Games I played this year that were from this year:
Super Smash Bros 3DS / WiiU - The 3DS is little more than an appetizer for the WiiU game. Its got a few things I dislike about it (like, not being able to turn off the bosses, and a few missed opportunities with the stages/character roster) but its so much better than Brawl its not even funny. Also while other companies seem more than ever to cut content and release it as DLC/IAP, Sakurai keeps on packing the game with stuff. The soundtrack alone is enough to make this my game of the year.
*My game of the year*
Theatrhythm: Curtain Call - Its a bit grindy to unlock all the characters, but the amount of songs is enough to make an FF music fanboy like me swoon.
*The Himumu Final Fantasy Fan award*
Mario Kart 8 - I like it much better than the Wii one, it seems way more balanced. My girlfriend doesn't like it as much, since I am better at this than her (while she is better on the Wii one).
*The racing game of the year award*
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F2 - While it has some great songs (Luka Luka Night Fever!), the difficulty balance feels a bit off... the leap between Easy and Normal mode is far greater than in any of the other Diva games, and the linked star notes is a flawed gimmick, since the speed of the notes doesn't seem to match the tempo of the song.
*Waifu of the year award*
Shovel Knight - So many indie games try their best to mimic the games of yore, but so few get it right. Shovel Knight is probably the best indie since Cave Story. A lot of indies just use their retro graphics as a crutch because the artists couldn't afford shiny fancy shader-mapped polygonal graphics or whatnot, but Shovel Knight's environments and characters have lots of charm, in their detailed animations. The difficulty level is just right, without resorting to tons of cheap deaths masked by millions of checkpoints, or being babby difficulty.
*Indie of the year award*
Lightning Returns - OK, the soundtrack is fantastic, but the game itself was probably my least favorite of the XIII trilogy. I hate hate hate time limits in RPGs, even more so in open world RPGs with a lot of sidequests and a world I want to take my time exploring... of course, by the end of the game once you know what enemies to kill to give you lots of CP this is moot... but at the beginning, it was very nerve-wracking. Didn't care for the battle system, which felt like a half-baked Valkyrie Profile. And thought the graphics were very poor, especially considering how nice the original XIII looked.
*tri-Ace pays the bills award*
Bayonetta 2 - Only played half of it so far, but really liked what I've played... seems like more of the same, but with the fat trimmed... which isn't a bad thing at all. I wasn't at all a fan of W101 or Metal Gear Rising but this proves Platinum still has it in 'em.
*Platinum still has it award*
South Park: The Stick Of Truth - First off, I'm a big fan of the show... But when I started playing the game, it was kinda boring... the plot seemed like a pisstake of all those boring "Elves and Humans Race War" plots typical of western RPGs... but then the game finally started with the absolutely ridiculous and hysterical humor the show is known for and I really warmed up to it... a few parts in particular I had to put down the controller because I was laughing so hard. And I loved the Canada area. Gameplay balance is completely out of whack... most encounters were finished in one or two rounds and by just doing all the quests I maxed my level some 2/3 of the way through the game. Also, the fart controls are awkward and the "tutorals" for them don't even reflect how you do a fart in the game.
*Comedy game of the year award*
Bravely Default - Oh man, I was absolutely in love with this game... an oldskool turn-based RPG with the Job System and lots of side quests, how could you go wrong? Well, Chapters 5-8, that's what. Really bummed me out and made finishing the game a chore... but up until that point it was fucking great.
*Bipolar game of the year award*
Other games I've played this year, from previous years:
Suikoden III - I played this for about 10 hours years upon years ago, but couldn't get into it... this year I decided I wanted to play through all the Suikoden and Wild Arms games, so I picked it back up and played through it. It's a long-ass game but I feel it was worth it... really liked seeing the story unfold from 3 different perspectives, although I did not like the amount of backtracking you had to do through the same dungeons / fields over and over... not to mention you don't get the ability to quick-travel for a long while into the game. It has its flaws and I don't like it as much as 1 or 2 but its lightyears better than...
Suikoden IV - Just beat this game yesterday. The final boss (the only encounter that actually posed a challenge) was the only thing I liked about it, along with some of the music. Story feels inconsequential, graphics are sooooo bland and grey, nearly every battle could be won just by auto-battling. The theme - getting a ship and decking it out with 108 crew members, meeting pirates and stuff - has so much potential that ended up being squandered, and before you know it the game was over. Most "dungeons" were either a straight line that made FFXIII's areas look like Phantasy Star 2, and the islands you visit (of which there may be about 6 in the game) are small, few-screen affairs.
Gravity Rush - Only played about halfway through this game. The theme is awesome, love the art style, love moving through air... but the controls take some time to get used to, and the camera is nauseating at points. Would love to see a sequel that tightens up the camera and controls.
Guacamelee - One of the better indie Metroidvanias... A great theme, nice music, and even some challenging platforming segments! But I didn't like the reliance on changing your characters 'polarity' between light and dark, or having to do different attacks to break the enemies' shields... that got old quickly. Also, your character's hitstun seems to go on for a little too long.
