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lowkeyclueless5137 · 2 years ago

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Heard of Puppeter (PS3)? If not, well the summary is(pulled this from Wikipedia) “The story occurs in a concave world representing Earth's Moon, inhabited by pseudo-folkloric characters: the first half on the dark side of the Moon, and the second half on the Earthward side. Its premise states that the world's ruler, the Moon Goddess, was overthrown by her subordinate, Little Bear, when the latter seized her 'Black Moonstone' and the magic scissor-set 'Calibrus', and declared himself 'Moon Bear King'. Throughout the game, each of his twelve generals (the animals of the Chinese zodiac) has set part of the moon-world in disorder: each holding a portion of the Goddess' 'White Moonstone.’ The player-character 'Kutaro' is one of many children whose souls were spirited away from Earth in their sleep and changed into animated wooden puppets to be enslaved in the King's mobile fortress, Castle Grizzlestein. After having his head pulled off and his soul devoured by the Moon Bear King, Kutaro is found in the dungeons by the Goddess's cat, Ying Yang, who leads him to his current mistress, the Moon Witch Ezma Potts. Potts, who is secretly planning overthrow the Moon Bear King herself, orders Kutaro to sneak into the throne room and capture the magic pair of scissors Calibrus. This weapon allows Kutaro to dispel the King's magic and defeat his puppets to release the souls within, allowing them to escape back to Earth. When the Witch demands the scissors, they adhere to Kutaro, and she allows him to use Calibrus to oppose the twelve generals. During the defeat of the first (General Tiger), Kutaro rescues Pikarina, Princess of the Sun, whom the Moon Bear King had captured. Under Potts' guidance, Kutaro and Pikarina venture to the various realms of the moon, to vanquish each general in turn: the Moonwood Forest guarded by Rat and Snake, the Moonshine Sea patrolled by Pig and Sheep, the Wild Wastes trampled by Bull and Horse, Hallowee-Ville controlled by Dog and Monkey, and the Land of Time conquered by Rabbit and Rooster, ultimately facing off against Dragon. When the White Moonstone is re-assembled, Potts revealed to be as the Moon Goddess as she transforms back; but is instantly trapped by the Moon Bear King, and must be rescued by Kutaro. Propelled thereto by a cannon, Kutaro and Pikarina disable Castle Grizzlestein and reduce the Moon Bear King to his former shape of Little Bear, who surrenders the Black Moonstone in exchange for Kutaro's friendship, and restores Kutaro's head. All the twelve Generals are resurrected and converted from evil to good; and Kutaro, accompanied by Calibrus and Ying Yang, returns to Earth.” So the very reason I brought this up is cause uhhh, you think you can make it AU for twst here?

Hmmm... As per see... I have a hard time understanding this... But it lowkey reminds me of that Sonic and king Arthur game, so at best, I tried to cook out an Au that is inspired by the 2.

Bear with me anon... I'm dumb :'3

Say a moon kingdom... But since we are dealing with the afterlife motifs, I say something else: a kingdom that can be manually accessed only from the moon, otherwise with the help of magical scissors called keys. These scissors were made out of a special metal called Starlight platinum, which made them all the more powerful, for they have to be infused with pure light moon energy in order to function as a gateway in between the moon kingdom and the earth.

Now... What is Light moon energy? (LME for short) It's pure energy that the moon lands generate over the souls that have made peace with their death, as such, their afterlife is short lived if not bearly a few seconds as they can fully rest and their energy to become distant stars.

It's opposite force, meant to have balance, it's the Dark moon energy (DME for short) that is cultivated on the dark side of the moon, where vengeful spirits and those filled by dark/evil thoughts are punished until they get destroyed. As such, it's a very volatile energy, which can quickly consume the poor of will. LME is it's only cure, but at the same time, both are on same power level as long as they are in balance.

Now, who's living in this place? Well... Moon people and creatures alike. They all depend on the moon energy balance, as such they can do some small magic, enough to help them with their day to day life.

