6. Nioh 2

I’ve said enough about Nioh 2 over the last two years that all I’m going to say is that I put another thousand hours into the game in 2022. It’s my comfort game and it will probably continue to be even with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty being a thing that exists.

5. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Stranger of Paradise would have been a contender for my Game of the Year if it had been built out difficulty wise the way Nioh was. The game plays incredibly from start to finish and has something even Nioh 2 lacks: zero unsatisfying boss fights. Every fight in the game feels fantastic and rewarding and kept me coming back for more for a good amount of time. Nioh 2, for as much as I love it, has a couple of boss fights that I think are just plain hot garbage. SoP has none. You combine that with the fact that the music is fantastic, the level variety is good, and the difficulty is challenging but fair. Even Tiamat, the hardest fight in the game, feels fair once you figure it out. However, the DLC roll-out kept it from topping the list and actively turned me off to the game as a whole. You see, they advertised the game as having an easy story difficulty for people new to the genre and it was great, it helped me get a lot of friends into the game who then bought the DLC excited for more story only to find out that it was locked behind not just the hardest difficulty, but after an entire playthrough of that difficulty. So if you were just in it for the story, the DLC was untouchable for anyone who had no urge to touch the Chaos difficulty.

4. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

I am pretty open about the fact that I didn’t enjoy Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I might have if I had started with another one of the houses, but starting with the Crimson Flower route soured the entire experience for me and led it to being one of my least favorite stories in years. Three Hopes fixes all of that. Pretty much every single issue I had with the writing of Three Houses feels like it was addressed in a Warriors game of all things. The writing from start to finish of every route grips you and holds on. It’s a damn solid game that I had a blast with throughout the year. It also helps that it’s one of the best Musou games to come out in a long time. The first Fire Emblem Warriors I felt struggled balancing the Fire Emblem stuff with the Warriors gameplay but this time around they nailed it perfectly.

3. Xenoblade Chronicles 3

What can be said that hasn’t already been talked about by everyone? Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was 130 hours of perfection making my way to 100% of the content. Every side quest, every main quest, every little thing built one of the most incredible worlds I’ve ever experienced in a game. I’ve loved this series throughout its entire history, from Xenogears all the way here, and I can tell you, this is the first time I’ve finished one of these newer ones and wanted to just replay it rather than run back to Xenoblade Chronicles X. Everything from the music to the gameplay is flawless. It honestly is one of the best game experiences I’ve had in a long time and the only reason it’s here and not at the top is because of the emotional connection I had with the games in front of it.

2. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

This was a surprise that came out of nowhere. An Eiyuden Chronicles sprite- based action RPG prequel!. With a fun battle system and a story setting up the world, of course it’s one of my favorite things this year! The combat consists of 3 buttons, each assigned to one of your 3 characters who can swap in and out and combo with good timing. The game is meant to be a time waster before the main release, so most of the sidequests, of which there are a ton, are extremely grindy. But once you unlock the hard difficulty, the combat becomes incredibly rewarding and deep. The initial playthrough is accessible for everyone and sets up a world and characters that I am dying to revisit.

Game of the Year: Harvestella

Have you ever played a game demo that completely turned you off a game you would normally be interested in? That happened to me with Harvestella, it took everything you would get from a bad farm life sim game and doubled down in every way. A timer that moved way too fast, villagers with no personality or names, combat that felt a little bit dull; I had no intention of ever playing it. Cue a couple weeks after release and I start hearing how it’s a fantastic game with a great story, and that they addressed some of the issues with the demo, and eventually it was enough to push past my trepidation and wow, am I glad I did. 

Every single issue that I had with the demo was addressed, and as soon as I finished the first in-game week, I was hooked. Everything about the game was accessible and deep and the story had me hooked from start to finish. And don’t even get me started on the sidequests. At first, every town you step into has everyone as just some nameless person. You step into that first town and see that only two characters have names and character portraits, so you guess you are supposed to care about them and no one else. Then side quests start unlocking, and suddenly characters start getting names, personalities, and their own stories that are sometimes sad, sometimes funny, but always fascinating. It’s very much the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 formula where there is incredible writing scattered everywhere that fleshes out the world and the people in it.

The gameplay is also great, the combat has a job system that is varied and deep, with each job playing significantly different from the others. Eventually you find favorites, for me it was the Sage with floating blades of murderous light that turned me into a buzzsaw of death. The farming is also nice and relaxing, if you want to plant every single spot in your field, you can get it done by noon of your in- game day. It’s there mostly as a way to make money more than anything else. In similar games like Rune Factory, farming is still the main focus, however here, with it more on the story, they simplify the daily chores to things that can be finished quickly and easily with an infinite watering wand and things of that nature. You have one tool that does everything and it makes the process incredibly streamlined rather than having you scrambling for your water bucket. 

It’s the chillness of it that makes it work. When I wasn’t streaming, I just spent hours farming and grinding in dungeons for materials, entire days doing nothing but fishing. It was just what I needed during a really stressful stretch of time and that is what eventually set it apart enough to make it my Game of the Year.

The post Lorelai’s Final Fantasy XIV Free Top 6 Games of 2022 appeared first on Gamesline.

