Game of the Year 2020 Voting Thread (Voting Concluded, Results Coming Soon!)

Xtortion · Feb 27, 2021

Some good lists on this page, goddamn

Papercuts · Feb 27, 2021

2020 was an absolutely horrible year. Controversial statement, I know. Despite everything that happened, I found this to be a very good year of releases, and had a pretty tough time shaving it down to a list of 10. Through quarantine and beyond, most of the games here helped keep me somewhat sane.

Much like my list last year, I'll have the voting at the bottom.

X. Deep Rock Galactic

Deep Rock Galactic is one of the nicest surprises of the year for me, as it wasn't something I followed in its early access state that much. On paper, it's simple: Procedurally generated cave systems, co-op spelunking as one of four classes that have to mine their way through completely destructible environments to various different objectives. Splash a Left 4 Dead style director on there, and you have a stew cookin'.

First and foremost, we have the classes: Gunner, Driller, Engineer and Scout. Driller is probably the immediate standout, as aside from a flamethrower and pistol, he has a pair of giant drills that can carve through any and everything. Need to reach a dropship within a few minutes? A driller can quite literally dig a tunnel carving up the entire way there. A driller may also have to let the drills cool down, as everyone turns around and realizes a swarm of enemies have funneled within his tunnel, getting everyone killed. It's DRG distilled--hilarious nonsense that can work out perfectly or blow up in your face. The others are generally more traditional, from the Gunner who is more combat oriented, the Engineer that plants a turret and has a platform gun (that sorta functions like the goo gun in shadow complex), and Scout has a grappling gun to mostly go off and be a selfish bastard. Naturally I mainly played as a Scout. He does have a flare gun which helps illuminate the many dark areas in the game, though every character has basic flares that regen over time.

These classes play off eachother well both in navigating towards your objective, or fighting off the bug menaces that populate the world. These beasties naturally have to be able to navigate these generated caverns, so they can all either fly or scale up/down walls to reach you. Combat here is actually surprisingly satisfying, helped a lot by the enemies having visible destruction on them that is more than just visual. The melee focused Glyphids look a bit like a combat ready spider, with two large front legs that are often protected by an armored shell. These bits can all be blasted off to expose the weaker skin below. Detonators are a special treat (or hell), as they're massive creatures that rarely show up but function like a walking time bomb. And I mean BOMB. Killing these enemies causes a massive explosion that literally leaves a massive crater no matter where they are, which can lead to some hilarious moments where they show up at the worst time possible, or alter the level in a way that screws over someone who is less mobile.

The game currently has 10 biomes and 7 mission types, all of which greatly impact the way levels are generated. This, for me, is the game's biggest strength—sometimes with procedural games, you eventually see the cracks within the system, like prefab rooms shuffled around. Here, though? The levels constantly play out in totally different ways, and can put the player in some really crazy situations in the process. The biomes are not just visually distinct, but include their own hazard and some level of variance within the generation. Sandblasted Caverns is filled with weak walls that are easily broken, but can have sandstorms that blind you for awhile, and tend to be pretty vertical. Magma Core pretty much slowly rips apart, dotted around with explosive plants that blow holes into the map that can be used to your advantage, or turn fights into an absolute clusterfuck. Some of the mission types do wacky stuff like building your own pipeline, which then lets you grind the rollercoaster pipe you made as you go around repairing the parts being attacked as you drill away. Others are more combat focused, like riding a giant drill that decimates the entire level that has to be manually refueled while enemies constantly come after you. Missions have a range of length and complexity which further mixes all of this up, on top of special modifiers that increase your reward payout and generally make things harder. Like having an invincible giant ghost following you throughout the entire level, or having all the enemies explode into leeches.

Ultimately, this is just a really, really fun game. It's been getting some incredibly cool support over the months that have been totally free, there's no FOMO mechanics like a battle pass to feel like this is something that you NEED to keep staying hooked into, so it makes it easy to pick up every few months to see what new stuff is added. Most importantly, there's a button you can hit that makes your dwarf scream ROCK AND STONE FOREVER, YEAHHHHHH which is mostly what you will hear echoing through the caves in co-op no matter what is happening. It's a jolly time.

IX. Ghostrunner

That's right: The cyberpunk game of 2020 is here, and surely no list is complete without it. Ghostrunner is a slick and brutal ninja parkour game that is not totally unlike a 3D Katana Zero. Wallrunning, sliding, dying and resetting are all things that will happen in rapid succession as these small puzzle box rooms are fully unraveled, but there's quite a bit more to this game than I originally expected. Long sections of pure platforming, introducing and escalating level hazards and enemies, a weird ass tetris style upgrade system on top of extra moves leads to a game that actually has a hell of a lot of variety crammed within its ~7 hour runtime.

