which her lips brushed along the shell of it? Everything start to melt away. She had succeeded in halting at the foot of one of his worst tendency of habits. He'd perk at what was said to him in secrecy. He wouldn't be parroting what she said to him to that changed his entire mood. Why would he? He has much more respect and class than that.

[hazeldough]

okay while i’m playing judgment (i’m only at the beginning of ch 4 before meeting with higashi ahdfsdf) and i have SO many thoughts-- mainly what if 6 didn’t happen?

like do not get me wrong-- i love 6 and it’s my second favorite game, right behind 0, but i also wanna see everyone’s daughter haruka kick some ass!!!!

im gonna rattle off of headcanons and just overall thoughts

basically Y6 never happened, or won’t happen until at least 5 years later

Haruka is 20 years old

Haruka arrives in Kamurocho in 2017 and went to Akiyama for help after doing odd jobs

Stuff happens at Sky Finance, and Yagami gets involved. Haruka wants to help because Akiyama is currently indisposed and Hana needs to manage Sky Finance in his absence.

While solving Akiyama’s case, Haruka and Yagami bond a bit because they both have a past they keep on getting reminded of by other people that they don’t want to bring up.

They also walk in on Kaito’s expulsion from the Matsugane family

After they close the case, Haruka asks if she can join Yagami Detective Agency and Yagami lets her on, because she’s been really helpful and insightful when it comes to talking to people and finding clues.

Also she doesn’t fear most yakuza and honestly Yagami and Kaito are really impressed by that

The overarching story would be how Haruka is waiting for Kiryu to be released from prison, but he never turns up so she’s WORRIED

Yes, it’s Tojo Clan drama again

The main theme is everyone acknowledging how important Kiryu is to them and also acknowledging that he’s been the band aid solution to Tojo Clan problems since 2005

Haruka’s main goal is to get her dad to actually live life as a civilian

Haruka’s side story would be her helping out an agency on its last legs and offering her expertise as a former idol for the people there

She says that she isn’t sure if people would be okay with her on and each substory or progression would be people understanding that she’s a good person and so is her dad

It’d be a combo of Majima’s cabaret club where there’s some aspect of micro managing and Y5′s dance battles where Haruka has to do them again to enlist new dance instructors, vocal coaches, or security

Haruka gets 3 mentors and 4 fighting styles in total, something similar to Y0 where the 4th style is unlocked after completing her side story

Honestly, this is where most of my self indulgence goes-- as if this isn’t all already self indulgent lmao

Miss Tatsu - Beast style

Miss Tatsu is introduced when investigating Akiyama’s case and they run into her while she’s out collecting

Miss Tatsu talks about an old acquaintance of hers and Haruka connects the dots along the way.

Haruka’s brute strength is built up and it’s REALLY focused on flow and momentum.

Nair - Parrying

Nair is introduced also while investigating Akiyama’s case and she’s back because she needs Yagami’s assistance

Nair teaches Haruka a more balanced fighting style, but with a focus on parrying and using her enemy’s strength against them

Areshi - Breaker

Areshi is introduced when Haruka’s side story opens up

He’s an instructor now, but he still wants to make a break

Areshi helps Haruka develop the skills she learned as an idol into battle

Komaki is present and offers help, but Haruka would say that she wants to develop her own path-- so he’s just there as a pillar of support.

Haruka’s 4th style combines the above 3. I’d like to think that she’d basically be a human beyblade at some point, maybe as a heat action LMAO

Haruka’s dynamics with everyone!!

Akiyama, Yagami, and Kaito have BIG uncle energy lol

Akiyama watches out for her the best he can, but entrusts her to Yagami since she’s working for him

Haruka and Yagami get along bc of similar feelings towards their past

Haruka gets along with Kaito because he reminds her of her dad and Rikiya

Haruka and Hana bond too!!

Hana acts like she isn’t a little happy when Haruka comments that she and Akiyama act like a married couple

Haruka and Daigo low key acknowledge each other as siblings because of how Kiryu’s acted like a father towards them

They both bond over how they were in a position they were too young for but how they grew from it

They think about while it Was troublesome along the way, they’re just glad that Kiryu put That much trust in them and that’s what motivates them

Saejima really watches out for Haruka because she kind of reminds him of Yasuko

He talks a lot about Yasuko to Haruka

Majima and Haruka are only A LITTLE awkward around each other

They haven’t really seen each other in over a decade-- maybe a LITTLE bit but not much

Majima gives Haruka a legitimate apology for kidnapping her when she was 9. Haruka says that she gets why he had to do it, but she hasn’t really held a grudge over it-- especially after Saejima told her what Majima said to him.

TEAM BATTLE THROUGH TOJO CLAN WITH HARUKA, DAIGO, SAEJIMA, AND MAJIMA!!!!

Final fight is up in the air but wouldn’t it be something if Haruka fought essentially a girlboss character LMAO

Basically the main antagonist is trying to take over the Tojo Clan and honestly she makes some good points-- but she has horrible execution of it

Since this is self indulgent: Haruka may not shoot to kill, but she may shoot as a warning

I want Haruka to be the type of character that Does refuse to kill, but also wouldn’t leave a weapon lying around within reach of the antagonist or she’d do something if the antagonist is threatening multiple lives

At the end, everyone reunites

Kiryu sees how Haruka’s metaphorically and literally fought for him and his freedom and how Daigo’s been doing his best to keep the Tojo Clan in line

One nice happy family :^)

I mainly focused on Haruka here, but I feel like it’d REALLY work if the second protagonist would be Daigo

Yes, he’s the chairman, but he has to be on his own away from the Tojo clan for Reasons lol

And then Y6 happens ( but with some differences )

[maxthommusic]

Overwatch in 2021

I vividly remember joining the Overwatch beta back in 2016. I was going through a messy break up and was living alone after moving to Los Angeles. My money was running dry and I had to start working a job I didn’t want in order to stay afloat. Yet like a beacon in the night, Overwatch shone its head through the fog showcasing an experience that promoted fellowship, teamwork and raucous good times. After an exhilarating beta, I secured my pre-order and would go on to play Overwatch religiously with a crew for nearly a year -- probably the longest I’ve ever played anything. But when single-player games like Yakuza: 0 and Persona 5 invaded my play space in 2017, finding motivation to continue the Overwatch grind seemed less and less appealing. While Blizzard has certainly outdone itself with world-building and deep lore (the plentiful CG short films after release seemed to beg for an actual film), by design there’s no end-game. Heroes never die. And as I switched to more narrative-heavy titles, I began to think I had my fill of being a Soldier.

Nevertheless, four years later, five years since Overwatch’s launch, I’m right back where I started. I’ve shaken off the dust and am falling in love with Overwatch all over again. The community is pulsating, the gameplay balance is unrivaled, and the additions Blizzard has made are all welcome. Even after taking an extended break from Overwatch, it still manages to reign supreme as the King of multiplayer games. But when games come and go, even without their “15 minutes of fame,” how is it Overwatch is not only the Old Dog, but the Top Dog?

#1: Community. I can’t stress it enough: Overwatch’s focus on teamwork makes playing with friends (or even a random squad) exhilarating. My favorite moments come from calling out which enemies I’m hunting down and seeing my crew follow suit. Coordinating Ultimate Attacks for devastating Team Kills never grows old and the pageantry behind such coordination enriches me with a sense of competitive glory I can’t quite find anywhere else. While you can employ such dynamic strategies in other games, it’s simply not found on the level like it is in Overwatch. I’ve gone away from games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and even Destiny because I don’t get that same feeling of community. 

Blizzard really does everything in its power to make sure you remember that your team is what matters. From the addition of Endorsements, to voting on Player Achievements in the post-game, to even the Play of the Game reels -- everything revolves around highlighting the players around you (and possibly even yourself). Even matchmaking is quick and easy. My gaming crew and I have spent numerous hours playing Apex Legends, COD, Siege, the Division, etc. and Overwatch keeps us gaming the most consistently. There also seems to be the least amount of menu haggling -- when we’re ready to game, we’re in. No going, “Did you get the invite?” “Do I need to send another invite?” All these minor considerations add up to big gains for Overwatch, making it feel like the multiplayer game I spend the most time playing. 