Tommy Tallarico had a bit of a meltdown online, Skyward Sword HD will get some quality of life updates, Ghosts of Tsushima‘s director’s cut costs way too much, and so do the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, Bloober Team is unfortunately making the new Silent Hill, and AI: Somnium Files is getting a sequel!

As always, you can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @VGChooChoo, @john_michonski, @mavsplaniamania, and @erikamiaou.

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As always, you can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @VGChooChoo, @john_michonski, @mavsplaniamania, and @horngal

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The post VGCC Episode 362: STILL GOT IT BABY!!!! appeared first on Gamesline.

We dig into all the big news stories of the week with a Riot Games guy going completely off the rails in taking down a fan project, Konami making a funny joke in saying they are getting back into games and then pulling out of E3, Toys for Bob being brought into the Call of Duty fold, Yoshinori Ono joining the team at Delightworks, and the Noid returning to come for the automated vehicles delivering your deliciously mediocre pizza’s.

As always you can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @VGChooChoo, @john_michonski, @jugdgementscythe and on instagram @fataleflare

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at videogamechoochoo.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

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The post VGCC Episode 356: Should We Still Avoid the Noid? appeared first on Gamesline.

I did not think I would end up liking this game after the beta came out. I played the beta and utterly loathed it, probably because I was trying to play it like an anime fighter. Once I got my head around the fact that it has the pacing of a Street Fighter rather than a Guilty Gear, I actually found myself having a damn good time with the game. New characters came and went and I kept coming back for more grappler action with Ladiva, easily my favorite grappler in fighting games. At least until an update broke the way she worked, making her near unplayable and leaving me scrambling to find a new main before settling on Percival. The game is great, well balanced, and had some interesting ideas with it’s strange single player gatcha beat ‘em up and it’s one button press specials that kept bringing me and my less fighting game inclined friends back for more. If it hadn’t been for the Ladiva breaking balance change, it would have been much higher on my list.

9. Pixel Puzzle Makeout League

I thought for sure this spot would be Murder By Numbers, another great Picross puzzler, but once I played Pixel Puzzle Makeout League, it soared to my top games of 2020. It does a phenomenal job of building images and using the puzzles to tell a story through easily recognizable images as they built out. Its ending is also one of my favorite things this year and worth the time investment to get there. Seriously though, I implore you to ignore the game’s bad title and play through this absolute gem if only to experience some of the wild places it goes.

8. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing is a series I’ve always tried to connect with and until this one, I failed every time. I thought once again I’d drop it after a week of boredom and go back to Rune Factory or Stardew Valley. Maybe it was the pandemic, or maybe it was being in the right space to enjoy it but this time around I lasted for months. I’m less consistent checking in on my island these days, but for a solid half a year I put in the work and finally found the fun that people have with this series.

7. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

I was really skeptical of Valhalla as the PR campaign went on and on about what were my least favorite parts of Assassin’s Creed in the past. Odyssey was great, but going in hard on the combat system was not its strong point. For the first time in the new series style, the moment to moment combat all felt good. I actually enjoyed running into a place, two broadswords in my hands, swinging wildly and cutting everything in my path down. It was a fantastic time with some great writing and incredibly cool moments that I needed after the complete travesty that was Watch Dogs: Legion.

For those of you who haven’t played it yet, here is a suggestion: when you are asked what gender you want to be, let the Animus choose for you. It’s a choice that actively improves the story they are telling and makes the game better as a whole. Do it, I know you want to play as a female Eivor because she’s a hell of a lot more interesting, but that’s the thing, you will. So let the Animus choose for you. I know you have your preference, I know I did, but trust me when I say that it’s an option worth taking

6. Final Fantasy VII: Remake

Final Fantasy VII: Remake did the impossible for me: it made me interested in what’s coming next after the crew leaves Midgar. It’s weird how the changes they made are straight out of the Father’s Day episode of Doctor Who and yet they have me chomping at the bit for more. Everything about FFVII:R worked for me, from the way they adapted the ATB system to the fantastic characterizations and overall writing. Having just started coming into my own in my queerness, the part that scared me the most, because of its poor handling in the original FFVII, ended up feeling empowering. I love this game through and through, and I really need to sit down again soon to finish off that platinum with my good friend Chadley.

5. Sakura Wars

First, Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan is the greatest theme song in video games, don’t argue with me I will fight you. Second, they didn’t fuck up their child character and make it the most uncomfortable thing in the world. That’s a first for the franchise and it’s the first time that I can go “hey, you should play this game” without the MASSIVE caveat that it’s kinda super creepy with children. They combined my two of my favorite things in the world, Sakura Wars and Dynasty Warriors, and I would much rather play a mediocre Dynasty Warriors than a mediocre strategy game. And, uh… let’s maybe not talk about how much time I spent playing the Koi-Koi Wars Hanafuda mini-game.

4. Hades

I didn’t think I’d care for Hades but enough people I care about loved it, so I jumped in and sucked at it. It took me 74 times to get my first clear, and yet I still kept coming back. I wanted more; more juicy writing, more tight gameplay, and more time for my girlfriend to watch the screen and talk about how much she loves Dusa. This is a game we shared: we spent weeks taking turns, succeeding, failing, doing it together. Hades was a real boon this year, something everyone around me could love and enjoy together as we strove for more and more clears, finally seeing credits and jumping right back in. Hades will always hold a special place in my heart and a permanent place on my Switch.