But it all seemed to change once the 'dark era' began. An overtake of DME, overtaking by force the lighted side of the moon. As such there was an imbalance and less stars seem to be born, despite peaceful spirits coming in like they did all these years ago.

But! We need to meet our protagonist after all~ :3

We are following Malleus, a pretty normal guy... He's a bit introverted, a bookworm and is absolutely mesmerising until he opens his mouth and spurs his undying love towards gargoyles. :'3

One day, he is involved in an accident, where he manages to survive, but Sebek, Lilia and Silver don't. That's tho, when strange things happen.

One guy with fire hair and all clocked in darkness came up and declared that Malleus should have died, since his 'clock' stopped ticking. But another guy started fighting the first one. Of course, not wanting to fucking die, Malleus helps out the 2nd guy and as such he is whisked away to the moon kingdom, helping the said guy that saved him, who also explains that the one who wanted to kill him was Idia, one of the 6 moon generals, right hands of the evil Dark moon emperor. To instaurate a 'propaganda' of balance, 3 of the generals (Riddle, Vil and Kalim) are LME bearers, while the rest (Idia, Leona and Azul) are DME bearers. They regin over their assigned districts of the kingdom and since they came to power, there was an unbearable regime.

And as such, Malleus is guided by his misterious helper, uncovering the moon ring. An aincent weapon that is meant to wield both LME and DME, as such the ring was only entrusted to royalty and/or legendary heroes. The ring can transform into various weapons and also it gives Malleus the immunity of not having your life slowly sucked away, as here only the moon people and souls could live. Humans die after a while if not protected by a charm or in this case: the ring. (basically pretty lil outfits for each district)

As such, Malleus begins his adventure, in hopes that he could bring justice and also help Silver, Lilia and Sebek to pass away peacefully.

Now! I really thought about it from a video-game perspective, which tbh, it would be a fun game.

At base, it would have pretty simple mechanics, walk around, interact with the locals of each district(levels) and solve a puzzle that will take you to the district ruler(the boss of each level).

The levels, in question are as follows:

Artsristua district

A district for beauty and fine arts, where souls who dealt in their past life with problems regarding their image are taught how to accept their inner beauty and pass away without a worry. Definitely the easiest to access district, with Malleus's task being to mingle into the backstage staff of Vil, the district leader's show. As such Malleus has to wonder and talk with a lot of people or find sum stuff in order to please everyone and gain himself a spot inside.

Vil's boss fights is more of the tutorial, the tutorial itself being introduced via hunged signboards that our misterious helper is showing to us via the lighting bridge above the stage. Vil's gimmick, despite being a tutorial boss, is a bit tricky. You have to listen to his boss fight music in order to see when he attacks. At first, you might be tempted to attack the singers, but if you do, you allow Vil to have blind spots, in which he can attack you by surprise. The tutorial also says that, as such there's only 1 blind spot when Vil can choose weather to attack or not.

Fantasy district

A place where souls of children venture and pass away happily after they have one more successful playtime. The district itself looks like a mad land, where logic is abruptly left aside. In here, Malleus has to play 3 minigames in order to entertain the children and gain the attention of Riddle, the ruler. Those 3 games are: A game of freeze tag, hide and seek and a life-size magic chess. Once Malleus meets Riddle, his boss fight commences if Malleus makes him angry. Which is pretty easy. :'3

As for the fight itself, Riddle's has 2 stages: Stage 1, where he retains his flowery appearance and only summons 4 guards to protect him: Deuce and Ace, who work as the first pair. Ace defends while Deuce attacks and they switch in between. To defeat them, you have to knock out the attacker and inflict damage on them. As such they are forced to switch until one takes the finishing blow and both have to retreat. Next is Trey and Cater, who have the same gimmick, but more difficult. Stage 2 is when Riddle actually reveals his true colors and you have an epic swordfight with his true form, a fire monster, all in the middle of a ring of flames. Riddle would summon obstacles for Malleus, but alas, once he's dizzy, you can inflict quite a lot of damage in 1 hit.

