Best Moment: Ending E from NieR: Automata

The message of NieR’s endgame is one of desperation. The world has fallen apart around you, your friends are gone, and the only people you have left to work with are complete strangers. Are you ready to put your trust in someone you don’t know, someone you might even hate if you met them? If your answer is yes, then maybe there is hope in the world. Ending E is a promise that you can find meaning in life when there isn’t one inherent. It shows you that even a game can have profound meaning if you let it have that effect on you. The song that plays during this ending is sung in three languages, English, Japanese, and the made up language from NieR games past. During the final part, the entire dev team, from Square Enix and Platinum games, join together to sing in unison. Ending E is the celebration of NieR: Automata existing, and we’re all better for it in the end.

Runners-up:

Venus Audition from Wolfenstein II

The Venus audition in Wolfenstein 2 is one of the most deft balancing acts of 2017. It manages to balance out the comedy of BJ’s terrible acting as he auditions for the role of himself with the tension that comes when the film’s producer arrives.

New Donk Festival from Super Mario Odyssey

The New Donk City festival is a fantastic homage to Mario’s history. The nostalgic 2D segments celebrating the classic Mario games on top of fireworks and “Jump Up, Super Star” delivers such a positive, exciting vibe. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Best Character: Goro Majima from Yakuza 0

In many ways it’s hard for prequels to write their protagonists: how do you keep their personality recognizable while also developing them in a way that adds to their arc as a whole? Yakuza 0 nails this, and while both of its protagonists shine, it’s Majima who steals the show. Seeing one of the most dangerous and iconic characters from the main series put in a position where he’s not only vulnerable, but actively in peril, is a refreshing change of pace for the Mad Dog of Shimano. In a space full of wacky violent characters who exist just for the sake of being wacky and violent, Yakuza 0 is a masterclass in elevating someone who could easily fit into that archetype.

Runners-up:

BJ Blazkowicz from Wolfenstein II

If you had told me even five years ago that Wolfenstein’s BJ Blazkowicz was going to be the center of a poignant presentation of problems both racial and familial, it would’ve taken a lot for me to believe you. The New Colossus takes the Blazkowicz we saw in The New Order a dozen notches higher, and provides a vehicle for an incredibly deep characterization we can only hope others imitate.

9S from Nier Automata

In a game packed with incredible characters, 9S is one of the most nuanced and compelling. As Nier’s focus shifts around him, it becomes clear his sidekick facade is something more complex, and eventually, more sinister. It’s this mind-blowing recontextualization which makes 9S and his development a stand-out among stand-outs.

Worst Character: Korekiyo from Danganronpa V3

Korekiyo Shinguji brings on a new level of highly flawed and disturbing characters. While it’s made evident early on that he’s a total creep, gushing over ancient relics and replying with a lavish “kekeke~” every time you talk to him, you realize further down the line that there’s (unfortunately) a lot more to him. If you participate in the free time events, he gives you stories about how close he was with his sickly sister. He explains that it was her who lead him into the world of cultural anthropology, and that she eventually passed away from her illness. It seems innocent enough until the heat of a trial when he reveals that his relationship with her was not only incestuous, but she also occupied his body. He switches in between his two personalities and struts shiny red lipstick every time his “sister” takes over him. To top it all off, his sole purpose of killing a handful of girls was to give his sister in heaven friends. Don’t worry, though—after killing him off, Monokuma cockblocks his ghost with a sprinkling of salt when he tries to reunite with her spirit. Thanks, Monokuma.

Runners-up:

Goro Akechi from Persona 5

Goro Akechi may be intentionally villainous, but that doesn’t mean I should have to let out groan after groan from every word out of his cop-loving pretty boy face. This dude literally introduces himself by bragging about how he’s read Hegel, and while his character arc has interesting twists and turns, I’m still left wishing I never got to know him.

Bienfu from Tales of Berseria

In a game full of subversive characterizations and legitimate trope breaking it was tragic to have to endure the unfortunate but all too common trope of the horny mascot. Bienfu is exactly the type of character I always expected to be in Tales games, and having to endure a character who exists purely to manipulate and harass women in a game about dealing with trauma is a frustrating drain on an otherwise fantastic cast.

The post Game of the Year Awards 2017: Day Three appeared first on Gamesline.

10. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Look, Wolfenstein 2 is an incredible game. It’s well written, and it looks great, but if I’m being honest the main reason I liked it so much is simple: I got to throw like… 400 hatchets into hordes and hordes of Nazis. It was like getting an injection of pure catharsis: a healthy outlet for the anger I had with the state of the world. As much as that’s all surface level, especially when things get dire for the Kreisau Circle, it was the rage fantasy aspect of The New Colossus that made it one of my favorite games of the year.

9. Picross 3D: Round 2

A little disclaimer: this technically came out in December of 2016, but it would be disingenuous of me to not include it on this list. Picross 3D: Round 2 was consistently one of the most relaxing things I played this year. I feel like we spend a lot of time acting like games built purely for relaxing and taking up a short period of time are less important than games with narratives or challenging gameplay, but games like Picross 3D are important because they’re not that. It reminded me of the importance of calm, to take some time out of my day just to solve a puzzle or two so I could recharge my batteries, and I think learning how to do that is one of the most important things to happen to me in 2017.

8. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Breath of The Wild is one of those games that I’m probably never going to touch again. On the surface, that probably comes off as an insult, but I mean it in the exact opposite way. With how the game is made, it’s almost impossible to emulate the experience I had the first time I played through it. From the giddy excitement I had the first time I snowboarded down a mountain, to the quiet calm of wandering through a small forest tucked away from everything else, almost every minute I spent with Breath of the Wild completely enveloped me with wonder and joy when I found myself sorely needing it.