#2: Heroes. In my mind, Overwatch has the best heroes. And I don’t mean I love the way they look and feel (though that it is true), but it’s the symbiotic relationship the heroes have with the gameplay that is simply the best I’ve ever witnessed. It’s an amazing feat that Overwatch allows you to develop an edge over your opponent by knowing not only your own skills, but theirs as well. To be great with one character isn’t enough and building your knowledge of every character will end up becoming your greatest asset. It’s an astounding feat to have 32 heroes at your fingertips with all of them remaining in balance. And what’s more is I know all 32 heroes. Because of this I’ve always rejected the idea that anyone is “cheap” and can’t be thwarted, no matter how devious. You simply need to find the foil and be ready to swap characters at will. This constantly evolving strategy forces the best combatants to rotate and understand the entire roster, making Overwatch a stalwart in achieving strategic excellence.

#3: Loot Boxes. Everyone wants to bitch and moan about micro transactions. In my mind, it’s easy to ignore and I’ve always done so. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize Overwatch handles it elegantly. Overwatch was probably my first real experience with Loot Boxes, and I remember, even from day one, finding them wildly tantalizing. With so many neat skins, sprays, voice lines, emotes, highlight intros and more to earn, receiving new swag for leveling up was, and continues to be, an exciting part of the Overwatch experience. Providing a seemingly endless array of cosmetics, I can’t help but feel like I’m a rabbit happily chasing his carrot on a stick. Outfitting my favorite characters with bad ass skins and giving them fun emotes is a side pleasure I thoroughly enjoy. Recently, I’ve even committed to getting Golden Weapons. Win enough rounds in Competitive Play and you can buy yourself a golden weapon for your character of choice. Maybe that’s dumb to a lot of people, but I think they make a neat statement about your dedication to the Watch and I’m here for it.

       *          *          *          *          *          *    ��     *          *          *          *         *

5 years later and Overwatch is still a stunning roundhouse kick in the face. There are enough maps to continually find a great rotation, there’s a plethora of characters to always choose from, all presenting their own unique take on their specified Role. Most of all, Overwatch keeps you gaming with friends. If there’s one reason to highlight above all else, it’s that Overwatch has the best gameplay loop out of any online multiplayer I’ve found. 

Playing Overwatch in 2021 means I can play a game online with people and feel like my time is respected. At 30 years old, I just want to find matches quickly, know they’re fair and never have to feel like something else got in the way of my enjoyment. Even when the odds aren’t in your favor and your random squad doesn’t want to play like a Team, you can work your hardest to earn those Gold Medals and shoot for a Loot Box by the end of your session. Overwatch is about so much more than defending the payload. And because it insists on having numerous tantalizing systems in place, it also demands your unwavering attention.

[zaggitz]

Top Ten Games of 2020

This year being the shitshow that it was, I ended up playing quite a few games I missed out on last year! First though, my lists from the previous years:

2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019

I like having my actual top ten being games that came out the year of but here's a few games that would have been on my list last year if I had played them:

Control

Really fun gameplay and a great weird world to play around in that scratched that weird cryptid/scp itch in a really satisfying way. I still have the final DLC left but I'm excited to do a full replay of the game at some point down the line

Outer Wilds

This game was worthy of all the praise it got last year and more. Amazingly crafted clockwork world with great lore and characters and an absolute blast to explore and get lost in- and then explore and get lost in- and then explore and get lost in- and then explore and get lost in- and then explore and oh damn is that a singularity cool I wonder what happens if I- and then explore and get lost WOAH there's two of me now!

I wish I could forget this game and play it for the first time all over again.

Honorable Mention:

Ghost of Tsushima

This game is an absolute blast to play and has some of the best seamless open world navigation I’ve experienced in the genre. How much I love playing the game is however at odds with how much I LOATHE its absolute horseshit main story. Might check out the multiplayer mode some time since it’s all the stuff I liked and none of the bad stuff.

Now for the actual list:

10. Man Eater

This game scratched a deep PS2/PS3 B game itch that I've had since probably the last Saint's Row game came out. It's nothing special but I had a really fun time with this weird, bite-sized(heh) comedy game.

9. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori 2 is in every way a massive improvement from the first game. The mechanics feel tighter, the level design is a lot more open and freeform, the writing feels sharper and the addition of tons of new characters with lots of dialogue helps flesh out this very beautiful world the designers at Moon Studio have crafted. I played this game on Switch and it played pretty smoothly though it was extremely jarring seeing XBOX GAME STUDIOS upon loading the game up on a Nintendo console.

8. The House in Fata Morgana: Reincarnation

This epilogue to the previous two visual novels did a fantastic job of closing out all the characters personal arcs and rounded out the story in a really good way that didn't choke me up at all, shut up.

7. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Now here's one I didn't expect to get sucked into as much as I did. There are a lot of plot expectations coming into this game from Breath of the Wild and it takes no time at all for HW2 to subvert the shit out of them. It toes the line really well between being both a prequel and a pseudo sequel really well and the combat is that good chunky big musou stuff I love. It also doesn't have any Imprisoned fights so it's immediately better than HW1.

6. Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Speaking of pseudo sequels... This game was just an absolute blast. The combat is hectic and strategic in a really satisfying way. The way it fleshes out all the characters from the early parts of FF7 while also having kicking rad world building and a few(not enough) new areas entirely ruled and much like HW2 it absolutely loves to set up expectations from the original game and flip them on their heads. I can't wait to see this shit go off the rails in the eventual sequel.

5. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

I have like 300 hours logged into this game at this point. I've never been much of an AC guy but boy did this game luck out by coming out just in time for me quarantining at home for 7 weeks. I don't really have a lot to say about the game itself, I'm just glad I had it to occupy my time during the start of this hellshow.

4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 4

This game has some of the highest highs in the Trails series along with some of the absolute lowest lows. It's an absolute mess especially on the romance side of things but CS4 also wraps up longstanding plot threads from like 7 games prior with surprising amounts of finesse so the pros ended up outweighing the cons for me overall. This series was a core example of scope getting out of hand over and over. In a world where these games are tighter paced and end up being the 2 games they planned instead of 4 I could see this being a top contender. Sadly that wasn't the case. 

Now that the arc of these games is over I'm excited to see if they can return to form with the next one.

3. Hades

Amazing combat, amazing writing, well integrated roguelite elements and plot, dope ass music, this game's got it all baby. The amount of variety and build potential on hand makes me constantly excited to hit up a new run.

2. The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

Take all my complaints out of the CS4 blurb and this (finally) fan-translated version of the first game in the second Trails arc is what you get. This game had some of the best worldbuilding in the series due to it taking place entirely in one huge Hong Kong style city. It closed out a major and extremely emotionally satisfying plot thread from the first 3 games and ends on such a fantastic high note of a finale. Trails fans who haven't touched Crossbell yet, don't miss out!

1. Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Why is Yakuza 7 my favorite game of the year? It’s not the brand new, huge city to explore filled with stuff to do. It’s not the shift to JRPG combat that works extremely well in context and gets really fun by the end of the game. It’s not the fact that this is easily the funniest game I’ve played all year, and hell, maybe ever. It’s also not the way the game perfectly closes out the Era of the last seven games while ushering in a new, extremely exciting one.

It’s because the new protagonist, Kasuga Ichiban, is not Kazuma Kiryu.

Let me back-up for a sec. This game’s biggest change above all else is the shift to a new protagonist. Now, for a Yakuza game, having a different protagonist isn’t normally a huge deal; we had new guys in 4, 5 and Judgement. But they all functioned within the narrative framework established by Kiryu.

Kiryu is a character whose core philosophy I feel can be broken down into one sentence: Don’t let anyone stand in the way of you living your life the way you want to live it. Every main story in Yakuza 0-6 revolves around this philosophy, as do most of the substories. Kiryu only gets involved in a game’s main story when he has no choice, because something is threatening the life he wishes he could be living. Hell, if anything, you could argue his ending in 6 is him finally accepting he can’t have the life he wants if he wants the people in it to be safe.