Seaborne district

More like the very wierd district, which is underwater. Malleus has to get a mer potion, which he steals from Riddle, as such, he gets to explore the underwater kingdom. It's pretty easy to see Azul's grotto, the district leader, but after seeing him and realising his intentions, despite Malleus never getting a peek about who's he's dealing with, Azul puts his henchmen, Jade and Floyd to individually fight Malleus. If he defeats them, Azul will get mad and finally get out of his grotto, revealing that he is a gigantic octopus mer.

As for his boss fight, Azul attacks from multiple sides and also has the foul habit of punching in void with his tentacles. The gimmick is to dodge him until you find a piece of teary eye coral, which you can throw in his face and make him cry, thus vulnerable enough so you can land a few hits.

An important note is that after Azul's fight, he begs of Malleus, telling him that he's doing a big mistake, that he is doing the dirty work of someone else and that he shouldn't defeat them, for they lose their powers and leave the capital castle, where the ruler of the whole kingdom is, defenseless.

Malleus, rightfully is taken aback by this sudden, desperate, approach, but the misterious helper wasn't with him in here, yet they warned that Azul was sly and 2 faced. So he takes it with a grain of salt, saying the he shouldn't trust him. Surprisingly, Azul admits that he is not to be trusted, that he always wanted to gain something out of his deals, but now, now he is so desperate, to the point he gives to Malleus his shell pendant, his sign of status, telling Malleus that the shell is a protective pendant. And it will protect Malleus on his journey. Again, Azul begs of him that it was still not too late to give up on this, but ultimately he lets Malleus go, despite still being very capable to put out another fight.

Sunrise district

A district full of rabid and aggressive spirits, this district is rough and you had to be tough and show no mercy if you wanted to crawl alive out of it. In here, Malleus has to steal different uniforms of police grades via ambushing the people in question. This is how he comes to see face to face with the 2nd puzzle, Ruggie and Jack. In order for Jack to let you pass, you had to bring him something that proves the grade of uniform you have on. As for Ruggie? He doesn't wanna make an extra walk so he asks to find for him a deluxe meat sandwich. Once you gain both of them's approval, you finally meet Leona. :3

And Leona is a very tricky boss. He uses sand to make copies of himself, put obstacles in between him and Malleus and inflict immense amounts of damage via heavy attacks. He, tho, has a weak spot only when he is casting those heavy attacks, so you have to make sure you have a clear way to attack him when he does that.

Unlike Azul, where there it wasn't Malleus's helper so he talked to Malleus directly, Leona straight out addresses to the helper, ignoring Malleus, berating it for choosing such an idiot to do the dirty work. Malleus is taken aback, but Leona charges up a last power attack, which Malleus parrays and Leona ends up unconscious, unable to disclose anything anymore.

You see, that's also when Malleus's doubts start to form.

Manosi district

The richest district, full of luxury from left to right. In here, Malleus surprisingly is welcomed with open arms by the ruler, Kalim, who kindly invites him over for diner. Malleus's puzzle in here was mostly to keep a nice appearance and make the right hand of the ruler, Jamil, to trust him.

Except that the boss battle is Jamil himself, who wants to protect Kalim from the danger that Malleus poses. As such, we get a very epic fight against basilisk Jamil. The trick to defeating him is by defeating Kalim.

Even after the defeat tho, Kalim is accepting his defeat graciously and tells Malleus that he welcomed him because he saw Azul's pendant and knew that Azul put his trust in Malleus making the right decision.

Ceasornic district

In here we re-meet Idia, as this district is only ruled by machines, the tall middle tower being where Idia is residing. In order to reach Idia, Malleus had to make his way through various puzzles and disarm machineries. He also finds Idia in the middle of what one would call a ceremony ritual, him looming over a piedestal with a small pocket watch on it. The watch was ticking and Idia was mumbling how it still had long to go, even so, he couldn't possibly handle the moment it stops. When Malleus comes, Idia halts and immediately tells Malleus that he has an offer for him: He has the souls of Silver, Lilia and Sebek. They died pre-maturely, so Idia came to take care of them until their clocks would've finally stopped and they were ready to pass on. But, Idia could also do various things with those souls, including reincarnating them.