3. Yakuza: Like a Dragon

I’m shocked at how good this game was, as I was so worried by the changes they were making. Would I like this goofy looking new character? Would I be able to get past not having Kiryu and company as my main crew? Would the RPG systems actually work in a game like this? Well, the answer to those questions is it’s probably my favorite RPG since Lost Odyssey and might actually be my favorite Yakuza game. The way the characters interact and naturally grow as friends; the way the minigames and substories fit with Ichiban’s character rather than being a complete contrast to it; . It’s a goofy game with some of my favorite moments this year.

2. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Patches 5.2 – 5.4

No game this year took up my time like Final Fantasy XIV. It was a game I’ve jumped in and out of a lot over the years, but this is the first time I’ve fully bought in and once I did, it’s been one of the most important experiences of my life. I created my character Oulan in December, deciding that this would be the year I would finally finish A Realm Reborn and experience Heavensward, which everyone told me was great. 2 weeks later, I found myself through the entire story, hooked with a whole new group of friends and community that’s been incredible. That’s a big part of why this game, while it’s not my Game of the Year, is the most important game I played this year. It’s given me community, from the old longtime internet friends I’ve joined up with, to streaming alongside Solon. It’s been something that’s kept me going through quarantine, and made it feel like I still had something I could do to interact with friends.

It’s that interaction that has made me who I am today. I’d sit in voice chat, and it didn’t matter what my voice sounded like, people called me she. They referred to me by the gender of my character and it felt so right. It’s why I’m Christine and not Chris and I’ve been so much happier with that realization of myself and I don’t know if it would have happened if not for the family I’ve built around myself in the world of Eorzea. Joining up with friends, realizing myself, and seeing them constantly willing to join up and help me out when I’m dealing with colorblindness issues in bosses. ALL HAIL NOVA RIKO AND THE DORITO OF SAFETY! Please Square Enix, I beg you to make properly implemented colorblind filters because what you have is not enough.

Seriously though, I love the family I’ve made through this game; all of my friends are so important to me and I would not give up the time I’ve spent here for the world. It can be frustrating, maddening even, but it’s been the biggest boost for my mental health and it’s made me who I am today. So here is to all of you, my friends, my family, the people who have kept me going over this last year. This isn’t just a celebration of this game, it’s a celebration of all of you.

1. Nioh 2

I didn’t think any game would be capable of taking my attention away from Final Fantasy XIV once I was fully bought in, then along comes Team Ninja. I’ve been joking for a long time now in calling it “Game of the Generation Nioh 2” every single time I talk about it, and I’m not actually sure anymore if it’s a joke or not. Every little addition they make to the game brings me back in, new equipment, new stages, new weapons, and they all continue to keep my attention and give me the same thrill I got the first time I started as I create character after character for each of the weapons. Hundreds of hours in this game and it still continues to be a thrill, whether it’s the new DLC content or the added difficulties, I can’t stop myself from continuing to live in the incredible world Team Ninja has built.

Even after multiple playthroughs I still find the story incredibly compelling and fun: the boss fights still excite me even though I know most of them by the back of my hand, and every single loot drop gives me that serotonin drip of possible improvement to the look of my character. I love everything about this game, and it feels right to me that the game I see as probably my game of the generation came out in the final year of the console cycle. Now get ready for me to start talking about the game of the new generation of consoles when Nioh ½ Remastered comes out in February.

The post Christine’s Top Ten Games of 2020 appeared first on Gamesline.

As always you can support us on our patreon, and follow us on twitter @VGChooChoo, @john_michonski, @solonface, and @judgementscythe

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As always you can support us on our patreon, and follow us on twitter @VGChooChoo, @YourPalNiall, @PunkParfait, and @John_Michonski.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to podcast@videogamechoochoo.com, via twitter with the hashtag #AskVGCC or into our ask box at videogamechoochoo.tumblr.com/ask

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The post VGCC Episode 267: Dracula’s Dome appeared first on Gamesline.

The original Nioh had a troubled development lasting almost 14 years, and over that time the game warped from a Ninja Gaiden style take on an Akira Kurosawa script, to a Dark Souls/Diablo hybrid. As it got closer and closer to release, Team Ninja did several alpha and beta tests that gradually shaped the full release, and continued to improve upon it with DLC that added better bosses and areas, alongside new weapon types and quality of life fixes. Nioh 2 really feels like all of those lessons have finally come together in a package that may just be able to stand on its own.

From the beginning of the Nioh 2 Alpha, you create your own character in lieu of playing as the gruff William players were (mostly) stuck in the shoes of in the last game. While Nioh did eventually let you use various bonus skins, being able to actually mold the character you play as always adds a level of ownership to the experience of any game. Plus, as a woman, it’s always nice to be able to play as a woman without having to go through some sort of absurd “bonus” unlock. While you can only choose from a few presets for now, you can definitely peek through the locked options and see that there’s the usual depth one might expect from a Dark Souls, and even more with implied “Yokai Form” customization.