So when RGG studios created a new protagonist, built around a whole new combat style, they also had to change the philosophy behind their storytelling.

Kasuga Ichiban is a character who, after this first game at least, to me has a core philosophy of: Everybody deserves to be alive, to be seen, to be helped and to be understood. The changes this brings to the story are incredible and lead to one of the most emotionally satisfying games I’ve ever played. 

Sure, this is a Yakuza game, with it’s typical conspiracies and crime melodrama, but it’s also a game about the dehumanization of homeless people and sex workers. A game about the rampat mistreatment of immigrants and elderly people. A game about the dangers of rampant puritanical nationalism.

That it manages to be all those things so loudly and proudly is something that could only happen with a loud, rambunctious, heart on his sleeve type of guy like Kasuga Ichiban driving it.

Also the reason it’s a JRPG now is because he’s a huge Dragon Quest nerd, and you get to summon a crawfish named Nancy to kill people. Game of the Year.

[teaandgames]

The Teacup Awards! (2019)

So, as holes begin to form in the parachute of time and we fall with gathering speed towards the hard ground of inevitability, we must bid good day to 2019. Another year of political upheaval as the Brexit circus marches on, the American president continues to document every thought in the form of a tweet and the English public prove themselves to be the best foot marksmen around. It was also a year of upheaval in my own life, with a new job and a new home to grapple with. Still, it was an interesting year for games. In part because of how few 2019 releases caught my eye. Because of that I looked back over the last few years, helped by the Humble Monthly bundle, and found a few gems that I missed. So, as usual, these awards will go to games I wrote about this year, rather than just released this year. Otherwise they’d be a little bare. Oh and I’m afraid we’ve lost the horror game award, due to lack of games. I’ll bring it back next year.

The ‘Tea Stained Page’ Award For Best Writing

Runner Up - Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

There’s a strange thing in visual media where less writing can actually be better. Overwriting something can lead to it becoming weaker, as all mystery and personal connection are systematically destroyed. Hellblade understands that better than most. Most of its writing is given to the voices inside Senua’s head and offer up different interpretations of what’s going on. Some of them are hostile, while others offer encouragement. It’s a fairly unique way of setting up the protagonist. Tied in with the intriguing nordic setting, it makes it one hell of a well written game. Shame about the gameplay, but you can’t have everything.

Winner - The Outer Worlds

I had high hopes for The Outer Worlds. Made by the minds behind the original Fallout games, and my long term flame Fallout: New Vegas, I was hoping for some great character writing with original quests. I pretty much got what I wanted. While some of the quests weren’t exactly as original as hoped, the characters were all charming, deep people. There wasn’t anyone in my party that I excluded because I thought they were boring. Instead, I exhausted everyone’s dialogue trees.

I don’t think I’ve ever done that before, come to think on it. There’s always someone who gets kicked to the curb. If that’s not a testament to good writing, I don’t know what is. Like Hellblade, it suffers from gameplay issues but those almost fade into the background. Instead, it’s just a fun romp through space with a varied, interesting crew of nutjobs. Along with characters, it’s also got various flavours of well-written capitalism. Truly, all things to all men.

The ‘Head Nod’ Award For Best Soundtrack

Runner Up - Ori and The Blind Forest

Apparently, only fifty percent of people get goosebumps when listening to music. That’s a shame, because ‘Completing the Circle’ from Ori and the Blind Forest caused an explosion of goosebumps up my arm. It’s absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, I made a bad call of listening to it at work which brutally killed my productivity until it was over. There are other gems in the soundtrack too, with a mix of beautiful serenity and fast paced action. Damn, everything in this game is beautiful.

Winner - Katana Zero

When the protagonist of Katana Zero starts a level, he pulls out a pair of headphones and presses play on his walkman. Then the music starts. It creates this odd sense that we’re listening to the music through the protagonist, complete with all the time reversal and everything. It’s also a rare case of the soundtrack becoming part of the story. Our ‘hero’ is so desensitised to what he’s doing that he’s playing music while brutally killing people. But that’s by the by.

What we’re here for is some catchy synthwave tunes to kill along with. ‘Third District’ is a standout, being strangely relaxing for a game where death is only a failed slice away. But that’s kind of the point. Zero is chilling out. He already knows how this is gonna go. Then you’ve got the more faster paced songs, like the requisite disco song, ‘Hit the Floor’. The best comparison I can make is to DEADBOLT. Equally laid back soundtracks that somehow link together with horrific, bloody murder.

The ‘Perfect Cuppa’ For Best Looking Game

Runner Up - Spyro Reignited

Spyro Reginited Trilogy was a bit of a shock, to be honest. I’ve never been too invested in remakes, as they seem to be creative vacuums by nature. Spyro slipped me by when it was big, however, so I thought I’d give it a look. I’m glad I did, as I was greeted by a slick and smooth platformer. What did strike me was how bright and colourful it was. It just looks like a nice place to me. A variety of bright colours, helped by our bright purple dragon.

Winner - Ori and the Blind Forest

Before I played it, Ori and the Blind Forest struck me as an ‘art game’. The type of game that looks really nice as a cover up for its weak gameplay. That wasn’t quite the case, as Ori’s platforming is pretty good (though let down a bit by the combat). That’s not why we’re here though. We’re here because it looks absolutely bloody beautiful. The ‘blind forest’ relates to a part in the story where the forest withers, with Ori being one beacon of light in this dark place. This interplay of light is one reason why it looks so beautiful.

The forest starts off dark with twinkling areas of light throughout. As you progress through the game, life begins to return to the forest and you go off to new locations that all look different. There’s a cave full of lava, for example, or there’s the dark and mysterious Misty Woods. Either way, wherever you go, you’ll find somewhere that looks good. Can’t wait for Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

The ‘Spilled My Tea, Punk’ Award For Best Action Game

Runner Up - One Finger Death Punch 2

Sometimes simple is better. To make a fun game, sometimes you only need one button. Though, to be honest, I used two fingers, thus invalidating the point of the game. For shame. Still, One Finger Death Punch 2 has found new ways to make twatting stickmen challenging. It calls back to those old flash animations, with the exaggerated moves to send the variously coloured enemies flying. It may not look like much when you’re looking at the screenshots of it but I promise you: it’s a damn exciting game.

Winner - Yakuza 0

Another surprise this one. I got it through the Humble Monthly bundle and installed it while not really expecting much. I’d heard a few things about it, mainly how crazy and over the top parts of it were, but I wasn’t expecting to be quite so blown away. There is some madcap zaniness, of course, but layered on top of that is a serious crime story about a low level Yakuza drawn into something far bigger than him. Enter Kazama Kiryu, smart, stoic and with one hell of a heavy fist or two.

That leads us to the action part of the game. It’s split into three styles, Steady, Speedy and Heavy. Or Brawl, Rush and Crash if you want the proper names. The most exciting parts of these being the Heat Actions. Special moves that play out when proper conditions are met. Grappling someone near a wall, for example, will cause Kiryu (or Majima if you’re on his storyline) to throw them against the wall and then break a couple of ribs with his fists. These heat actions make me feel like im in a proper action film and for that, and many other reasons, Yakuza 0 is a clear winner.

The ‘Perfectly Brewed’ Award For Best Revisited

Runner Up - Rayman 2

I finally got around to beating Rayman 2 this year, something I’ve not achieved since I was a kid. While the final boss was atrocious, it is still a great game to me. There is so much imagination filtered down into it. Nothing is predictable, especially not the giant eyeball monster in a hat chasing you down a hallway. It’s like being eaten by Mike Wazowski’s big brother. Couple that with some fairly decent 3D platforming (as decent as it could be in those games) and you’ve got yourself one hell of a Rayman game. I am glad it went back to 2D though.