The greatest asset here, and something that would quite literally ruin this game from moment one if it wasn't pulled off well, is how damn good this game feels to control. Ghostrunner does a great job nailing the momentum a game like this should have, as you chain wall jumps, air dash right through an enemy, right into a bunny hop slide to a new wall to look for your next target. The combat is very much a matter of move at all times or die, but the game frequently checkpoints to the point that I never found this frustrating, and on the flip said made FINALLY getting a clean run to be an elating feeling. This mixed with the general aesthetic of the game, and an appropriately fitting sountrack that matches the actions to what you're doing super well just helps to make the game really capture specific moments where it feels like all cylinders are firing.

Scattered about the game are a handful of boss battles, and I'd like to give a shoutout to one in particular that felt like a very well realized platforming setpiece. It's a giant laser filled room that is genuinely pretty tricky and overwhelming to navigate, but MAN does it feel good to finally get the rhythm down. The others don't fare quite as well, as head to head combat is not really what this game is built for, but I didn't mind them too much in the grand scheme of things. The upgrade system can be used to a pretty nice degree, making things such as deflecting bullets possible (yet this wasn't even something I opted for), so despite the head to head stuff not being a strong suit, it is possible to play the game in a few different ways instead of there just being one solution to each room.

I don't feel like this game got talked about much, but it's a very strong take on the concept it was shooting for, and it's also a cyberpunk game that was actually finished! A novel thing, clearly.

VIII. Spelunky 2

The year is 2012. Spelunky HD releases. It becomes one of my favorite games of all time, atleast from a pure design point of view. A sequel is announced, I'm cautiously optimistic. How do you even top the original? Spelunky 2 is a game that manages to both exceed the predecessor and succumb to issues that ultimately hold it back for me. But first let's talk about the essence of Spelunky and why I appreciate it so much.

Spelunky is…well, uh, a game about spelunking. It's a roguelike that has you descending deeper and deeper into the depths to see what lies at the bottom. Along the way are items, gems, and shops to spend said gems. Oh, and it's HARD. Like, really, brutally hard. But it's also fair! Sorta. What I love about this series is that every hazard reacts and punishes equally regardless of who the culprit is. Let's go to a weird example here: Dark Souls. There's a room relatively early here that has you fighting an enemy in a narrow hallway. The enemy can swipe a sword at you and have it clip right through the walls, but if the player tries the same thing, they're going to clang the weapon (and die). The player can use a spear to thrust and be alright, but either way the enemy does not abide by these same mechanics. In spelunky, it doesn't roll that way. An arrow trap gets triggered by movement within ~6 squares in front of it. Doesn't matter if it's you, your rope, your bomb, an enemy spider falling from the ceiling, etc. Arrow traps have one single shot, and it's entirely possible that many of them already triggered on enemies before you got there, so you need to visually find the arrow on the ground before you know it was safe. When you get good enough, the arrows can be whipped out of the air. This is one trap among dozens, tracked by a journal that logs everything you'd want to know.

Spelunky is a game about knowledge and interactions. Finding out how things tic, quickly making plans or getting the hell out of the way when you see a disaster about to happen. It's a game that is loaded with slapping your head after a death, but laughing as you likely just learned something new. It's a roguelike that starts entirely fresh each time, but you as the player are leveling up and figuring out how best to navigate the ever shifting traps in front of you. It's an excellent framework that's brilliantly executed.

But there's a spelunky 2 to talk about! This is a game that truly feels like it was designed specifically for and around the masters of the first game. Which is to say this game is FUCKING HARD. HOLY HELL, WAY HARDER THAN 1. BEWARE. There was a conscious effort to do many things that will trip up veterans of the first game, which ultimately "solved" the best ways to clear things, like killing the shopkeepers and finding a jetpack. Jetpacks are much scarier now as they can ignite and explode on you, while shopkeepers start to build outposts hunting you down which becomes incredibly risky for an early game robbery benefit. The biggest new hook here are the split paths that lead to different worlds, instead of it always being a case of Mines -> Jungle -> etc. The mines now split to the Jungle or Volcana, which each carry different enemies and hazards (aka: more knowledge to obtain). On paper I love this idea, as it can help make runs feel more varied in a way that the first couldn't, even with procedurally generated rooms. In practice I find that the first split is solid, but the second is pretty unbalanced as one side is significantly harder than the other.

My biggest quibble with Spelunky 2 comes from a few pretty static placed encounters. 1-4 is always a fight against Quillback with a very similar layout, while 3-1 is always a boss fight that basically doesn't change whatsoever. These two moments are pretty unlike the original, where there was a boss at the end and a secret area/boss beyond that. These are placed too early in a game that is otherwise so varied, the 3-1 boss especially stands out as it can be deceptively easy to die to, typically just from being impatient. The game's OST is also hit or miss relative to the first game. In here the individual tracks are more dynamic based on what's happening, but there also is just that one song per area as opposed to a handful that would randomly play. I straight up dislike the song that plays in the mines, and it's a bummer considering you ALWAYS have to go through that area, and if you're going for a specific type of run, may need to reset and stay here much longer than you'd like to. Plus in typical Spelunky fashion, it's entirely possible to go into the next world and have a promising looking run get ended due to being dunked in lava, and then it's back to the start.