That's when the battle starts, with Idia keeping his distance from Malleus. In here, Malleus has 4 different stages: stage 1 where Malleus gets to retrieve Sebek's watch, stage 2, where he retrieves Silver's, stage 3,where he gets Lilia's and stage 4, where he gets the 4th watch, the one Idia initially holded on the piedestal.

This fight ends with Idia absolutely desperate to retrieve the 4th watch, as that one was of an actual living human. Malleus didn't have any right to tamper with lives of others, neither did Idia. He reveals that he can summon the watches and could only watch them. There are rules in this place. Rules that are meant so that no one could play god. And right now, Idia accuses Malleus that he is a mere human, one who thinks he has every right to waltz inside and fiddle with the balance of everything. But still, if what the other leaders told him was right, maybe Malleus was simply just a pawn. He begs for the 4th watch, as it's everything he wants. He offers to give Malleus his power he offers everything, just give him the watch.

Taken aback, Malleus looks at the 4th watch, noticing that on the side it was engraved a name: Ortho Shroud. He knew the boy. It was a middle school kid that would always come to the library when Malleus happened to also be there. He didn't knew too much, but he wanted to give up the watch, as it wasn't needed.

But Malleus's 'helper', tho, tells Malleus that Idia is lying and bluffing so he would show mercy. As such, they insist on Malleus destroying the watch.

Malleus tho, keeps the watch in his pocket, along with Lilia's, Sebek's and Silver's. And tells Idia that once he is finished with saving this place, he will return the watch back. Idia yells at him that he is not saving anything, that he's a mindless puppet that listens to that monster, but the 'helper' shuts Idia up with a spell.

In the end, we get to the palace, where, surprisingly, no emperor was there. Malleus is confused, but that's when the 'helper' reveals their true colors, as the dark overlord, who needed a human that cheats death in order to harness the power of the moon ring and gain access to the throne.

Basically Malleus did the bidding of the actual dark emperor he initially swore to defeat. The emperor wanted to destroy Malleus, now that they got to the peak of their power, but Azul's shell pendant protects him, cracking up and crumbling apart from the immense power.

Only now realising the actual situation, Malleus sets to make his record straight and fix his mistake, by taking on the dark emperor and using all the power and knowledge he had gained through this adventure.

In the end, the dark emperor is defeated and the generals are given back their powers. When meeting again with Malleus, they are glad that finally, the threat of the dark emperor doesn't hang upon their kingdom anymore. As such, with the moon ring still on his finger, Malleus was almost crowned king, but he denies. He wanted Lilia, silver and Sebek back. That's why he got involved in this mumbo-jumbo in the first place.

But his wish cannot come true. As the 3 watches stopped ticking, meaning the 3 souls came in peace and passed away. Malleus is devastated, but in the end, Kalim is the one that gives him his pair of scissors, telling Malleus that he deserves to live, for their sake. To make them proud by becoming the best version of himself. He tells Malleus that the scissors are now his, so that he could visit them anytime. The ring also was his and they hope that one day, Malleus will raise to be the hero he, himself, wanted to be.

In the end, Idia is the one that guides Malleus back, the latter returning Ortho's watch along with the other 3. But Idia denies the other 3, telling to Malleus that he should keep them, as a reminder for what he strives to be and who he wants to make proud.

In the end, Malleus is back to his normal life and he's happy with it... :3

#twisted wonderland #asks :3

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wozman23 · 6 months ago

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2024 Games of the Year and Most Anticipated

This year I finished 49 games, 46 of which were first time playthroughs. Here are my favorite 10, along with a few that slipped through the cracks previous years:

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1) ASTRO BOT 10/10

ASTRO BOT was my most anticipated AAA game since the day it was announced. I loved the character when he was introduced via PlayStation VR demos. The full VR game, ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission, was my GOTY back when it released. And ASTRO’s Playroom was one of my favorites from 2020.