Winner - Danganronpa

I’ve played games like Danganronpa before, most notably Ace Attorney. However, in that series the worst that could happen is a client being found guilty. It’s awful but it’s not quite on the same level as Danganronpa. Screw up there and all of your friends will die horrible deaths. That kind of contributes to the whole ‘despair’ thing that hangs over the entire game like a dark shroud. It’s very oppressive; it almost qualifies for a horror game if it wasn’t for all the upbeat anime cheeriness.

It’s an odd blend that. Half the game is figuring out whodunnit, while the other half is hanging out with your friends and giving them gifts. That’s what it makes it so effective. It’s rather a cruel joke, really. Danganronpa makes you care about your friends and then kills them without mercy. While it suffers from the usual problem of you desperately trying to catch on to the developers thread of logic when it comes to the murders, the core gameplay and the writing are both top notch. As is the second one, which you’ll be hearing about on Tuesday!

The ‘Accidental Sugar Lump’ For Biggest Disappointment

Runner Up - Sundered

Sundered had a lot of promise. It’s a Lovecraftian Metroidvania game and both of those things are very exciting. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite deliver on the second one as well as it does the first. The Lovecraftian stuff is there for sure, and lends itself to some good plot notes and strange bosses. Unfortunately, the combat is a total damp squib. It gives no real feedback and there’s rarely a better solution to a problem than spamming the attack button. As a result, playing the game quickly slips down into being a chore. A damn shame.

Winner - Layers of Fear 2

Unfortunately, I feel like this award could probably be named after Bloober Team. They always seem to hit on the right ideas but fail to properly implement them. Layers of Fear had a nice story about a troubled artist that ended with it throwing doll heads at us. Observer led with a great story about hacking into people’s minds but threw in awkward stealth sections and the usual screen wobbliness. Then we get to Layers of Fear 2. A promising story about a method actor blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

Unfortunately, it gets rather too full of itself, making its story take a lot of confusing twists and turns, which makes it hard to figure out who’s who and what they’re doing. Symbolism is haphazardly thrown in so often that it becomes frustrating to try and decipher exactly what it’s saying. That’s when it’s not throwing mannequins at you, for no readily available reason. They literally fall down from above you. All of this leads it to be one unfortunately disappointing title.

The ‘Rate Your Server’ Award For Best And Worst Developer

Best - Hopoo Games

I do love a developer who actually listens to their fans. Hopoo have proved that they really have their ear to the ground with Risk of Rain 2. The Early Access title has gotten a number of updates since it first launched on the service. It’s constantly bringing out new characters and levels, as well as variations on existing ones. More than that though, are the quality of life updates. Risk of Rain 2 has a very vocal community and their changes and suggestions are clearly being looked at.

While it might not seem like too much to ask from a developer, not everyone does it and implements it in the same way that Hopoo does. For consistent updates and an actual sense of community, Hopoo definitely deserves this award.

Worst - Bethesda Softworks

Well, this is a two-year streak, Bethesda. I can’t wait to see how you’ll screw things up next year. For those with their heads in the sand, this award goes to Bethesda for the constant mishandling of Fallout 76, already a silly idea to begin with. I thought the whole thing about the canvas bags, leaked customer data and a weird battle royale mode was bad enough but then they brought in Fallout First.

A paid subscription for a game you’ve already paid for is bad enough. It’s rampant money grubbing and they’re not even bothering to hide it anymore. This subscription service, which is about £100 for a year by the way, gives you a few bits and bobs like a travelling tent and a box for your junk, as well as private servers. Certainly nothing to justify paying more money for a game you’ve already bought. For shame.

The ‘Golden Teapot’ Award For Best Game

Runner Up - Yakuza 0

Well, I said most of what I wanted to in the Best Action Award but here I’ll talk about Goro Majima. A suave ponytailed man, who’s desperate to get back into the Yakuza but instead goes on the run with a blind woman in tow. Throughout the game he carves out his own breed of Yakuza, using his own heat actions and skills. For example, one of his combat styles is breakdancing. Seems a bit less useful than the one that’s just about smashing people over the head with a baseball bat. You take these skills all around the streets of Kamurocho and Sotenbori, getting embroiled in a deep and violent story.

If you like crime games, with excellent combat systems, and don’t take things too seriously then you absolutely need to look into the Yakuza series. And Yakuza 0, to my mind, is the current King of the series.

Winner - Dead Cells

There have been very few games in my life where I’ve started them and immediately felt in awe. Sometimes you just know a game is exactly what you want and made perfectly. This year, Dead Cells was that game. A roguelike game with Metroidvania aspects set in a world that’s been torn apart by a sickness called ‘The Malaise’. Our hero wakes up in a prison- oh I should say our hero is a big ball of sentient goo stuffed into a dead body. Probably important, that. He then has to fight his way through the prison to find the king.

And boy is the fighting good. The combat is extremely tight, with little forgiveness for panicking. A single blow can carve off most of your health, particularly when you add in the ‘Boss Cells’, which function as an extended new game plus system. Add to that some fairly tight platforming, which doesn’t take the center stage, and you’ve got a game that’s as fun as it is frustrating. It has that beautiful quality where every death, and there will be many of those, feels like it’s your fault. That’s absolutely crucial for a roguelike.

It also doesn’t make or break on its items, with each weapon type following generally the same pattern. It’s a game entirely bent on player skill (or lack thereof). I honestly can’t sing Dead Cells praises enough. Everything, right down to the sombre score is brilliant. Absolutely deserving of the Golden Teapot.

The ‘Golden Accompanying Teaset’ Award For Best Game of the Decade

The Binding of Isaac

I had a good long think about this one. A decade is a long time, after all. Ten whole years. A whole lot of games released. With that in mind, I wanted to pick one that was not only a good game in its own right but one that mattered a lot to me personally. With that in mind, I landed on The Binding of Isaac. I think we can all agree it’s a good game, for one. Brutally hard and relentlessly imaginative and it has grown substantially since it was first released, with expansion packs and a remake in the form of Rebirth.

Personally though, it sparked off a love for a genre that’s remained strong to this day. The roguelike genre has been around for many years, of course, since, well, Rogue. But it seems to have picked up a lot more oomph this decade and I wonder how much influence The Binding of Isaac had over that. Certainly, it was pretty damn high profile, initially off the back of Super Meat Boy and then in its own right. It proved that a simple, repeating formula that had thousands of different combinations could be incredibly addictive.

It certainly got its hooks into me. I remember my first year of university, where steam was blocked by my hall’s internet meaning I didn’t have much else on my laptop to play. So I did run after run of The Binding of Isaac, until I could beat the bosses without much trouble. And even then I kept plugging away, trying to unlock everything. I did get the ‘Golden God’ achievement, until multiple expansions made that irrelevant. Ah well.

For the sheer fun and the influences on the roguelike genre, and for making me love the same, it absolutely is my best game of the decade.

Well that’s 2019 done. Personally, I’m hoping that 2020 will be a bit less chaotic in the personal life department. A bit less juggling of money and filling out endless forms and more lying on the sofa playing the games I love. Either way, I hope everyone had a good Christmas, or a good break, and a happy New Year. I hope you’ll join me in looking forward to what 2020 is going to bring. Brace yourselves, eh?

[odanurr87]

My thoughts on... Life is Strange

For someone who writes reviews on every book I read, game I played, or movie I watched (sometimes to the point of ludicrousness), it is rather ironical I have yet to write anything about a game that has, perhaps inexplicably, somehow found its way to my heart. People often say it’s easier to write about what you didn’t like than about what you did, and I suppose there’s some truth to that statement. Sometimes, it has to do with writing a piece that will do the subject justice, which is why I haven’t yet written anything on Legend of the Galactic Heroes, probably the best space-opera of all time and, without a doubt, my favourite anime bar none. This is not to say Life is Strange is a perfect game, a masterpiece of the videogame industry that will be heralded for decades to come. It’s not. Indeed, there are plenty of games out there that are better than Life is Strange in many respects: NieR:Automata has a better overall soundtrack; Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey has a more beautiful world; Yakuza 0 has more believable and gripping conversations; Detroit: Become Human pushes the choice-consequence system a lot further; etc. Yet, somehow, Life is Strange combines all these elements to deliver a unique gameplay experience that resonates with players in a way most games can only dream of, regardless of whether they’re a teenage girl interested in photography or not. Let’s explore this, shall we?