7. Heat Signature

The moment I fell in love with Heat Signature was a moment where I thought the game broke. Without reading the text for a mission I loaded in and found myself floating in space with no ship, slowly suffocating. I restarted a few times assuming it was a glitch, before I realized what I had to do: propel myself through space with my shotgun, land on a nearby ship, and take out every last guard onboard. It was exhilarating, and it was the first of countless incidents like that. It wasn’t just missions that had predetermined challenges, but almost every random mission I accepted had at least the opportunity for me to do some harebrained, hotshot stunts. With seemingly hundreds of procedurally generated roguelikes inundating games, it’s Heat Signature’s dedication to actually letting you do whatever buckwild nonsense you can think of that makes it so special.

6. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

As much as I can appreciate the anime ridiculousness of the Fire Emblem series, I’ll be honest and say I was getting pretty burnt out with it’s direction. I just wasn’t clicking with Fates and the new standard it was setting for the strategy franchise. Fire Emblem Echoes, however, barely feels like a mainline Fire Emblem game at times. Doing away with franchise staples like the weapon triangle and favoring systems that feel more like a traditional JRPG progression-wise did a lot to make the game stand out among the franchise. Not to mention that it’s got a surprisingly good voice cast,  and branching stories that feel different enough to keep things fresh, but not so much that you have to keep relearning the game. I truly think Shadows of Valentia is a hidden gem during a banner year for Nintendo, and I can only hope that they put just as much of it in future Fire Emblem games as they will with the pieces of the past few successes they’ve had with the series.

5. NieR: Automata

I don’t think I’ve ever had such an intense love-hate relationship with a game before. I’ll just get it out of the way: I’d say a good 60% of the time I was actually playing NieR: Automata I just straight up hated it. Combat felt clunky, and the hacking segments were a slog. All that said, NieR: Automata has one of the best stories I’ve ever experienced in a game. It uses the medium of interactive entertainment in a way that I haven’t seen since the original NieR, and although I didn’t have as much fun playing it as I’d hoped, I think it would be foolish to not recognize how NieR pushes the medium when it succeeds, and how, nine times out of ten, it’s trying something unique, even in failure.

4. Persona 5

I wrapped myself in Persona 5 like it was a cocoon and I didn’t emerge until I was a weird butterfly that spent way too much time trying to fuse Satan. Clunky metaphors aside, Persona 5 was a game that I was able to completely submerge myself in. There’s something comforting in being able to play a few days of Persona just screwing around with your doofus friends inside the bizarre world of palaces and Mementos that made the game special to me. While I loved the dungeon crawling and the main thrust of the plot, I found myself revelling in little moments. Whether it was getting ramen with Ryuji or going book shopping with Makoto, it was the tranquil, everyday mundanity of the friendships in Persona 5 that made it shine.

3. The Sexy Brutale

I’m a sucker for time travel shenanigans, and I’m also a sucker for murder mysteries, so Sexy Brutale letting me more or less play as the time travelling Columbo I’ve always dreamed of being was nothing short of a delight. Every single thing about this game oozes charm. From the swinging soundtrack to the bizarre otherworldly murders that you have to prevent, I found myself grinning at every twist and turn that got thrown at me.

2. Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey is probably the happiest game I’ve ever played, it’s like if someone took the concept of childlike wonder, and somehow made it into a physical object. That object is Super Mario Odyssey. I think if you zoomed in on my brain, much like a Jimmy Neutron “brain blast”, while I was playing you’d probably see little Cappys on every cell in my body. I’m not quite sure what sort of black magic Nintendo evoked to make something so fueled by nostalgia not feel like a cloying, boring rehash of the past, but they did it. Not only that, but they also managed to top almost every other 3D platformer out there with one of the most intuitive, fresh takes on the genre I’ve ever played.

1. Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0 owns.

That’s really all you’ve got to know. You should have already bought it after you saw that sentence, but seeing as how just writing three words won’t cut it, I’ll elaborate a little. Yakuza 0 manages to be one of the funniest games I’ve encountered, while balancing that with deeply heartbreaking moments throughout. Admittedly, part of this is because of my long running attachment to the series, but seeing the reaction that this game’s been getting from people who’ve never touched another Yakuza title before has me feeling pretty confident in recommending it. I spent so much time just inhabiting the world of Yakuza 0, not even advancing the main plot or my side businesses, instead just wandering around the two towns in the game, doing some karaoke, trying to learn mahjong (I’m still not great) and getting Kiryu absolutely blasted on way too expensive whiskey. It’s a testament to how full and vibrant Y0 feels, that I could spend a few hours and make, ostensibly, zero progress but still walk away feeling fulfilled. Couple that with a story that legitimately had me in tears towards the end and some of the most entertaining substories to ever exist in the franchise, and you have not just only my favorite game of 2017, but my favorite Yakuza game ever released.

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

The trailer is pretty creepy with Nazis and KKK members walking around in a “good ole days” American city. Luckily BJ and his band of buddies are ready to take them out. BJ might be scarred, but he’s sporting an exo-suit of armor and organizing a revolution. Just like the first one, you’re hanging out with a colorful cast of cohorts and riding on captured Nazi equipment and now dog robots that breathe fire. The trailer shows blips of gameplay that looks similar to the first, lots of alternating between sneaking up on and mowing down Nazis.

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus comes out on October 27th this year.

The post Wreck Some Nazis in Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus appeared first on Gamesline.