Alongside additional complexity, however, can come even greater feelings of success when these challenges are all toppled. Both spelunky games love their secrets, and the route to the true final world is a hell of a task that actually has additional layers on top of it to reach a level even further beyond. It's a challenge that I genuinely don't think I can even possibly complete, but it's such a tall ask that to even see that others were able to do it is impressive in itself.

There's also online co-op, which is a beautiful disaster that will almost always end in the absolute stupidest deaths you've ever seen. Maybe not the best idea to seriously tackle the game, but (after some patching) is functional enough that I did manage to clear with a bud. Even if I basically was hard carrying the entire run (you cannot deny this friend Net_Wrecker).

Spelunky 2 is a game that is bigger, bolder, and harder. That is not necessarily all for the better, but I do think it makes enough improvements that it makes it nearly impossible to want to go back to the original.

VII. Hades

The ying to spelunky 2's yang comes Hades, another roguelike that could not possibly be more different in its design goals. You don the role of Zagreus, a young lad with a slew of daddy issues trying to escape Hell no matter how many times he dies in the process. Hades does a great job bridging the gap games of this ilk typically have, weaving death and multiple repeats into the narrative itself, featuring heaps upon heaps of dialog based on what happened in the previous runs. It's no small surprise one common remark alongside Hades praise is "I don't like roguelikes, but": The story connection gives players something to get attached to even when they hit a wall in gameplay, whereas this same player might get rocked at the start of a game like Spelunky, see no appeal, and drop the game. Hades also has permanent progression which offers more to chase after, and another helping hand against those same walls. But hey, I like roguelikes!

While the story implementation is what gets mentioned frequently, gameplay in Hade is no slouch. It's all fairly simple on paper: An attack, a special, a cast and a dash. The various weapons all have their own flavor, such as the shield blocking damage as it charges, or the gun having a reload mechanic, but the real mix up here comes from the godly boons. In a twist of clever world building, the greek gods show up as the roguelike randomization that really defines and alters how a run goes. Each god has a gameplay theme tied to them, such as Dionysus with Hangover (essentially poison), or Artemis and crits. This is what turns Zagreus into a potential synergistic wrecking shop, leaving blades behind as he dashes chaining lightning onto everything. This is coupled with some nice feedback and solid controls, so it all looks and feels great. Oh, and the character artwork? *chef's kiss*

The gameplay REALLY clicks with the fantastic job it does in slowly unraveling and dripfeeding new stuff to the player. The hub features the house contractor and the mirror, both of which permanently increase Zagreus ranging from extra HP, more lives, all the way to increased rarity on obtained boons. Early on it makes for some tricky decision making on going for keys to unlock weapons or extra mirror slots, or going for darkness instead to further help with all future runs. This, along with genuinely getting better at enemy patterns leads to a satisfying loop that ultimately culminates with the Pact of Punishment. This is essentially the difficulty scaler after you cleared runs, has a ton of different toggles to make the game harder and harder while wiping the rewards so you can obtain them again.

While Zagreus himself changes a lot run to run, I didn't find there to me enough variety in what I was encountering to hold my attention as long as other games in this style. Bosses in particular are essentially static outside of the first one, unless the boss specific pact of punishment is turned on. It's a little too on or off as with the pact I KNOW it's going to happen, so I would have liked to see some more granular options here. The environments also can get fairly samey, though when we're talking about a smaller scale game with such a wealth of voice acting, I can understand the tradeoff. That same wealth of story content can occasionally be constricting, however. The main other issue I found that I ran into was that the character within hades generally say one new thing each time you return from a run, be it by death or completion. Chaining completions can actually backlog some of the talking, and as there are arcs per character it sometimes got frustrating to not be able to make any progress on these as the characters just kept talking about other things inbetween runs, and unless I would go in to intentionally die quickly, there's no smooth solution. Suffering from success, y'all. The biggest fix for this would be to crank the pact of punishment up, but the game doesn't really reward shooting more than a level beyond the most recent clear.

Supergiant games have been a name I respect for quite some time now, but Hades is the first time they've really ascended into something greater for my tastes. They made a hell of a game (I'm sorry), and I'm curious to see where they go next. Their specific storytelling style worked so well within this framework that it would almost be a shame to not see more come from this.