When I first watched the trailer for Life is Strange, I was cautiously optimistic, but regretted that DONTNOD wouldn’t follow up on their previous game, Remember Me, which, despite its flaws, I liked quite a bit. With LiS, DONTNOD seemed to be trying their hand at replicating the success of Telltale’s formula, a rather bold move at the time. I wasn’t sure how this story of a teenage girl able to time travel would fare, but I was curious to give it a try. There was something in the first teaser trailer that spoke to me, and I wanted to find out what it was. After playing the first episode, I knew: nostalgia. Life is Strange is a game that, despite its sometimes unusual dialogue choices, or perhaps because of it, manages to tap into our memories of those “better” times when we were kids or teenagers at school, spending time with our best friend, or simply dealing with the usual stuff one had to deal with in college. A key player in making this happen is the soundtrack, an ample selection of songs expertly chosen by the developers to amplify this feeling (so when I say NieR:Automata has a better soundtrack, that doesn’t mean this one’s bad ‘cause it’s pretty amazing). 

Of course, I realize if you were a teen when you played this game, more than nostalgia, this might have actually represented what you were going through at the time, and that’s a powerful connection in its own right. The game doesn’t shy away from dealing with real-world issues such as bullying, suicide, rape, or outright murder, what was surprising to find in a Western game (Japanese games deal with these on a daily basis), though its degree of success when tackling these issues is debatable. Having said that, you cannot imagine my relief when I managed to save Kate (on my own!) when my time-traveling powers failed me in Episode 2. I might’ve slightly panicked at the thought that the game had decided to strip me of my powers at such a crucial moment, but this choice made saving her life all the more important, as it put to the test how much I cared for this character. Did you take the time to explore Kate’s room and find out how much her family loves her? Did you risk angering Chloe to answer Kate’s phone call and reassure her? This was the first time in a long while of playing choice-consequence games where I was happy that my choices had had an actual, important, tangible, consequence, that allowed me to help someone I cared for.

One of the best moments of the series... if you save Kate, that is. Otherwise, it’s a punch in the gut.

However, Life is Strange would probably not have had the impact it had were it not for its main characters: Max Caulfield and Chloe Price, excellently voiced by Hannah Telle and Ashly Burch respectively, and their yin-yang relationship. Give it a try, take one of these out of the equation and you’ll see how much the game is lessened by it. Hannah Telle’s shy and introspective Max Caulfield would make for a poorer gameplay experience, if she did not have her brash and reckless counterpart in the form of Ashly Burch’s Chloe Price, and viceversa (though we saw a different pairing in Life is Strange: Before the Storm with Chloe and Rachel, but I’d argue it’s not as strong as Max and Chloe, perhaps because the former’s personalities are more alike than the latter’s). I must admit I didn’t very much like Chloe at first. She was overly aggressive and confrontative, at times taking her anger out on Max, who’s always a little unsure about herself but tries to help others when she can. Naturally, I felt very protective of Max, and yet this did not stop me from taking the heat for Chloe’s joint, or from performing more questionable deeds later in the game that certainly pushed Max out of her comfort zone. That is the essence of Chloe’s character, as her best-friend relationship with Max (and perhaps something more?) makes her uniquely suited to push our heroine to take risks she wouldn’t otherwise even consider. But there’s another element that helps out Max in this respect that I have yet to mention, and that’s the time-rewind mechanic.

With great power...

At the beginning of the game, Max witnesses Nathan (the school bully) shoot a girl in the girl’s bathroom and, reacting out of desperation, suddenly discovers she has the ability to rewind time a few minutes. This single event opens up a world of narrative possibilities for the game, at the same time distancing itself from Telltale’s formula of picking a dialogue option without having time to think it through: in Life is Strange, you have all the time in the world to choose a dialogue option. In fact, you can even rewind to see what the immediate outcome of the other choice would’ve been! In a way, Max now has the ability to say “damn the consequences,” if within a limited time frame. Like Chloe tells Max at one point, in her usual, brutally-direct, manner, “You can bang anyone with no strings attached, rewind time and boom, it’s like it never happened!” In fact, Max (and the player) can make use of this newfound power to unlock new dialogue options that allow her to forge stronger relationships with the people at Blackwell Academy and Arcadia Bay. Of course, you can also use it to screw over some of the people who make your life difficult, but that’s not Max Caulfield for me (and I’d argue it’s not even for Chloe, despite her insistence for Max to take risks and assert herself more).

With this final ingredient in place, Max is now ready to take chances, to be more self-assured, and to assist her BFF Chloe Price in solving the mystery of the disappearance of another Blackwell student (and possible rival for Chloe’s affection), Rachel Amber. Although, to be fair, the bulk of this investigation doesn’t take place until Episode 4, as the first episode introduces us to the world and characters, with the second and third episodes focusing on reconnecting and strengthening our bond with Chloe (moreso the third episode than the second one). After all, you did kind of leave her just as her father had died and had little to no contact with her afterwards (very odd of Max imho), so it’s understandable Chloe is hurt and mad at you, but also overjoyed at your return, and perhaps just as unsure as to how to deal with their relationship, but better at not letting it show. This bond is also fundamental to explain some of the choices Max makes throughout the game that are beyond your control. Indeed, Chloe’s experiences with death don’t end with Episode 1, they only begin there, and slowly start to spiral out of control, demanding increasingly tougher decisions from Max as the series progresses; a Max who wants to do right by her best friend and gradually becomes more adamant about not letting her go, no matter the cost. And thus we arrive at the conclusion.

Time to face the music.

The threat of a tornado that would destroy Arcadia Bay had been a looming presence throughout the series, but it’s in Episode 5 that this harsh reality is brought to bear on Max. As the effects of the approaching phenomenom start to show in town, Max has the chance to help a few people here and there thanks to her ability to rewind time, but a lingering question finally rears its ugly head: what if all this destruction is a direct result of Max playing with time? Furthermore, what if it’s tied to Max’s stubborness to refuse to let events run its course and let Chloe die? At first glance, these questions might seem similar but, in fact, they lead in completely opposite directions, resulting in the two endings the developers offered the players, perhaps unbeknownst to them. There is a video essay that perfectly describes this duality in the narrative, which you can find here, but I’m going to elaborate anyways.

As I said, it’s possible the developers didn’t do this strictly on purpose given how much longer and more elaborate one of the endings is as opposed to the other. Furthermore, Max’s final and most important choice is framed in terms of sacrificing A or B when, instead, I believe should’ve been phrased otherwise: after all you’ve been through, all you’ve seen, all you’ve done, and all you know, which is the question that rings truer to you, the first one or the second one? Is the tornado a direct result of you messing with time or is it a direct result of you messing with time to save Chloe? There is ample evidence to support both assertions (even if the game leans more heavily towards the second question), and it could be argued there’s even contradictory evidence in both, but I’ll let that slide. Do you choose to let go of your friend and love, time-travelling one last time to “set things right,” or do you choose to live with the consequences of your actions? The game chooses to frame your decision otherwise, in terms of sacrificing one life for the good of the many, letting Chloe die in order to save Arcadia Bay. Personally, I feel this is a less interesting question to ponder and one more than a little cliché at that, though I am reminded of this great exchange between Data and Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation:

DATA: “Would you choose one life over one thousand, sir?”

PICARD: “I refuse to let arithmetic decide questions like that.”

Still, sacrificing one life for the good of the many is really the obvious choice here, right?

I was in the 47% actually.