After making your beautiful Oni lady or whatever else you’re into, there’s a short tutorial before you get plopped into what feels like a typical Nioh level. You will quickly find the game’s old bloodstain system, where players can fight AI ghosts left behind by players in hopes of winning a piece of their gear, but you’ll also find a couple of blue graves scattered around too. Alongside the old system, a new one similar to Dark Souls’ summon signs has been added, which lets you summon an AI version of a player who played through that area to help you fight through the level. While you can still do the classic matchmaking with real players, this new option lets players quickly (and in my case, less anxiously) get some help in a harder part of the game.

After beating the game’s first mini-boss, you’re quickly introduced to two of the game’s new systems. One of them is the cursed weapon subset, which is a type of weapon that gradually powers up the more you fight. When it finally gets powered up, it’ll start yelling about how it loves to kill people, glow purple, and buff pretty much everything you do. While I slightly worry about the disparity between using weapons like this as opposed to other weapon rarities, using them was a blast, and having those short windows of power open up new opportunities in the midst of an escalating scuffle can really help improve the experience.

The other new system involves learning and using a robust and expansive slew of “Yokai Skills.” Yokai Skills let you take a move from the arsenal of every single enemy you run across in the game, and use it pretty much whenever. When you kill an enemy, there’s a chance that they’ll drop a glowing Yokai Core. When you take these cores back to a save point, you can purify them and turn them into the Yokai Skills, which you then slot into your character for up to two actions at any time. These skills can range from slamming a big flaming hammer down to deal burning damage, to turning into a massive tornado for a few seconds and just flailing into everyone. These skills level up the more cores you get as well, so when you get your third “Skeleton Warrior” skill, you’re actually making it better and better.

These moves completely change the flow of Nioh’s combat for the better, without taking away what made it good in the first place. Where there were plenty of times where you had to disengage in the original Nioh when fighting a particular boss or horde of enemies, you’re now able to quickly turn the tides by pulling some outrageous bullshit. No longer is Nioh a game where the second guy shows up in the fight and all seems lost; it’s become a “I’m not stuck in here with you, you’re stuck in here with me” type deal, and god does it feel so good.

Yokai Skills aren’t the only part of your arsenal that’s going for that Yokai sensibility either. While the original game had a devil trigger-esque form change system with Living Weapons, Nioh 2 doubles down and transforms your character into various different types of yokai with incredibly different movesets and abilities. The three choices selectable in the demo include a classic bulky club Oni, a floating fox-masked mage with spectral blades, and a teleporting-dashing ninja who attacks with incredible speed. These feel so much better than the original game’s tendency to just differentiate with passive gimmicks, and turning into a big oni to wreak havoc gives the game a unique and distinctive vibe that the original Nioh didn’t quite pull together.

Even just tonally, that vibe of a Yokai-filled world is so much better expressed throughout the game’s world and characters. When you wander into an area with particularly hard Yokai to fight, it’s no longer just a patch of grey blocking your path, but complete zones warped with a monotone filter and spider lilies rampant. These zones feel oppressive and otherworldly, and the effect is amped up when you notice your character’s Oni horns are sticking out as you wander through them. The bleakness will dissipate once you’re able to defeat the mini-boss style Yokai of the area, making these experiences much more satisfying than the frustrating areas in Souls games that tended to be permanent annoyances that you needed to trudge back and forth through.

The bosses are much more expressive and supernatural feeling as well. Most of the boss fights in the original Nioh felt like they either had to be a one-on-one duel with a humanoid opponent, or a big large enemy who was clunky and slow. Both of the bosses that you can fight in this Alpha however, feel much more unique and dynamic. The first boss is a big tornado that surrounds itself with pottery shards to become a hulking big monster, but that doesn’t mean you fight him by dodging his hefty swings. Instead, they can dash around very quickly, and use quick and narrow attacks, all the while you’re contending with brutish swings. The other boss was a big snake with smaller snakes growing off it that sometimes fell off, while it slithered around the stage quickly and threateningly. Both of these bosses would have been functionally identical in Nioh, but here they’re able to break outside of those archetypal molds and become something really fun and unique.

You’ll even wander into some friendly Yokai along the way that always bring big bonuses. As you break boxes sometimes you’ll just find a little fat cat curled up in a ball- if you pet them, they’ll roll around with you for a little bit, buffing you in the process. While I totally enjoyed the whole buff thing, just the addition of a little baby cat orb rolling around on the ground with me while i beat up Yokai was extremely charming, especially once I got into a nasty tussle and my little furry friend grew spikes and tried to help me fight back harder. There are also little purple fellas with masks you can find walking around all over the place, and if you drop a weapon near them, they’ll pick it up and trade you for some random loot they’re carrying. These buddies are particularly helpful if you really don’t like a specific type of weapon, since they tend to trade you back an item of similar rarity or power.

When you add all these elements together, you get a much more cohesive and engaging package than what the original Nioh had to offer. Underneath all this it’s very much the same game, but tuned up and given a fresh coat of paint. Combat in Nioh 2 still feels intense and enemies aren’t exactly easy fodder most of the time, but all of these systems help make them puzzles to solve instead of walls to overcome. It’s much more satisfying to swap out and look through all the different combos my twin hatchets have in the process of beating a boss than just doing the same two attacks over and over again until I memorized everything they did. Everything feels so much more rewarding, and fun, which has been refreshing in the face of recent games like Sekiro that tend to promote frustration and simplicity.