One of my favorite plaformers of all time was the underappreciated Puppeteer that released late in the PS3 cycle. It was one of the last great games to come from Japan Studio. While I knew based on its abysmal commercial success that it would probably never get a sequel, I’d always hoped Sony would give that team another shot. Instead, they shuttered the bulk of Japan Studio, leaving only Team Asobi after they’d shown promise with the ASTRO BOT products. Team Asobi did absorb some of the former talent from Japan Studio. And I’d like to believe some of the creatives who worked on Puppeteer found work on ASTRO BOT. It shares a lot of the same design elements, and has the same amount of heart. Both were terrifically whimsical games that stood out due to incredible level design, boss designs, level themes and unique mechanics. In ASTRO BOT’s case, the power ups really stand out. They all felt really unique, carefully crafted, and dictated level designs that played to their strengths. It’s wild that the mouse power up was created and used in just one level. That’s a lot of hard work for one level, and I really appreciate when a developer devotes resources into perfecting something that may not even get that much screen time. They really gave the game a great amount of variety. ASTRO BOT also doubled down on referencing franchises from the past, and continued to incorporate PlayStation’s hardware and history right into its story. Hunting down every single bot was a joy, especially when they were the one’s I loved the most like Ratchet, Sly, or Kutaro. Although with the cases of Sly or Kutaro, or the absence of a Chimera from Resistance, there is a bittersweet feeling knowing those IPs are pretty much dead. Other third party representation were an unexpected surprise. When I found Amaterasu my jaw dropped. The highlights had to be the levels themed around Sony’s other IPs, like the God of War, Uncharted and Horizon levels. Prior to release I had just reupped on PlayStation Plus, and I finally went with the top tier, opening up a bunch of PlayStation classics that I’d never played. One of the franchises I played was LocoRoco, so playing that themed level with the games fresh in my mind made it so much better. Afterwards, I decided to play Ape Escape. I still log back in every time they update the game with a new level. And I will as long as they do. I really haven’t played a Nintendo game that I’ve enjoyed in a very long time. But when Puppeteer came out, I praised it as the most Nintendo-y game not on a Nintendo. ASTRO BOT is no different. I also applaud it for being a budget title with a 10-15 hour playtime. While the blockbuster games like The Last of Us Part II and massive open world RPGs are great, I really miss when AAA games were smaller and could come out every two years instead of three to four times the wait time.

The Game Awards was pretty great all around in terms of recognition and announcements. I'm really glad ASTRO BOT got the love it deserved with the GOTY win and multiple other awards. We need more games like this!

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2) Pepper Grinder 10/10

Pepper Grinder was my most anticipated indie. I’d been following it for what felt like forever after seeing it on Twitter. For a time, during the pandemic, I thought it might never see the light of day, as the developer took some personal time off. It was a joy. As expected, the traversal mechanic was brilliant as drilling was just so satisfying. The level designs were great, and the attention to detail with the pixel art and animation really brought the world to life. The evolution of mechanics and the way that hazards upped the stakes made for a really well crafted experience. My only complaint was that the game was short. It was definitely quality over quantity. But I’d rather that be the case than the opposite. And considering it came from a small indie developer over the course of what will perhaps (hopefully) be the strangest years of our lives, I’m just happy it exists.

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3) Minishoot’ Adventures 9/10

At one point this year, I had a lull in my gaming. I don’t often turn to my Steam wishlist, but I’d heard good things about this release, and I did enjoy the demo when I tried it a few years back. So I picked this one up. This game was comfortably familiar, with a layout like the original Legend of Zelda – still my favorite entry in the series – and a great mix of metroidvania exploration, twin stick SHMUP mechanics, and some bullet hell. It also had a great sense of progression thanks to the consistent upgrades. I wouldn’t necessarily say it did anything unique or mindblowing, but it took all those elements, wrapped them up in a nice package, and resulting in something that was very enjoyable to play, even when it teetered away from the relaxing exploration and toward the tense, bullet hell bosses.