Or maybe not. The aptly-named final episode of Life is Strange proves the strength of Max and Chloe’s relationship, thanks in no small part to the writers, yes, but I’d argue the larger debt is owed to their voice actors, Hannah and Ashly, who were able to breathe life into these characters and make them their own, to the extent of making the player come to love them. This practically-even split was rather surprising at first, but less so when one considers that, whatever your choice, a huge portion of your playthrough will be invalidated. If you choose to “save Chloe,” then Arcadia Bay is probably done for, and all those people whose lives you just saved will likely end up dead anyway. On the other hand, if you choose to “save Arcadia Bay,” then your actions throughout the series will be erased in the blink of an eye, including any and all relationships you may have forged in the process. Worse, Chloe will have died alone, thinking her best friend had forgotten all about her. Thus, however you choose to frame this decision, it’s not a particularly easy one to make. Things have progressively gotten worse for Max and Arcadia Bay the more she time travels, but maybe one last jump will make everything right? Maybe she can repair the timeline, same as Barry Allen tried to do in the CW’s episode of Flashpoint. However, in that episode, Barry receives a stern talk-to from fellow speedster Jay Garrick, who advises him against trying to “fix” the timeline. As Jay says, “We’re not gods, we’re men. (...) The question you need to ask yourself is, what kind of hero you’re gonna be? Are you just gonna take a do-over every time you make a mistake, or will you live with them and move forward?” I’ll leave the clip for you to watch ‘cause it’s a good question to ponder, regardless of your choice.

Sadly, Life is Strange’s longer ending makes it abundantly clear that, as opposed to Barry, Max can fix the timeline if she time travels one last time. Letting Chloe die, letting her go, is the “right” decision, as the tornado is gone in that scenario and the town is saved. It’s a shame the writers didn’t at least craft an ending open to interpretation like in the Director’s Cut of 2012′s Total Recall. In Total Recall, starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, and Jessica Biel, among others, the director plays with the idea that the events that transpire are all taking place inside Farrell’s mind. At one point, the movie seems to negate this... only to bring it back to the fore at the very end, leaving it up to the viewer and Farrell to interpret as they see fit. What if something similar had been done with Life is Strange’s "right” ending, playing out exactly as it does, but suggesting that perhaps some strange meteorological phenomenon is still headed your way, in spite of your actions, and leaving it up to the player to interpret the signs as they see fit. This would be more in line with the two questions I brought up earlier: was saving Chloe time and again what caused this, or was it your constant meddling with time? Is the answer here to let go or to live with your mistakes?

Whatever the case, it is undeniable these two have caused quite an impact, so much so that a bonus farewell episode was included in the prequel game, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, developed by Deck Nine, and a comic series is being written by Emma Vieceli (and illustrated by Claudia Leonardi) to expand on the lesser-developed ending. Even an in-universe Blackwell guide (that I may or may not own) has been released, annotated by our favourite pirates. Thus, while a game like Before the Storm was still able to find success, despite featuring only one-half of this lovable duo (but including the farewell episode), I’d question whether or not this franchise can be successful beyond these two characters, an answer that Life is Strange 2 is, at the moment, trying to provide. However, regardless of the sequel’s success or failure, Life is Strange will remain, at least for my part, one of my absolute favourite games of all time, and Max and Chloe have earned a special place in my heart. Sure, your heart will be broken and put together more times than Jay Garrick’s cup by the game’s end, and you will find yourself trying to stop the tears more often than not, but Life is Strange will also make you smile, reminisce, and maybe even fall in love with its characters. 

Such is life...

... and it can be a little strange. ;-)

[bmaxwell]

Top games of 2019

For much of the year I thought I might have a hard time building a solid list of 10 games. As it turned out, I could have made a top 20 without much trouble. So it was a good year for games, but maybe there weren’t many 10/10 classics for me. I did have BT’s, BB’s, and even a BD-1 though!

First up, my Old Game of Year: Yakuza 0

The dichotomy between Yakuza 0′s melodramatic main story and its silly tongue-in-cheek side missions made the game an absolute joy to play. One minute you’re dealing with warring Yakuza factions and torn loyalties, and the next you’re doing minigames like karaoke, bowling, RC car racing, and darts, and then you’re helping a dominatrix find her confidence or helping a human statue sneak away from his post to go take a much-needed shit. All throughout you’re also beating the shit out of legions of street thugs and yakuza dudes using kicks, punches, bats, bicycles, salt shakers, teapots, and whatever else is handy. I fell in love with this game in a way I very much did not expect.

Also good ”old” games:  World of Final Fantasy, Ni No Kuni 2, Steamworld Heist, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir

Best Music: Death Stranding

The game’s score is good, but the licensed music was key in some of Death Stranding’s best moments. The above song starts playing during your first journey in the game, and the tone is just spot-on perfect. Death Stranding works for me in a similar way that American Truck Simulator works for me. When you’re barely surviving a long trek, and a peaceful, melancholy song starts playing just as you reach the top of the hill and finally see your destination? Just perfect.

Also excellent music: Sayonara Wild Hearts

Most disappointing: Control

Well, I got fucking Alan Wake’d by Remedy again. Fantastic atmosphere and setting for a game, cocked up by repetitive, boring combat. So much about Control is so very good. I love the mystery of the janitor and the main character, the Twilight Zone/X-Files vibe of the agency and the Oldest House. The game’s architecture is arresting, and the writing is excellent. 

But for me it was undone by the combat which quickly became a tedious, thing I had to Get Through to see more of the good stuff, and the more challenging fights became something I just didn’t want to engage with anymore. The checkpoint system and maps weren’t helpful, and I received too many optional side quests that I couldn’t complete because I hadn’t found the necessary traversal power yet. I loved so much about the game, but the moment to moment playing of the game was frequently not fun for me.

Ultimately it felt like a game that did not respect my time. The game desperately needed an Easy setting so I could just blow through the bits that I didn’t like. Like Alan Wake, I expect to be pulled back into it and then bounce off again at least two more times. 

And now, the games that were in the running for the top 10 but missed the cut:

Dicey Dungeons:

You roll dice and spend them to activate equipment, gaining more equipment as you go. It’s a close cousin to deckbuilding games, but a little lighter and more forgiving. Slotting dice into cards feels good though. The variety in characters and cards help give this game good replay value. Give me randomized cards/gear, and characters to unlock in a run-based game and I’m a happy guy.

Judgment:

Yakuza minus Kiryu and Majima, with some investigation minigames thrown in. It’s pretty good! Most of the new detective minigames feel like they get in the way (tailing people is just silly, taking photos doesn’t work great). I never really felt strongly compelled to stick with it though. I miss the charm of Kiryu and the grime of 80′s Kamurocho. It’s an excellent game I might have enjoyed more if I hadn’t played Yakuza first.

Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Everybuddy!:

This port of a Nintendo Wii roguelike is one that I missed in its original incarnation. It’s got the “I move - all the enemies move” turn-based gameplay that I love, and classes to unlock. All of this is very much my shit. It’s goofy the way that Final Fantasy games are, and the design feels older than it is (I thought it was a PS2 port before I looked it up). But hey - give me stuff to unlock and the old “I move - you move” gameplay and, again, I’m a happy guy.

Ring Fit Adventure

This game is getting me to exercise just about every day. It’s not a great video game (nor should it try to be) but as a workout tool it’s wonderful for someone like me who has trouble finding the time and motivation to go out of the house and exercise.

Untitled Goose Game

You are a winged angel of chaos in this joyous little game. I found the gameplay itself to be pretty shallow and lacking, but it’s a wonderful sandbox to play in. Tormenting people is great fun, and the way the goose animates is just perfect.

Table of Tales: The Crooked Crown

This was the PSVR game that stood out the most for me this year. It’s a tactical RPG complete with a DM that narrates everything, tiles to move your characters around on, and card-based combat. It’s a charming game and I hope they make more. 

Luigi’s Mansion 3

This was my first game in the series, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It’s a charming game, and the variety from floor to floor. I could forgive the wonky control scheme, but I think there’s just a low ceiling on how much a cutesy, family-friendly Nintendo title can resonate with me these days.

Dragon Quest Builders 2

Dragon Quest and Minecraft had a baby. This was my favorite game of the year for turning my brain off and checking things off a list. I’m not sure Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a Great Game, but it’s wonderful gaming comfort food for a Dragon Quest fan.

Void Bastards

Void Bastards might be this year’s Dead Cells - a run based game that never quite hooked me, but I’ll keep coming back to it. The developers really did a lot without a lot of variety in the way of art assets. It’s a satisfying, often funny shooter (admittedly not my jam). What a terrific name though.