I enjoyed pretty much every second I played of the Nioh 2 Alpha, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the full game whenever it launches later this year. Everything about the experience feels like the developers really understood what made their game good, and what could make their game better, which is so rarely seen in any medium. Most sequels tend to either play it safe or go wildly different, and while Nioh 2 is definitely pretty wild, the ways it stays true and improves upon its core are incredibly welcome.

The post Nioh 2 Alpha Impressions appeared first on Gamesline.

Very Honorable Mention: For Honor

While the single player mode didn’t grab me hard enough to finish it, the multiplayer of For Honor is exceptionally good. Some modes get weighed down by bad map design or gameplay that encourages unfairly teaming up on individual players, but the moment-to-moment multiplayer combat in this game is some of the most fun I’ve had this year. It’s a shame that such fun combat got weighed down by an extra pricey season pass that excluded people from new content which the multiplayer sorely needed to stay fresh, poorly conceived microtransactions, and a convoluted faction system that never really felt like my investment in any one clan meant anything meaningful. Still, I found a lot of fun in grabbing a friend or two, hopping into 1v1 duels, and just having a few fights.

10. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The latest incarnation of the Zelda series twists the standard conventions of open world games to make something wholly unique within its franchise and in 2017. Emergent gameplay allows you to solve problems through such a large variety of solutions that it’s not uncommon to feel like the experiences you had were unique to you and nobody else. Before I picked up the game for myself, I had heard that the final boss becomes easier the further you play to the point of triviality, and I wish other people heard this too before hopping into it. It allowed me to tailor my experience to my play style in a way that was totally effective. I collected the bare minimum of hearts needed to acquire The Master Sword and only completed two of the game’s four main dungeons, which led to a really satisfying 4 stage final boss battle where I found myself using up all my weapons and items. It was a lot of fun and I highly recommend you play the game this way. I haven’t gone back since beating it, but I’m honestly considering it with the new DLC and especially Master Mode.

9. The Last Guardian

Due to it’s late December launch, The Last Guardian didn’t really get a lot of attention during Game of the Year coverage in 2016, and the coverage it did get were mainly focused on how the game doesn’t really control too well at parts. While this seems like a really strange statement to make about a game that has been in development hell for a decade, The Last Guardian clearly needed a little more time in the oven. However, that didn’t stop me from totally loving this game. It understands what it means to be a pet owner and all the heartbreaking moments that come with it. There are scenes in this game I legitimately cried at from being able to empathize with the struggles Trico and The Boy which is where it’s at its most affecting. It’s a game with highs and lows, but its highs absolutely outweigh its lows and I highly recommend sticking through it if you haven’t already played it.

8. Sonic Mania

I had the biggest, goofiest grin on my face while playing through Sonic Mania in its entirety. The early Sonic games were some of my favorite platformers growing up, so much so that I went out of my way to replay them years later. Mania manages to recapture the feel of those games flawlessly, while also updating that pixelated style with some more modern design ethos. Mania understands what Sonic fans are looking for in a game and it’s hard to say much more about it other than it’s fun. It’s fun! It’s a colorful tip-to-toe thrill ride that I left with a smile.

7. Doki Doki Literature Club

It’s really easy to see this game and write it off as another cheap, free horror game. I feel like this game is a masterwork in breaking down the visual novel genre and it’s standard conventions in order to manipulate players towards a destined path of misery and psychological horror. While it may not seem like it at first, every single inch of this game is meticulously crafted to make you fit the shoes of the player character, only to cut those legs out from under you and leave you completely disarmed. I love this game, and if you have a Steam account, there’s no reason for you not to play it (unless you’re sensitive to disturbing imagery or just aren’t really a big fan of horror, which totally makes sense).

6. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

The menu music of PUBG is so burned into my brain that it being changed for the upcoming final release leaves me sad. Thankfully this video will serve me well to put me in the ASMR like trance I need to focus on finishing this list.

PUBG is the asymmetrical Battle Royale style loot collecting game with arcane controls that I knew I wanted in my life but didn’t know existed. I know other stuff is out there. It’s not out there for me, though. Some of the greatest moments 2017 came from grouping up with some good buddies, getting lost in the wild, barely scraping together to survive until we eventually became the winner winners of some delicious chicken dinners. Hopefully they employ some Final Fantasy XV style food tech to simulate the most delicious chicken dinners imaginable in upcoming updates.

5. Absolver

Play this game. Play this game! Absolver manages to make over-the-shoulder 3D fighting with other players super fun. Absolver carries a lot of the same ethos with For Honor and while For Honor’s trappings held it back from being something good, Absolver’s always online open world is amazing and more games can learn from how it handles player interaction. You can try and troll players by getting into fights with them at random, but then a revive system after combat that shows you physically helping them up to their feet helps facilitate that the fights are just in good fun. Getting surrounded by a group of guys goes from scary to incredible when some random player you’ve never met before rushes in, goes back to back with you, and helps you fight them off, before leaving, never to be seen again. This game also has what For Honor did right as well, which is a mode that just allows you to hop into 1 on 1 matchmaking with other players or friends without any of the extra frills on the side. It’s an extremely good game that more people should play. Come fight me.