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4) Sheepy: A Short Adventure 9/10

This was another indie I found thanks to Twitter. And it was completely free. But when it released, by PC just got stuck on a blank screen. No solution was ever found. But the hard drive on my ten year old PC gave up the ghost in late October. And once I got my new PC up and running, Sheepy was the first game I turned to. It was a charming little hour long experience. The pixel art, the sound, the atmosphere – all great. I’m curious to see if something more comes from it. If so, I’ll probably throw some money its way.

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5) Seuna’s Saga: Hellblade II 9/10

I’ve loved Ninja Theory for quite some time. I’ve played most of their games, but think that love really started after Enslaved. Back when the original Hellblade released, I even made the official topic on NeoGAF. It was great. So great that I really didn’t want a sequel. The story about mental health felt like it didn’t need to continue. Senua’s character arc was complete. But once the sequel was announce, I knew I’d play it regardless. All the same strengths are here: excellent binaural audio, really clever puzzle mechanics that mirror mental health disorders, industry leading motion capture, and another terrific performance from Melina Juergens – whose Cinderella story of being a lowly Ninja Theory employee with no acting experience who was asked to stand in as Senua after an actress dropped out to becoming a multi-award winning, respected actress is really inspirational. I’m still not sure we needed a sequel, but it was great, and blazed a different trail than the original. The giants were downright creepy. The boss battles merged audio and visuals in some cool ways. And the water sections did an excellent job of creating anxiety, which mirrored the game and character’s moods well. I stream all games from the current Xbox generation via the cloud on my Xbox One. I assume the visuals are probably taking a hit. But even through streaming, the games look gorgeous. Watching the time lapse shots where the camera would pan was always majestically beautiful. For me the most standout moment happened after the game ended, as the credits rolled, and I was introduced to the lovely, haunting beautiful, cathartic song “Animal Soul” from AURORA. Ever since last year’s GOTY, Alan Wake II, released, with its beautifully haunting melodies, I’ve craved more of this weird, electro-pop-ish stuff. And this was right in that same vein.

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6) Animal Well 9/10

PlayStation Plus sometimes hands out a great free game. This was the one this year. The pixel art really created a great atmosphere. The world and the enemies felt tense and oppressive. The metroidvania-like world was a lot of fun to explore. And each unconventional unlockable abilities and mechanics made traversal and puzzles really unique interesting. This reminded me a lot of Fez or Tunic in the way it presents a fairly straight-forward game in the beginning, but you somewhat quickly figure out there’s so much more mystery in the world. I resorted to the internet to help me platinum it to sort out some of the more obscure paths and puzzles along the way, and there were still things I didn’t complete 100%. But I went into this one with almost zero expectations and left very impressed.

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7) Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown 9/10

I loved Ubisoft Montpellier – but mainly when they were led by Michel Ancel and released the great Rayman games and Beyond Good & Evil. And I loved the original Prince of Persia trilogy, along with the often criticized 2010 entry, The Forgotten Sands. This isn’t the first Prince of Persia reboot. The 2008 entry did nothing for me, mainly because it got rid of the iconic time rewinding mechanic to avoid death. While this game was much better than that one, I still miss the time rewinding mechanic as a means to get through puzzle challenges. This game was pretty paint by the numbers in terms of designing a metroidvania. As the large world opened up, and new abilities were gained, there were a lot of great challenges on the way toward unlocking the platinum here as well. But overall it didn’t really do anything super unique or move the genre forward in any way. Still, if there’s a mainstream metroidvania to experience this year, this is easily the one. Kinda wish it was a 3rd Rayman UbiArt game though, or what should be the real Beyond God & Evil sequel instead of that abomination that’s stuck in development hell and will probably never see the light of day – just as I expected the second it was announced.