Steamworld Quest

The Steamworld series is an impressive, weird thing. I’ve never seen a series change genres like this; they started with Steamworld Dig (Metroidvania) then made Heist (a tactical combat game) then another Dig, and finally this year they released Steamworld Quest - a deckbuilding RPG. Customization and unlockables are among my favorite gaming buzzwords, and they’re here in spades.

Sayonara Wild Hearts

More of a visual companion set to a pop album than a conventional game. This is for me what Rez was for a lot of folks. Most stages are autorunners where you’re collecting hearts, dodging obstacles, shooting giant wolves, and fighting lesbians while racing atop motorcycles. It’s a story about love, heartbreak, and finding yourself, told through music and images. Nice to have a game that feels like it was made specifically for marginalized folks.

10. Concrete Genie

Concrete Genie’s best trait is its earnestness - an increasingly rare thing in 2019. It’s about an artistic being pursued by bullies in a run-down town. He finds a magic brush that lets him paint friendly monsters into life and also paint magical landscape scenes onto buildings in an effort to bring life back to the town.

The themes of the game and how they’re handled feel a little after school special to me, but the game has a lot of heart. And the gameplay loop of creating monsters, painting buildings, and unlocking new types of things to paint never got old because it’s so damned beautiful. And you have a lot of room to be creative with how you paint. The game is not challenging, and I think the experience is better for it. There is some light platforming, puzzling, and combat, but none of it ever got frustrating. A wholesome game like this was a very welcome thing this year.

9. Indivisible

Indivisible is a odd mashup of platformer, RPG, and fighting game that blends those well enough that I can't easily put it into any one box. For me, it’s the closest to a fighting game I’ve played in probably 20 years. It has launchers and finishers and timed blocks. You collect a big old army of people you can swap in and out, the writing is smart. The platforming parts are the weakest part of the game, as some of the jumping challenges can feel uneven, and there’s a lot of “I see what I have to do, now I just need to try over and over until I execute”

The setting (Asian mythology as a backdrop) and combat felt unique enough to keep me going, and the game has a charm and personality. I like how the main character is a well-intended fuck up that has to atone for her mistakes, somewhat reminiscent of Mae from Night in the Woods.

8. Children of Morta

This is an action RPG with character progression where you are playing members of a family. The gameplay is solid, and the game drip feeds story and character interaction between runs. It’s a well-narrated and charming thing. The writing can be funny and often touching. There are story bits like the uncle crafting a pair of daggers for Kevin, who falls in love with them. Mary - his mother - takes them away for being too dangerous, and she doesn’t want her boy putting himself at risk helped me feel invested in the characters and story more than most ARPG’s.

The movement and combat feel snappy, and there are plenty of skills to unlock so you always feel like progress was made even when a run falls short. There are plenty of little secrets and tchotchkes to find in the dungeons, and between runs you can see the family members doing their own thing in the house where they live together. It’s a refreshing take on the action RPG genre.

7.  Outer Worlds

I remember when The Outer Worlds was announced at The Game Awards. None of this checks any boxes for me: sci-fi setting, shooting, wacky characters. You can make your character DUMB and get special dialogue choices! Humor in game very rarely works for me, and this sounded like it was going to be that jaded, shitty Rockstar brand of humor. Hard pass from me.

Enter Xbox Game Pass. The Outer Wilds Worlds started getting positive word of mouth and it was included with Game Pass, so I figured I may as well give it a go. I encountered something I didn’t expect: really terrific writing.

I turned the difficulty down to its lowest settings and mowed through the game, savoring the tongue-in-cheek dialogue in a world where corporations own literally everything. The first character you meet is hiding out in a cave because he’s been wounded. Not too wounded to give you the company’s sales pitch though! It’s not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice.

The whole “corporations are in charge” bleak humor hits more than it misses, but the real star of the show is your companions. They are generally convincing and feel like real, fleshed out characters and not simple tropes. Each companion character gets their own interesting set of side quests (except for the dumb boring robot companion). My first companion Parvati’s story revolved around mustering the courage to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman. They wrote Parvati as an asexual character, and it felt natural and not forced - not an easy task. 

It leans into being a dumb video game in all the right ways and made me care about the characters more than the story. The story’s cynicism wore thin eventually, but the game ended at just about the right time and didn’t overstay its welcome.

6. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Jedi Fallen Order lies at the intersection of 2 things I admire more than enjoy: Star Wars and Souls-likes. It’s also EA doing their best to show that they can release a AAA Star Wars game with no microtransactions after the tire fire that was Star Wars Battlefront II. This game is an excellent make-good for EA, though I’m sure it’s more “We had to do this to restore consumer trust in us” than any real change of heart.

This game, at the time of this writing on a base PS4 anyhow, has some jank. Textures would often pop in after a second or two, I had a Stormtrooper get stuck in place like a statue, and I had a couple of hard crashes. Despite all of that, I kept coming back to the game every night until it was finished. And it impressed me enough to put an EA Star Wars game in my top 10. You win, universe. The combat was a good balance of fun shit like force-pushing dude off a cliff and tense one-on-one battle where parries and dodges are needed to get by.

The game’s story is what kept me wanting to see what was next. It’s a game set in the Star Wars universe with the confidence to resist reminding you of the characters and places you know from the films, and it’s better for it. I found myself invested in the fates of the characters. While the main character is more or less a blank cipher for the player, he’s still a better protagonist than Anakin Skywalker because I didn’t actively dislike him.

5. Bloodstained 

New games succeeding as remakes or homages with goofy videogame-ass videogame stuff was sure a theme this year. Bloodstained is so ridiculous in so many ways. A lady asked me to bring her a specific piece of armor to honor one of the fallen villagers. When I did so, she tearfully thanked me then gave me 3 pizzas as a reward. The paintings on the walls will often come to life and attack you; those paintings are all portraits of people who backed the game on Kickstarter. One of the enemies resembles a giant house cat, another is a giant domestic dog. NPC’s repeat the same dialogue, such as a quest giver named Lindsay who says “Kill those murderers DEAD!” every time you speak to her. 

And there is a metric ton of shit to find, collect, and craft. Most of the gear you equip looks goofy as hell. And the more new skills and gear you unlock, the more overpowered and broken you feel. The dialogue is corny as hell and plays things straight, which is the only way a screwball game like this actually works. The combat feels good. Experimenting with the powers and systems is a blast, and uncovering the map and secrets is satisfying. 

4. Fire Emblem 3 Houses

- Despite being extremely my kind of shit on the surface, I’ve never done more than dabble with a Fire Emblem game. When I heard people invoking Persona and Harry Potter. I mean, a strategy RPG with relationship stories set in a school environment checks too many of my boxes to ignore.

What surprised me with the game is how much I came to really know the students in my house.* I felt like I knew Bernadetta, Dorothea, Ferdinand, Edelgard, and all the others. Alternating between exploring the school grounds, choosing lesson plans, having tea with a student, and leading them into battle was a nice way to mix up the experience. Training them in skills based on which character class you wanted to promote them to was a nice touch. 

3. Death Stranding

Death Stranding has all of the batshittery it was rumored to have: Norman Reedus hiking around with a baby in a jar, poo grenades, tar squids, and people with names like Die Hardman, Mama, and Fragile. Kojima has about as much subtlety as David Cage with the metaphors and themes of the game. Cell phones latch onto you like handcuffs, and Likes are much sought after to the point where people are addicted to them. The game is all about reuniting America and forging connections. You play as a man named Sam. He’s a porter who works for the Bridges company. His name is Sam Porter Bridges.

Sam is playing a major role in reconnecting the country by hand delivering packages from city to city as well as reconnecting the country up to wifi. Continuing with the games themes, Sam has a touch phobia. It’s a game about isolation and introspection, and about the need for connection with one another. Hideo Kojima makes for damn certain that you know that when you play the game. It’s a little like David Cage, but with less cringe and more weirdness. 