4. Puyo Puyo Tetris

The ability to pick up and play Puyo Puyo Tetris whenever I want on the Nintendo Switch makes this game one of my absolute favorites of the year. While it’s certainly not a new game by any stretch, it’s first localized launch in the US is my first experience with it and I had nothing but fun. There are so many different game modes with extra menus that have even more game modes that it feels like a bunch of designers got in a room, asked “how can we combine Puyo Pop and Tetris into one game?” and came back with a bunch of different designs that all got included. Being able to just play a round of Tetris whenever I feel my brain ready to shut off and keep me focused has been such a huge boon in my life. This game rules and it’s a must own for any Switch owner.

3. NieR:Automata

Not knowing anything about previous games in the Nier/Drakengard timeline, some of the major references in Nier were totally lost on me. That said, Nier still managed to hit close to home with a lot of ideas of grief, loss, legacy, and letting go. I felt a mechanical significance to the endgame choice of helping those in need by letting go of your memories or by holding onto them just a little while longer until you felt comfortable letting them leave forever. Not many games manage to be that emotionally resonant through mechanics alone, while Nier’s handling of that idea is totally superb. Nier is dense and asks a lot of questions about your relationship towards games, and to loved ones, drawing a synonymous line through the two. I’ve lost a lot of people in my life, a lot that I’ve loved and many I straight up hated, and Nier reflected those feelings back at me in a way that truly understood like they’d really felt the same in ways no other game I’ve played has.

2. Night In The Woods

I think everyone growing up as a twenty-something in 2017 can identify with something, big or small, in Night In The Woods. This game handles character writing and personal moments very effectively, and it puts to words a lot of deep emotions and ideas that many people simply can’t. The heartbreak of only having a best “available” friend, the existential terror of an encroaching conservatism that threatens your very existence, the value we place in others after our lives have been filled with nothing but terror. Night in the Woods attempts to tackle these ideas not only head on, but with a smile and a sense of humor that lets you know that uncertainty is normal. Night in the Woods is comfort in nightmarish times, a striking condemnation of capitalist America that so many of us live in, and the albatrosses around our necks.

1. Nioh

This is probably gonna sound a little hollow after how deeply resonant games like NitW and NieR:Automata have been for me in 2017, but Nioh is truly the game I had the most fun with all year. Many people reductively refer to it as Samurai Dark Souls, but it’s much more than that. It’s an alternate history story about Irish-born English sailor William Adams’ quest to save his ghost girlfriend from an extremely goth twink Edward Kelley as he treks around Sengoku Era Japan and fights loving recreations of the Yokai of Japanese mythology. The game is steeped with a lot of creative irony, as the very first level takes place in the Tower of London, utilizing the medieval aesthetic to effectively subvert your expectations of playing a samurai game and place you right into another Dark Souls for its first mission. It’s also got a great sense of humor that is completely unexpected to people conditioned by Souls-like games. There are several cutscenes in the beginning of the game where William, who only speaks English throughout the game, is surrounded by Japanese people speaking Japanese, and thus just says absolutely nothing. It’s really easy to interpret William as just plain not understanding what anyone is saying and being completely confused all the time, and once the game sets that expectation in your head, the rest of the cutscenes that follow that same methodology become a joy to watch. Nioh is such a fun game with a lot there, and even in a year full of big games with long stories and huge open worlds, I can still go back to Nioh and have a good time.

The post Scott’s Top 10 Games of 2017 appeared first on Gamesline.

My favorite part of meeting new people is discovering and falling in love with what makes them unique, and with games it’s no different. For this list, I’ve written about one specific aspect of a game that I loved this year, and what immediately springs to mind when they cross my mind. Whatever games you enjoyed, I hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday season, and a happy hopeful new year.

10. Night In The Woods

Night in the Woods is a game that takes relatability to the next level. Every character I met throughout Possum Springs echoed someone I knew in real life, and seeing the vague deepness of everyone really helped sell each of their places in that world. As someone who’s struggled with abuse and dealing with expectations and forced obligations, Angus and Bea’s storylines resonated with me so deeply that I found myself trying to talk to them any chance I got (while ignoring Gregg. Sorry Gregg…). There are definitely problems to be found in NITW’s relatability- the game suffers from the same over exaggerated dialogue disease that a certain other narrative driven game starring teens does, but for me these never got in the way of the legitimately earnest and rare portrayals of (most) mental illnesses and societal problems. Night in the Woods is the embodiment of “same.”

9. Nioh

Nioh is a game that really understands the concept of mythology. Nearly every character in Nioh is based on real historical figures from Japan’s Sengoku Period, and while there are inklings of what we historically know of them, there are just enough sprinkled embellishments to make Nioh really feel like a long forgotten bedtime story. Based off of an unfinished Akira Kurosawa script (which I didn’t know until finishing the second DLC, and feel extremely stupid for not thinking about in hindsight) Nioh doesn’t just feel like a classic Samurai story, it feels like an homage to old Japanese culture at large. There are dozens of Yokai scattered throughout each region of this colorful rendition of Japan, and each has their own interesting and fun take on their classic folklore basics. I dumped over a hundred hours into Nioh, and while that may have a lot to do with my weird katana fetish, it had just as much to do with my engrossment in the rich and mythical world Team Ninja painted for me.