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8) Indiana Jones and the Great Circle 8.5/10

MachineGames really love Nazis. We’ve fought them time and time again in Wolfenstein. And now we fight them as Indy. I’ve actually never seen any of the Indiana Jones movies. But they’re so ingrained in pop culture that I know a bit about them. Because of that I probably wouldn’t have given this game a look. But it was free for Game Pass members, so why not?! It does remind me a lot of Uncharted, which is a bit like the mythical ouroboros, since without Indy, Uncharted would have never been made. Naughty Dog clearly looked to Indy when they designed Uncharted. And MachineGames and every other developer, has looked to Naughty Dog’s games when they’ve designed games since Uncharted and The Last of Us’ successes. With cloud streaming I do very occasionally get some odd refreshing/screen tearing things that show up. But for the most part, games feel great to play through the cloud. There were some uncanny valley moments here with characters and animations that made it feel inferior to something like the latest and greatest Naughty Dog game. And the boat controls were sometimes frustrating. But the real hero here was the world. I particularly liked the Egypt level, as it’s one of the only places on this earth that really fascinates me. There were some big set pieces, and action packed moments. But I really loved when I could let the game breath and just explore the world to hunt down the upgrade books, and medicine bottles, and artifacts. I think they nailed a good balance between main quests and side quests. I think my playthrough took around 40 hours – however the last 2-3 were spent stubbornly trying to sort out the last, complex relic puzzle, which unbeknownst to me couldn’t be completed before the endgame since I was missing one relic. Much like Indy grabbing his hat, I just got this one in before the door slams shut on 2024, beating it last night, on the eve of my trip back home. Maybe I’ll go back to collect all the notes for 100% completion next year. Or maybe I’ll give the movies a look...

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9) Neva 8/10

In anticipation of Neva, I went back and played the studios last game, Gris. I remember enjoy it even though at the time I was working two jobs and often tired when gaming. It still held up. It was beautiful. Neva really never matched that for me. It was a pleasant sidescroller with a hand painted art style and a lovely story. But it neva... neva really did much in terms of gameplay. And I kind of prefer the clean, distinct visual style of Gris compared to the more fuzzy paint daubs.

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10) Flock 8/10

Flock was the indie Game Pass surprise for me. Developer Richard Hogg has been on my radar since sometime before 2014 thank to anticipating the weird, artsy Hohokum. He’s got a distinct style, and it’s a lot of Hohokum is present in Flock. The world was bright and full of vivid colors. The creatures and world were all outlandishly alien. It was really a refreshing, relaxing experience that I enjoyed even when it got a big grindy to hunt down the few final achievements. Correctly guessing which group each creature belonged to was a bit of a gamble, but there wasn’t any penalty for wrong guesses. I was more interested in just tracking them all down, then adding them to my flock as we cruised across the world as a colorful streak.

Honorable Mentions (that originally released in previous years):

Looper 10/10 – a cool, free, little minimalist indie on itch.io that explores a screen wrap mechanic

Dave the Diver 9/10 – it got a bit long in the tooth by the end, but the pixel art presentation was superb and funn, and it really nailed the juxtaposition between the beauty of the sea, and the terrors that lurk within it

Cult of the Lamb 9/10 – an enjoyable roguelike with a lot to upgrade, many animals to collect, and a fun mix of the silly occult stuff and general silliness

The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo 9/10 - I've never seen anything hand animated to this level of quality. The game was short, and the old-school point and click nature led to some frustration in one instance. But the animation was just so damn good!

Alan Wake II DLC 8/10 – I wanted and hoped for so much more, but I’ll never have enough from Remedy!

Quantum Break 10/10 - When it came out, I thought it was pretty average. But in the post-Alan Wake II universe, where more threads have been connected to the Remedy Connected Universe, I found myself fascinated by it this time. Is Tim Jack? Will he reunite with his redhead love? Is Hatch Door? Where is the Alan/Zane counterpart? Give me answers, Sam! No give me more stuff that only makes me ask more questions, Sam. I kinda like that more.