It’s an introspective game full of small moments. Sam curling up under a structure that another player has built, exhausted and cradling his jar baby as a melancholy song plays is the kind of moment that doesn’t play well in a demo or a video, and won’t resonate with everyone. Those of us it does work for, however, are in love with the experience. It takes the hard-to-describe appeal of a game like American Truck Simulator and adds a decidedly human element to it. There is comfort to motion and travel. We like to be rocked, or transported in a vehicle as babies. It’s the simple comfort of motion, and a way to connect to our world. There’s something to that.

I love seeing this level of ambition and weirdness from a major AAA release. 

2.  Disco Elysium

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

I thought of Dr Gonzo of Hunter S Thompson fame early and often while playing Disco Elysium. It’s an easy connection to make; you wake up face down on the floor of a demolished hotel room. You have a wicked hangover, wearing nothing but your undies. Your necktie whirls around the ceiling, attached to the ceiling fan.

I got sloppily dressed and staggered out my door, where I was confronted by an attractive woman in the hall. Some primal part of my character thinks it’s a good idea to ask her to fuck; you crudely do so, and it goes the way you might expect. I was fresh off of playing The Outer Worlds, so I was used to any dialogue prompt associated with a skill being automatically a positive thing. As it turns out, your character gets all sorts of a impulses that aren’t always in your best interests. This first interaction put me off a little bit, I don’t want to play a game that’s trying to be cool and edgy. As it turns out, this isn’t really that.

In Disco Elysium, you play as a cop sent to sort out a murder where a body was found hanging in a tree behind this hotel. Seems that, after 3 days, you’ve managed to run up a hotel bill that you can’t pay for, frighten the patrons by threatening to shoot yourself in the head in the hotel before you lose your badge and your gun. Another cop is sent to assist you since you’ve accomplished exactly nil after 3 days. He’s from another precinct and doesn’t know you, so you haven’t burned up all of your goodwill with him yet (unlike everyone else in your life).

At a glance, it’s a Baldur’s Gate-style isometric RPG with a modern setting. In practice, it’s a lot more than that. First off, the game has no combat. Or rather, no conventional combat. Any physical encounters (which were exceedingly rare in my play) are handled through dialogue choices determined by how you’ve built out your skills. And the way the game manifests your skills is smart and feels organic, not forced.

The skills aren’t the usual RPG fare. There are 24 of them, consisting of stuff like Visual Calculus, volition, Pain Threshold, and Shivers. As you might have guessed, 24 skills in a game with no conventional combat means there is a LOT of writing in this game and just as much variance from one play to the other. My detective was a highly emotionally sensitive guy, able to pick up on what folks may be hiding, very in-tune with the cosmos, and deeply introspective (upsettingly so?).

It’s a detective RPG with a healthy dose of political intrigue, class warfare, and nihilism. Disco Elysium feels like an actual adult game, and not in the “look at all this violence and titties” sense. The best comparison I have is Planescape Torment.

1. Resident Evil 2

- What a complete game. This was my first Resident Evil game and I am in love with it. The game drops you into a hostile environment that slowly transitions from a horror show with danger around every corner to feeling like a space that was very much mine. Creeping around an unfamiliar environment in the dark with a flashlight and limited ammunition, as it turns out, is fun as hell. 

The combat is slow and deliberate in a way that made the action feel satisfying and not cheap; when I did encounter enemies that moved quickly and suddenly, it got my heart rate going. And my arc with Mr X from pure terror to minor annoyance to acceptance as part of this undead infested police station I call home felt pretty special. 

He is an indestructible character that follows you endlessly like the Terminator. You’re faster, but he is relentless. Hearing his heavy footsteps somewhere in the vicinity was a nice atmospheric touch. I had a couple of instances where I was running from something, turned a corner and collided with this 8 foot tall beast.

Resident Evil 2 is just the ideal dose of scariness, and gets all the dumb videogame-y parts exactly right. It feels like a Metroidvania, a world filled with locks and keys where the secrets are drip-fed to the player. Creeping through an unfamiliar area with only 2 shotgun shells and 5 pistol rounds left was a deliciously tense experience, one that other games rarely give me.

The game’s second playthrough felt a lot more different from the first than I’d feared. I’ve never really played another Resident Evil game, and I’ve never had any interest in horror games. And now here I am anxiously awaiting next year’s RE3 remake. 

*Black Eagles, baby!

[teaandgames]

Too Many Sidequests

Of late, I’ve been juggling games that have been quite heavy on the side-content - which makes them a right slog to finish when you’ve only got a few hours a day to game. It’s hard to care about people’s worries when it’s eleven at night and you’ve got work the next day. Tell it to a hero’s who not busy climbing into his pajamas. Anyhow, back on topic, the two games I have in mind are Yakuza 0 (which I did manage to muddle through) and the Dragon Age: Inquisition. It’s also important here to differentiate between side-quests and side-content.

I’ll try and explain the difference here and talk a little about what each of the above games does right and what it does wrong. As much as I love Dragon Age: Inquisition so far, it does a lot of things wrong when it comes to its side content. Before I delve into that though, let me lay out my definition of what constitutes a side quest. First, it should come from either a person or something that can be linked back to a person. So either an NPC gives it to you or you find a note, corpse, what have you. It’s given to you by someone, even that if someone has decided to stop breathing. It’s not just a random flag on a rooftop that sparks off a list.

Secondly, there must be a fixed objective. From finding seventeen bear skins to actively toppling a bandit regime, there has to be something to do. Lastly, there has to be a pay off at the end of it. Usually a straight reward, though that is often turned on its head. That’s the bare skeleton of a quest but it’s not exactly what makes it a good one. See, side quests are generally there to help the player explore the land and learn more about it. They don’t have to be particularly lore heavy but they need some grain of interest in them or it begins to taint the land around you. Either that, or they need to fundamentally change the gameplay in a way to make the experience unique.

The Dragon Age players out there may already realise that I’m starting to talk about the Hinterlands, one of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s hubs that already seems like it's far bigger than it needs to be. I understand that’s a common complaint and, to be honest, I already see it - despite that fact that I’ve only just started playing. Every time I complete a side quest, I end up gathering around three more and they’re all chaff. They fit that skeleton above, but have no real significance to them. For example, a bloke wants me to collect a potion for his wife. I collect the potion. End quest.

It’s dull, adds nothing significant lore or gameplay wise and the journey there isn’t interesting either. It’s the classic MMO problem, where dull quests are meant to disguise the levelling. Funnily enough, I don’t play MMOs. The Hinterlands is beautiful but there’s little to do there and the Inquisition really doesn’t have the time to sightsee. It becomes a little tedious to trudge through, watching your journal get fatter and fatter with quests that you don’t really care about. There’s lots of good writing in that game but it hasn’t really filtered down into the side quests.

Too many side quests is an odd thing to complain about, mind. It’s like complaining that your dinner plate is too full. Yes, I’m grateful that I have so much food. But I’m not gonna eat all that. Side quests are probably the best way to get XP though, so in order to keep your muscles up, you kind of have to grind through them. That’s why the low-effort quests are a problem. It’s just boring. But enough beating a dead horse, let’s try and extract what a good quest looks like from this whole thing.

Yakuza 0, then. An odd game to bring up, given I spent a chunk of the review bemoaning how the side content didn’t fit. Even though it doesn’t fit, though, it’s good. The quests tend to try and add some personal element into it, or change things in ways. I’m reminded of the time that Kiryu had to deliver a pizza to someone in a short time frame, for example. These quests often result in decent rewards too. Firstly in cash and then later in advisors, managers and hostesses. The quests are fun and they actively change things for the better, it’s good stuff.

Every side quest is going to be a divergence from the main plot, a station on the road to the end. So it needs to be entertaining, otherwise it’s just a stumbling block. Dragon Age Origins and 2 had some good side quests to them, which usually furthered the understanding of the Dalish, say. Yakuza 0 uses its side quests to further its characterisation. That’s what makes a good side quest, when it’s more than just busywork. Dragon Age: Inquisition has a good world and a promising story, but its side quests just aren’t connecting with that. Maybe they’ll link it in the end but somehow, I doubt it.