Ys IV: Memories of Celceta - An awesome game, with a surprisingly huge and open world for a Ys game. But between this and Ys 7, I'm feeling that the series is becoming a tad bogged down in padding... while the earlier Ys games excelled at being stripped-down, almost 'arcadey' takes on the action RPG, this game is starting to get feature creep... multiple characters with their own equipment to manage, their own skills to grind... and grinding for loot drops / crafting makes an appearance. Loot and crafting seems to be infecting every single game with even the slightest relation to the RPG lately, its fine on occasion but not in every goddamn game. I do think I prefer the original Dawn of Ys on PC Engine CD to this one, though.
Ys V: The Sand City Of Kefin - Within the last year, this game finally got a long-awaited fan translation. And (aside from Memories of Celceta) remained the only Ys I've never played. Its considered a dark horse of the series, and I can see why. It feels much more like a generic SNES action RPG than a Ys game... in everything from the more muted color palette (game still has nice graphics), to being the first top-down Ys where you can swing your sword with a button press. The game is very short (like, 6-7 hours or so) and the story only starts to pick up way at the end. A decent game but pretty forgettable in terms of the Ys series.
Castlevania: Order of Eccelsia - For a long time, the only Metroidvania I never played. This one is a lot less Metroid, a lot more Vania, than any of the post-Rondo entries in the series. The areas are small with fewer secrets, but the enemy encounters are more tightly designed and you can't take a lot of damage before you die. The highlight of the game is one of the awesome bonus dungeons, which is chock-full of traps and requires a lot of platforming skill to complete. Probably the second-best Metroidvania behind SOTN.
Metal Gear Rising - I just couldn't grasp the parry system in any way, shape or form. So that hindered enjoyment of the game...
Gone Home - Yeah, indie walking simulators just aren't for me. Thankfully, the "game" didn't last very long. I'm liberal and I support gay rights and all that but the whole lesbian coming out storyline didn't do anything for me. I'm glad games like this exist, but I need gameplay in my games.
Neugier - Obscure SFAM action RPG made by Wolf Team. This being produced by Masaking of Star Ocean fame meant I had to play, when I read about in Hardcore Gaming 101. Haven't played too much but it seems like a quick, breezy 16-bit action RPG, divided up into stages instead of being more open-ended. With really poor music... imagine the most generic but most blatant SNES music and you have this game's soundtrack. There's an English translation I'm gonna play soon.
Faxanadu - I started playing this again, for the first time since I borrowed it from a friend in elementary school. Haven't beaten it yet, but yeah its an interesting Zelda 2-ish game. Made by Falcom and one of their billion Dragon Slayer spinoffs. Your sword range kinda sucks and the game is fairly punishing in the way old NES games can be, but I'm still compelled to finish.
GTA5 - Only put in a bit of time to this, seems much better than 4, but your character still feels like he's moving through water. Mirrorball radio station = the hotness, its nice to see an indie dance/nu-disco station in a game.
Last of Us -
from what I've played.
Wild Arms XF - One of the hardest strategy RPGs I've ever played. The game relies almost all in the planning stages of battle, where you need to have the optimal class loadout to survive. And every battle has a different gimmick that makes use of different classes. Took me a long while to get the hang of it, but once I did I made progress pretty rapidly. The game is long as hell too... but the story kept me interested, music was classic WA.
*Favorite old game I've played this year*
Wild Arms 2 - The weakest of the WA games I've played so far (1, 2, 3, 4, and XF). The game moves from the gorgeous 2D of the original to Xenogears-style polygons with a rotating camera. The storyline is pretty generic, and the translation got progressively worse until it became illegible. Which sucks when a few of your puzzles rely on riddles (I had to look up the answers at gamefaqs because the clues made no sense whatsoever). Most battles were really easy, up until near the end of the game. Still, it was a long game with a lot of sidequests and it was competent enough.
Wild Arms 4 - While the first 3 WA games didn't really shuffle things up much, being more orthodox RPGs, this game throws all sorts of unique gameplay paradigms at you. It's an RPG with 2D and 3D platforming elements, the ability to slow down time, and a hex-based battle system that's very unique and presents several very interesting encounters (especially in the arena). Status ailments / buffs are on a hex-by-hex basis, and you can move several characters into one hex at a time. Unfortunately, the game is absolute cake (the character Raquel is mad OP), and you can no longer shut out random encounters like in WA 2 and 3, until you either solve a puzzle near the end of the dungeon, or defeat a strong enemy at the final save point in the dungeon. Story is silly with all the "Adults are so stubborn! I don't wanna be an adult! You're one of the good adults!", and I wish it had a traditional world map and wasn't so linear/lacking in sidequests (something the WA series was always good with). But yeah this was a very nice surprise, a game I feel deserves more love.
*Biggest surprise of the year award*