8. Fire Emblem Heroes

Fire Emblem Heroes has spent this year as the definition of comfort for me. Sure there’s the stress associated with any gacha game (why wouldn’t you just give me Summer Corrin you bastards why! why!!!!!!), but I’ve yet to play a mobage that makes it easier to play a whole bunch without ever spending a dime. FEH takes the already reasonably streamlined combat of the more recent mainline Fire Emblem titles and distills it down into fun bite-sized puzzles. With classic FE tunes to scratch all of the nostalgic nerves in my brain, and adorable art of all my favorite characters from dozens of artists, I’ve never really seen a mobile side game to a major series that feels like it treats its source material with equal amounts reverence and fun poking. Every update has been helping make FEH better and better, and I hope that come this time next year I still find myself logging in each day as I wind down for bed to look at my beautiful teams of Lucinas and Lyns.

7. Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

It’s a weird thing to consider a particular point of praise but Stormblood really hammered home how much I love the consistency of Final Fantasy XIV. Stormblood suffers in a lot of important areas, but for each misstep comes a huge step forward in Quality of Life, art design, engaging new features, and just overall options for fun. I may be upset at how some of my favorite classes ended up in the overall re-balancing shuffle, and I’m still praying everyday that Dark Knight will somehow get fixed in a magic patch, but I’m now able to take a million screenshots of my self insert dragon girl holding a katana and goddamn what else do you need? Stormblood will no doubt get better as new patches come and go, but for now it’s managed to keep my heart in the game, and knowing I’ll always have FFXIV and the people in it to come back to sets my mind at ease.

6. Sonic Forces

This is the most wish fulfillment i’ve ever hadhttps://t.co/hAAnlMJTaq pic.twitter.com/aSYrpZMjG1

— ❄Winter’s Rose❄ (@horngal) November 7, 2017

Sonic Forces understands what it’s like to have dreams. Sonic Forces isn’t a perfect game, but I doubt anyone who earnestly enjoys it would ever argue that. Clunkiness abounds, though Forces has ended up to possibly be the most playable 3D Sonic game ever released. The gameplay isn’t what matters though; what matters is just how well Sega has evaluated and provided for the Sonic community’s long held pillar of cringe and care. I’m speaking of course of Original Characters, and just how incredible it is that so many people are able to live out their childhood wishes this far down the line. Sonic Forces knows exactly what you want to do with your original character- it presents you with plenty of the options integral to OC design: heterochromia, bandage gloves, torn scarves. If you think of it, Sonic Forces probably has it and is all too ready to give you the keys and run wild. It’s impossible for me to describe how I felt when I found the pink recolors of Shadow the Hedgehog’s shoes and gloves, sitting there as if perfectly designed for his now-canon girlfriend Roxanne Maria. Sonic Forces wants you to feel like it cares, and it knows that somehow throughout all of these years, you still care too.

5. Persona 5

How can you describe Persona 5 as anything without mentioning how hella stylish it is. The fifth Persona is beautiful on all fronts- whether it’s the gorgeous soundtrack that fluctuates between soft and proud, the stunning character designs that really feel like the ultimate nailing of the series style, or even just all of the little touches like how your main character jumps onto enemies during sneak attacks. This is all amazingly complemented by hands down the best User Interface that neither JRPGS or gaming at large has ever seen. Persona 5 does what seems like the impossible and makes navigating menus actually feel punchy and cool. I could praise things like the stylized character portraits or the fantastic evolution of all out attacks from goofy 3D models into beautiful 2D panels all day, but what has stuck out to me after all this time is how good it feels to finish a battle. Whether it’s through those all out attacks, or just the run Joker and friends do past loot and level up screens, Persona 5 makes the random encounters in a JRPG really feel exciting. When the man behind the great UIs of games like Kirby Air Ride and Super Smash Bros. is going crazy over your work, you know you did good.

4. Tales of Berseria

Tales of Berseria has what might be my favorite cast of characters in any form of media. Every member of the Berseria crew feels like they could’ve been a side character in an entirely different JRPG, but instead here they all are being big dumb idiots at each other. I had never played a Tales game properly before this, and I’m honestly disappointed now that I haven’t. The “Skits” system is one of the greatest ideas for a JRPG, that I’m shocked more games haven’t picked up on it. Whether it’s seeing Rokurou and Eizen feud like parents over what life lessons Laphicet should learn, or watching Velvet be an overly aggressive straightman to Magilou’s stand up comedy routines, every new moment endeared me more and more. The fact that there are only a couple dozen end-battle skits was barely even a disappointment, because of just how funny and cute almost all of them were. I went into Berseria expecting to just end up with a surface level love of Velvet, but what I ended up for was an endearment to Eizen, a respect for Rokurou, and a whole mess of things for Magilou. It might not be the best game to “play” but damn, am I glad I played it.

3. Yakuza 0

I don’t think there’s a better poster child for just how important and good side content in games can be than the Yakuza series. Before this year, I had always put the Yakuza series on the back burner because of how intimidating the idea of purchasing a medley of assorted PS2 and PS3 games had seemed, but with the no strings attached promise of a prequel, I finally had my chance to jump in. Now when I praise how amazing the side content in Yakuza 0 is, I am by no means trying to do the big meat of the game a disservice, it’s fantastic in its own right. What goes great with meat, though? All sorts of side dishes, and 0 delivers in spades. There are all sorts of ridiculous side stories ranging from Kiryu helping a shy back alley shiitake mushroom salesman become a world famous chef, to Majima unwittingly writing the future tax code of Japan, and each one is so heartwarming and humorous you’d swear you’d just watched an episode of some sort of sitcom.