VI. Yakuza: Like A Dragon

Some games just have HEART, y'know? The Yakuza franchise encapsulates that more than most in my eyes, with Like A Dragon escalating that to new heights. Kiryu can finally stop suffering for now as it is newcomer Ichiban Kasuga's turn to pay the blood tax necessary to lead the franchise, and boy does our beautiful boy suffer. Along with a fresh new face comes a huge departure from the standard brawling the franchise is known for, instead turning into a turn based RPG, party and all. Many of these landings are not down without stumbling, but, again, HEART.

First I would like to mention Ichiban again. He is the greatest. He is real, and he is my friend. He's the absolute perfect character to craft this new story around, and I mean no disrespect towards Kiryu by saying that. Kiryu? Great. Yakuza is a franchise that can blend drama with off the wall humor like none other, and having such a stoic character get put into these beyond absurd scenarios just added to the hilarity before the game delivered another gut punch. I still don't know if this is a good or bad thing, but Like A Dragon is a super scattershot story, and ichiban is like a chaotic buttmonkey in the middle of it. So much if it focuses on the smaller scale life of the people living in Yokohama, mostly left to their own devices as the world moved on without them. It still has those dramatic moments Yakuza is known for, but it's dragged out a bit and more front/end focuses with the middle being pretty aimless. This focus can still be refreshing, especially as the party here all skews older, and it manages to convert RPG conventions into a hilarious real world parallel as the party quite literally needs to find a job, which then turns into the game's combat class system. Knights, mages, and rogues are not here by name, but here by actual careers such as the tanky Foreman or the "magic" casting Host. Nanba is a black mage, but his starting class is literally Homeless Guy. All of this is put into context by Ichiban being so much of a dragon quest fanboy that his imagination is running wild as he sees all of this happening. To the point someone early on asks why he stands there and lets people hit him after attacking. Like, holy shit.

The turn based combat itself mostly worked well for me, but it's pretty apparent (and not surprising) that there are growing pains from a shift this dramatic. The battles happen in real time as the players and enemies move around waiting for your input, which lead to quite a few oddities. Primarily, AoE attacks are wonky as there are times everyone lines up perfectly, and others where they don't really hit or do much at all…alongside there being no way to see the actual range or area these moves cover. Jobs give stat gains as they level, which makes swapping off to a new one very punishing. For someone who likes to deep dive and see as many moves as possible? That's a bummer. The bombastic climactic fights seen all throughout the Yakuza franchise also lose most of their cinematic flair, only seen much more sparingly through the runtime here. The flipside of that coin is the combat system lets more of the ridiculous antics show up at a higher frequency. Poundmates are this game's version of summons, and are an absolute riot. I found substories to have more engaging rewards in general as the equipment feedback felt more vital, and I wanted as many summons as possible. A completely serious bossfight can and will have Ichiban just let a space satellite blow up the entire arena, which is impossible to hate on too much.

For as much as I like this franchise, I internally wrestle with myself over a lot of gameplay choices. Like many others, I got into this via Yakuza 0, but I reached the ending crawling over the finish line. The old formula, enjoyable as it may be, tends to burn me out hard by the end. I beg for the onslaught of fighting to end, just to get to more cutscenes and see what's going to happen. Hearing it was going to become turn based was something I welcomed with open arms, and this is actually the first time I did basically everything in one of these games without feeling that same level of burnout. But on top of some of the issues above, I have to highlight the absolutely backbreaking difficulty curve here. Most of the game is very, very easy, even if the numbers don't work out super well. Some attacks to a ton of damage, some enemies are not threatening yet have a boatload of HP. Yet there comes a point where this hits one of the most massive spikes I've ever seen in a game, one that damn near requires the use of a fight arena that is presented as optional. It's a real bummer and a blemish on a game I like so much, as these spikes happen at what are otherwise some top tier yakuza moments.

Now that all feels overly negative for a game this high in a game of the year post, huh? It's more to show that more than most, I find Yakuza to be a sum of its parts. So much of the runtime here is spent on incredible goofy moments such as fighting a giant Roomba, going through exams, making Ichiban Holdings the greatest company the world has ever seen, picking up cans in a cart minigame, or playing the entire rip off Dragon Kart minigame which comes stocked with an entire suite of cups for some goddamn reason. Additionally, there are plenty of great moments Ichi can have with his party in the bar, one on one drink links that show a small story arc with everyone that was nice to see. It mostly comes back to Ichi, once again, being the beating heart that keeps this whole thing together. Without spoiling, the ending of the game is one of the best voice acting performances I've seen in a game (in both JP/ENG), and I would like to once again iterate that ichiban kasuga is real, and my friend.

The world needs more Ichiban. Unfortunately, that means in Yakuza game terms, Ichiban must suffer. Thus I ask…do we need more ichiban? Is it right to want more?

V. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Boy. What the fuck is this?