Unplayed with potential:

Black Myth: Wukong

Lego Horizon Adventures

Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure

Slider (a cool looking, free, little indie I found a few days ago on someone else’s GOTY list)

And probably some other indie surprises...

Most Anticipated:

1) Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet – It’s Naughty Dog. Nothing more needs to be said. But more will be. From the second the trailer started, I was like, “Is this Naughty Dog… it looks like the quality of Naught Dog...ooooh a Sony branded jukebox. This is Naughty Dog right?! Boom, Naughty Dog. I’m not particularly a fan of the outer space, sci-fi settings that we see in so many games. But the 80’s vibes here are pretty cool. And the small glimpse of gameplay looks promising. And the cherry on top: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are scoring it! I haven’t followed Trent as much these days, since there hasn’t been much NIN content. But this, and new NIN content both have me re-interested.

2) South of Midnight – I still kinda want to keep this at number 1. Let’s call it 1B. I’ve been seeing more clips of it on Twitter, and it looks amazing. I can’t wait to explore this Cajun world.

3) THRASHER – THUMPER was my jam. I haven’t looked into how this has been received on VR, but I can’t wait for a console release.

4) Screenbound – All four of these games could be #1. This looks really unique. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever played, somewhat akin to Toodee & Topdee, or Velocity 2X in the way it mixes 2D and 3D. The Plucky Squire disappointed in that realm this year. Here’s to hoping Screenbound can join the ranks of the GOTY quality 2D and 3D games.

5) Sword of the Sea – The atmosphere of Journey, with the fluid traversal of Tony Hawk. I really want to see more of this one!

6) Ghost of Yotei – It’s more Ghost from Sucker Punch. I expect an insanely gorgeous world that I want to explore every nook and cranny of.

7) Marvel’s Wolverine – When will we see more on this one? I love the X-Men far more than Spider-Man, so I’m curious to see what Insomniac does with this one.

8) REANIMA – Let’s all be honest. This is the real Little Nightmares III.

9) Split Fiction – Josef Fares is insane. It Takes Two did some really cool stuff when it came to asynchronous gameplay. I expect no less here.

10) Project Robot from Fumito Ueda – I know barely anything, but I’m still super hyped. Shadow of the Colossus is a generational great. The Last Guardian was enjoyable enough. Let’s hope for another generational great. The atmosphere is clearly there.

11) Control 2 – MORE REMEDY NOW!!! AND GIVE ME SOME ALAN WAKE LORE!!!

12) Hades II – I tend to favor new IPs over sequels, and Supergiant has a rich history of creating beautiful IPs, but Hades was so good, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

13) Öooo – this could easily be my small, indie gem of the year. ElecHead was really enjoyable, so I trust NamaTakahashi. And I love platformers where the character has to find ways to traverse without the ability to jump.

14) FBC: Firebreak – SEE MY COMMENT ON CONTROL 2!!!

15) Judas – Who knows what’s happening with a new Bioshock. But this could easily tide us over.

16) Little Nightmares III – I’m still going to give this one a look based on the IP alone, but handing it to a different developer doesn’t bode well.

17) The Midnight Walk – I’ve loved Zoink! Games since their start. And this one is coming from the same people who worked on many of their games, as if it wasn’t immediately apparent based on the twisted, macabre style.

18) The Eternal Life of Goldman – This looks like a great sidescroller with some quality art and beautiful animation. It looks like a Disney cartoon or Cuphead or Hollow Knight. And I’m always looking for the latest and greatest game with that cartoon-y art style.

19) UVSU – I’ve already mentioned Toodee & Topdee. This is the next game from that developer. It’s a simple concept where you have to complete the level, then stop your replay from completing the level, then find another way to complete the level while avoiding the you who just stopped the last you. The demo was great, and I’m curious to see how much they can iterate on the concept.

20) IKARO: Will Not Die – I’ve also already mentioned Velocity. Since Velocity 2X, I’ve just wanted more. I wasn’t completely impressed with this trailer, and the studio head left FuturLab, but the fact that it’s Velocity’s spiritual successor is enough alone.

#Youtube

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