Where Yakuza 0 REALLY shines for me personally, however, is Majima’s motherfucking cabaret club Sunshine. I spent hour after hour perfecting my establishment, doing each night flawlessly and customizing all of my girls into the absolutely beautiful and perfect squad of white haired goddesses Sotenbori had ever seen. Everything about this game is great; it plays like a less stressful diner dash, it oozes presentation, and most importantly, I get to see Majima fight absurdist characters and do all sorts of ridiculous bullshit in the name of Respecting Women. Everytime Majima would go to one of his platinum hostesses with drinks or towels, and leave with a respectable thumbs up I couldn’t help but match him with one of my own in real life. Kiryu’s real estate management simulation is fine, but god dammit, I spent hours and hours and ended up 100%ing my Sunshine by chapter 8, and I will always remember my time there.

2. Hollow Knight

Nioh took plenty of lessons from Dark Souls for its mythology but Hollow Knight also took those lessons and basically everything else, while still managing to cultivate its own unique atmosphere. Almost all of Hollow Knight takes place in a massive series of underground tunnels, and despite how boring that sounds as a premise, Team Cherry managed to not only make each area look and feel diverse, but also keep it grounded in common sense. The bright grassy caves fall down into a bright swamp- the city where it’s always raining lies underneath a massive lake, and above a winding series of waterways. Throughout this large and interesting world are plenty of characters: some friend, some foe, and some just completely insignificant. Hollow Knight manages to legitimately understand the fun of Dark Souls NPCs; when you never really know whether you’ll ever see each other again, or if there’s a greater purpose to their words at all. When I actually resolved my first NPC subplot I was surprised at how it evolved and where it went, and actually found myself laughing in a game that can often times feel oppressive and dreary.

The mere fact that Hollow Knight feels oppressive and dreary is amazing in its own right, considering its cutesy near-chibi art style, but it’s never trying to trick you or subvert you. Hollow Knight never jumps into hyper-realism or out of place art styles other “cute” games like Undertale do; just like its world, it has a cohesive style throughout. This is what makes endgame areas with walls of skull and bone, or endless caverns where dead bodies fall perpetually still have impact- you’re drawn into this world, you know what it’s like, and its continuing to immerse you and stay true to itself. Before I played Hollow Knight I had felt like the closest thing we were going to get to the immersive worlds found in the Souls games were half-baked games like Lords of the Fallen or The Surge, but now I know that not only is it possible to match that level of intrigue and mystique, but it’s possible to take it and craft a wholly new and original experience. I loved watching my completion percentage go up, I loved finding new areas, and I loved every second that I played Hollow Knight.

1. NieR: Automata

Before this year, I had never played any of Yoko Taro’s games, and I had only the vaguest of ideas regarding just how much he wanted to break the boundaries of what it meant to be a game. Everytime NieR: Automata shifts its camera, everytime it changes the type of game it is, everytime its story changes completely on a dime, it felt incredible to me. This game isn’t one satisfied with just being a character action game, it’s not satisfied with just being a shmup hybrid- it tries to be everything it can, and everything it has to be. Throughout its narrative,  Automata teaches its players that everything can change as long as you keep going, for better or worse, and that’s reflected in nearly everything around it. Its predecessor NieR: Gestalt was a game plagued with development issues, ranging from its low budget to the team’s overall inexperience. Despite these problems, Gestalt still tried to do a lot of what Automata did- it managed to have shmup elements, it managed to be a halfway competent action game, it managed to be a text adventure.

Even with all it was trying and its cult of fans adamantly supporting it, Gestalt failed commercially, and the fact that there was even a second NieR game feels like a miracle in its own right. After the failure and hardship of Gestalt, it’s hard to believe that the development team themselves would even want to make a new NieR, and yet, they persisted. Not only did they manage to start work on Automata, they also worked towards curbing the mistakes of the past by asking Platinum Games to design the gameplay side of things, to more than make up for their inexperience with action titles. This tangent might seem unrelated, but it’s actually the main reason I love Automata, and what its narrative can represent.

NieR: Automata is a tale of cooperation, inside the game, and out. While Ending E is the obvious culmination of all this, it echoes constantly throughout the events of every aspect of the game. 2B couldn’t do all she does without 9S, 9S couldn’t do anything he does without Devola and Popola, or Pod 153, and A2 couldn’t do anything without the memories of the people she loved. The same goes for the real world; Automata couldn’t have existed and be the incredible work of art it is without the partnership of Square Enix and Platinum Games, and we the players couldn’t have finished our story without the help of the other people who loved the game as much as we did. I’ve been struggling here to say things I haven’t said before about Automata but I have to finish with my truest and deepest feelings.

NieR: Automata isn’t just my favorite game of 2017, it’s my favorite game of all time, and I’ll never forget what it made me feel, or what it makes me feel, even today.

The post Rose’s Top 10 Games of 2017 appeared first on Gamesline.