Vanillaware have always made great looking games, but I can't say I've ever been super into anything they've done before. 13 Sentinels is a game I barely knew about outside of seeing it apparently was received very well in japan, and it looked like an off kilter enough thing that I wanted to give it a shot. I was not prepared.

13 Sentinels is primarily a story that has been expertly crafted to mentally fuck you every 15 minutes. It's a story that shoves literally every sci-fi trope possible within it. It is also a game where you command a crew of mechs to fight off kaiju from destroying a tower, presented in an arcadey style where there's so much on screen that the big flashy moves cause the framerate to die in a way I have not seen since the original ninja gaiden 2 staircase before they patched it (I mean this in the best way possible, it's great).

It is very hard to talk about why this game works as well as it does, but it ultimately comes down to storytelling over everything. While it is a bit convoluted, I could sum up the game in a reasonable enough fashion that wouldn't be all that confusing. But the delivery of this? Holy shit. 13 protagonists with their own storyline, told out of order, crisscrossing with the other characters, giving the player the option to tackle these how they want (within some level of reason). This is kept together by story arcs hitting locks, having prerequisites to play as certain other characters, and things of that nature. But there is still a general non-linearity to the amount of content given at once, which lets people discover story revelations in different orders depending on how this is approached. Oh, and that mech part? It also is adding to the story, in a late stage portion that is also set with its own locks on top. It's an incredibly carefully curated experience that I can only imagine was an utter nightmare to set up and execute this way. The only thing more baffling than the sheer number of twists that flip the entire story on its head is that it works, and manages to actually neatly tie things up. Somehow, this game is possible to follow and understand, and THAT part I still don't understand.

Now, reading all that might not really convey something that is all that enjoyable to actually experience. Hell, being honest, I wasn't sure if I was liking this at all for the first few hours, as the tutorial railroads you through sequences that mostly hit abrupt ends, move on without answering anything, and then dump you into a mech sequence to learn more mechanics. Once it opens up and allows you to more consistently dive into a single character's story before it gets locked out it began to gel with me a lot more. That's not to say it becomes easy to parse, though! This game loooves to end a scene on a giant reveal, just to fade to black and lock you out. Yet by the time you reach this unlock, 14 more giant twists have happened and the original gutpunch it set up likely was totally forgotten. A giant encyclopedia helps to contain this somewhat, alongside an internal thought bubble that sorta recaps and reorients a play back into a character's mindset...but I have to reiterate how much I'm surprised a game like this even works to begin with. It sounds like it should be an absolute disaster, but it really comes together into a great conclusion.

In a year with many banger soundtracks, 13 Sentinels might just have my favorite one of them all. From combat music, to mood setters, to an incredible usage of idol music, 13 Sentinels has a varied but constantly fantastic OST that goes a long way to elevate all the sequences they're tied to.

This is not a story that will be for everyone, but if you go in with the right mindset to go on the wild ride 13 Sentinels puts you through, a pretty unforgettable experience awaits. Just try to ignore Morimora's trashcan design.

IV. Desperados III

Welcome to Shill Hour with Papercuts, open wide as I shovel Mimimi down your throat. Few things size up to the lack of attention and discussion their output gets relative to the quality on display. In 2016 they released Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun—I know what you're thinking: "Friend Papercuts, that is the most generic title I have ever heard." You are not wrong, and I ignored this for awhile partially due to this same fact. Yet what awaited me was one of the highest quality stealth titles out there. Really. Desperados III is their follow up, and continues this trend.

Real-time Tactics. A genre that is in dire straits. For the unfamiliar, the more impactful differences from an RTS like Starcraft is that there's no base building and a greater focus on individual units. These tend to be isometric with strong focuses on the setting being recreated, with Shadow Tactics/Desperados being stealth focused. Desperados III is a prequel set in the 1870s that primarily focuses on a revenge tale with bounty hunter John Cooper, who assembles a merry gang along for the ride. It's a relatively simple affair, but the characters are well performed and have some great banter within the levels themselves.

Gameplay in Desperados is almost entirely based around enemy sight cones, often with complicated overlapping as enemies are looking back and forth on people you need to take out. Savescumming is something many genres deal with, but I can't think of any that embrace it quite like this. There's an ingame warning that defaults to popping up on the screen if you haven't quicksaved in over a minute. This pushes you to constantly save progress, and makes attempting wild ideas not very punishing. Finding the small crack in defense to exploit and blow up to slowly unravel these encampments is endlessly satisfying, as you combine the various tools in each character's arsenal to best figure out solutions. The characters, naturally, are incredibly important to this whole process. Cooper can toss a coin to turn enemies around, throw a knife to kill anyone directly, and has two pistols to target two different people at once. Hector can whistle, place a bear trap, and has a shotgun that kills everyone in the radius. Doc has a sniper, can place a bag of knockout gas that lures enemies, and has a gas bomb. Kate can disguise herself to flirt and lure targets, and has a fairly quiet pistol. Isabelle ramps everything up to 11 and feels straight out of Dishonored, as she can straight up possess enemies as well as link the fates of two people together so they each get affected by the same thing. Plus she has a kitty, who could hate on that? Characters have additional utility beyond this, like Cooper being able to swim and carry a single body at a walk speed, while someone like Doc can't swim and can only slowly drag one body. This is all tied together with a system called Showdown, which technically breaks the genre as it allows you to pause and queue up moves with everyone, allowing for huge plays where everyone coordinates and takes down enemies. It's not essential to use, but can help the growing pains some may have with adjusting to a game like this, on top of allowing high risk ideas to pay off that are otherwise hard to manually do.

Desperados does a fantastic job of slowly unraveling these characters to highlight situations where they excel, which also naturally plays into the game becoming more and more complex as the roster grows. An early intro to Hector takes place in a Hitman style town where there's plenty of non-hostile space to maneuver around, quickly showcasing that he can plant a bear trap and whistle an enemy right into it. It also showcases Long Coats, the strongest enemy in the game that only Hector can stealth take down after a lengthy animation. Maps mix up the roster and character pairings, so playing a level without Hector suddenly makes Long Coats a much scarier hazard as they now need to be stunned and taken out with a combo from two characters. This culminates with Isabelle, who singlehandedly flips a lot of situations on their head by being able to connect enemies that react the same on both sides of the link. Her mechanics are not only the most complicated, but they synergize with everyone else that the levels after her arrival have some really great setups. Stealth games can only go so far with mechanics alone, and luckily Desperados III is chock full of great situations and ideas. A party level that only Cooper and Kate are invited to, while the rest of the crew are sneaking in via a cliffside entrance. A Louisiana swamp that splits the team in half on a two pronged approach, that becomes significantly more complex when the paths meet up in the middle. A desert town that has running trains rolling right down the center, cutting the sightlines across the track temporarily. All of these and more lead to a ton of opportunities that are incredibly fun to unravel and figure out, and offer their own unique hazards, such as swamp water making loud footsteps that enemies can detect, or muddy footprints enemies can spot and chase after.

One other great aspect of the characters within Desperados is the banter they share. These aren't just faceless units, they're people that are fleshed out within the levels themselves. There's an early example with the cocksure Doc challenging Hector on who can take out the most enemies as they're hired to defend a Ranch. This follows in them literally counting each person they take out, with back and forths between the two as the numbers get close or pull away. Obviously the player is in control of both of them and can ultimately decide who "wins", but it actually caused me to change my approach in the mission to specifically keep it as close as possible. The entire game is full of things like this, which makes everyone feel like they all have much more of a presence overall.

The bow on top of this well designed package is a great soundtrack and presentation. Upon finishing a mission, there's a very sleek replay that plays out, showing all saves/loads and when you used abilities to take enemies out. It's a really cool endcap when you finally finish some of the massive levels in this game. Beyond that, however, Desperados is VERY similar to Shadow Tactics. I can't really say this bothered me much at all considering this is not a genre seeing much love. Mimimi have been doing a truly fantastic job carving a niche out here that they seem to understand very well. I really can't recommend this game enough if you're into stealth games, it's excellent from top to bottom.

III. Doom Eternal

Doom 2016 surprised many people, myself included. The E3 slow walk demo really did not set the greatest example for what this game really was, but I will say that as time goes on I become less enamored with what they pulled off there. It's still solid, but certain weapons like the gauss rifle trivialize most of the game. It also shows all of its tricks a bit too early, making the back half not terribly exciting as it's just going through the motions. With some obvious improvement spots, Eternal was ripe to knock it out of the park, right?

Well.

Doom Eternal, for my tastes, is incredible. At the same time, however, it's NOT looking at and building upon 2016 the way a sequel normally does. This is a confidant strive into something else entirely, which is why I'm not too surprised to see the reception be all over the place on this one. Doom Eternal is a first person character action game, though in doing so it does conveniently patch up my issues with 2016's weapon balance and variety. The levels aren't all nonstop combat, as bouts of platforming break things up, but even these have a specific gamey-ness to it that 2016 didn't have. Even if you're ultimately scavenging a map for a collectible, it hits different when one of those games is something you physically pick up while the other (Eternal) has you air dashing through moving fire bars ripped right out of Mario Bros. to pick up a giant green 1UP in the shape of a helmet. It also has a story that exists but let's not talk about that now, because it isn't worth mentioning.

Eternal is all about the gameplay, and at its peak it's one of the most intense games I've ever played. I'm talking literally not being able to blink for extended periods or else I would probably die. This shows just in the UI design, which is loaded with intentionally garish colors to make everything easily visible immediately as there's no time to dawdle. There's many small sound cues that are vital to inform the player cooldowns are over, such as the gas can refill, the high pitched click of the flamethrower being up, or the music warble on blood punch. It's a small thing, but honestly very important for this game loop to sustain the intensity this heavily.

Breaking down that intensity is daunting in itself. There is extra emphasis placed on ammo management which ties right into chainsaw fuel management, making sure this is being used on fodder enemies to keep stocked up for the big boys. There's a new Blood Punch, an AoE melee attack that's fueled by Glory Kills. Shoulder mounted flamethrower to ignite enemies that causes them to drop armor, and a grenade launcher on the shoulders as well so you can freeze or blow up enemies while still gunning them down. Add a large focus to mobility on top of this, with a double jump and two dashes that can be used in midair, AND a grappling hook was now slapped onto everyone's favorite Super Shotgun. This is a lot to handle all at once, which is where the whole not blinking thing comes in. There's a lot of micromanaging that goes into your plays, making sure the right things are all ready to use on a short notice when a big attack hits you, so that you can flamethrower -> blood punch and make health rain from the sky. But they weren't done there! Enemies have weakpoints now, which gives them more free reign on enemy designs to make them incredibly threatening before they're partially naturalized by this. Arachnotrons have a big sentry gun on their head that rips you to shreds, but popping it off will make them try to get closer to swipe or use grenades. So now you're looking for and actively attacking weakpoints, while never not moving, making sure your ammo and health are in good shape…I get sweaty just thinking about it. Oh, and the sound when you shoot a weakpoint is A+.

There's so much mechanical depth firing on all cylinders here, that I'm partially wowed by the existence of Doom Eternal just to see something in the AAA space bucking so many trends. This isn't watered down for the mass appeal, they didn't nerf certain enemies due to backlash post release, hell they released a DLC that DOUBLED DOWN on these elements and introduced a specific new one that uses the microwave beam exclusively as they knew it was the most useless thing in the game. Like or it or not, there is a confidence that brims from the direction taken here that they aren't backing down from. Even the tutorials in this game go against the standard grain, popping up ways to handle enemies before you even get the chance to fight them without it. This is mostly the developers saying the experimentation on where to attack isn't what they're going for, they want this to be a baseline expectation of the player as they throw the next encounter at you. All the confidence in the world doesn't mean there can't be legitimate gripes with what was done here, but I generally don't have many. But I will say…fighting in purple goop that restricts your movement ain't that fun, so maybe relax on those a big, aye?

While the sound design of multiple UI elements was touched on, this game can't be talked about without the absolutely godlike soundtrack. Unfortunately there was a spat between Mick Gordon and Bethesda, but atleast we got this before that happened. The nonstop gameplay has the soundtrack to match the energy and get you fully immersed in what's happening, Arc Complex being a particular standout for me as a Revenant just busts through a wall while the song kicks in and doesn't let up. Just writing about this makes me want to play the game again, it's just fuckin' fun. A game like this is exactly why I'm so invested in this medium, there's nothing out there that can demand so much of my concentration at such a rapid pace.

There are a few things with the "Eternal" moniker that bother me still. First is the general menu presentation, which feels like this was designed sorta like a GaaS? There's been multiple seasons, battle passes, weekly challenges, and things of that nature. It's pretty weird and even if you don't care too much about it, it's still pretty in your face as you finish missions. Pre-release features like Invasions where you become a demon in someone else's game didn't seem to make it into the full release but I still can't find out if that's happening or not which is…weird. Even if it gets added now, the bulk of the appeal here was as a single player campaign, so being able to invade NOW would not be nearly as impactful or fun. Maybe this speaks more to the current state of the game industry, but I got no idea what the hell was going on here. Most of the unlocks are for demon skins, which exclusively tie into Battle Mode and HOO BOY. The multiplayer pits one Slayer against two Demons, which is a pretty cool round based concept on paper. In practice? The netcode was so fucking terrible I couldn't believe what I was playing. It bothers me when I see stuff like this happen, there's clearly time and effort that went into making this mode yet it's all squandered if it's this shitty to play. Like damn. All the unlocks feel pointless if they feed back into this, but I also kinda don't want battle passes in a single player game so, uh. Yeah.

Oddities aside, Eternal plays so damn well. Levels have much more visual variety, the pacing of enemies is better realized due to having a larger stock in general, and the final levels are straight up batshit with how much is tossed at you. I love it. I can't wait to see where the team takes this in the future, there's a lot of real talent to make a game in this style work so well.

II. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori and the Blind Forest is an incredible game whose only flaw is that the combat was only okay, which isn't all that surprising with a Metroidvania. Just taking that aspect and making it better is still not really enough to REALLY topple the first game though, it still seems like a massive undertaking you'd have to be crazy to attempt. Well, and attempt was made. And the mad lads DID IT.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is gamefeel: the game. Every single aspect of this game feels fucking fantastic, which is one of the highest praises you can give to a game of this style. This is a metroidvania that lets you loose with a double jump and a dash within the first hour, letting you purchase an optional triple jump right after. The world is your oyster here as instead of the obvious double jump upgrade being held over your head all game, they just give it to you and can design all the areas with it in mind. Bash is back, the fantastic mechanic that lets Ori slingshot off of projectiles or enemies which gives both combat utility and unparalleled mobility. One very noticeable thing in this game is how generous it is to reset the counter on your mobility, you can double jump at an enemy, bash off of it, double jump again to a wall, double jump off that into another bash, etc. This stuff just feels good to link together, and it's all put together by some phenomenal animation work which gets the feeling of movement just right. I can practically imagine a whiteboard of ideas when designing this game, where anything that didn't feel incredible got cut so only the best of the best remained. Late game Ori is an absolute joy to maneuver around, and the game even gives certain abilities that open the freedom of movement so much it's damn near begging for sequence breaking. It's absolutely best of the league stuff.

Oh, and combat? Yeah, they went above and beyond there. Ori originally was more about using projectiles to attack, but Will of the Wisps offers a lot of hard hitting melee attacks. Once again, the animation work on these is sublime, especially the upswing on the hammer that sends enemies barreling into the air. The combat feels great and features some great boss battles that weave the old escape sequences within them effortlessly. Truly cinematic platforming peaks happen during these, and some of them are merely there as a boss switches into a new phase. It all seamlessly links together and, as expected, looks phenomenal the entire time. One specific combat quirk I love in Ori is how much of it ties back into the platforming excellence, bolstered heavily by the existence of Bash. Enemies can become little more than springboards to fly off of, but there are certain abilities in this game like the grapple that let you almost some DMC-lite stuff where you blast an enemy into the air, grapple up to them, bash off of them so they fly into another enemy, dash towards them right off the bash so you fly towards them to line up another grapple which then leads to a ground slam. Even returning to rooms in a game like this is hardly a bother, as bash lets you fly through screens. Bash is life.

The biggest task, even moreo than the combat, was to not just match but exceed the level design in Blind Forest. Will of the Wisps has a broad range of fantastic locales, all with stunning artwork with an OST to match. From the ethereal Luma Pools to the warm blanket of Wellspring Glades, all of these areas are an audio/visual feast that look at good as they feel to tear through.

I very recently started another playthrough on the Series X just to see how it looked, and it ended up turning into another playthrough out of nowhere. It's still super fresh in my mind, yet I find that I don't really have a ton to say about it. Will of the Wisps is simply an incredibly great Metroidvania, with a hard hitting story, incredible mechanics, incredible everything. Real tears were had at the ending, I don't care. Will of the Wisps is basically flawless, it's a game that deserves to be celebrated and studied because this world is way too garbage for this to exist.

I. Crosscode

CrossCode is a 16-bit styled action RPG that feels like it has been influenced by gaming of every era to be a true modern classic. The graphical style is reminiscent of games like Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana, mixed with dungeons like the Legend of Zelda, but it fully comes into its own as something truly special.

CrossCode takes place in a fictional MMO called CrossWorlds. You play as an avatar within the game called Lea, who suffers from amnesia (original, I know) alongside a rare vocal issue ingame that causes her to be almost entirely mute. She is an absolute goddamn delight and one of the best showcases of a "silent" protagonist I've seen. Initially she can only say "Hi", and large portions of the game is her struggling to communicate with other players—despite this, however, she still showcases a massive amount of emotion within her portraits. She wakes up being assisted by a programmer named Sergei, who is trying to help her regain her memory via playing through the game itself, and throughout the game slowly adds more words to her vocabulary. There is almost a parallel narrative happening here, as the player is experiencing both the story of CrossWorlds and the proper plot dealing with Lea on top of it. CrossWorlds is important for quite a few reasons however, both in gameplay and story.

As a single player game emulating an ingame MMO, CrossCode does a really great job at nailing the specific feel necessary to convey this world. The maps are littered with players that run around, jumping around in fields and buying everything up at a market. The faked hustle and bustle of these areas isn't something that really impacts or affects the player, but it still strikes a needed vibe that makes if feel like many other people are experiencing this at the same time. This extends to your actual ingame party members, who are treated as proper people playing the game alongside you instead of pawns to command. Their level ups and equipment are handled on their own, as they would, and there are times they aren't available to party up with as they are simply offline for the day. This setting also positions the game in a great spot to riff on a very specific brand of gameyness that I really loved to see.

Humor is a very subjective thing, but I hope we can all level a bit here. Recently I was playing Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, and got to a part where there was a conversation that really ended with "So what you're saying is, the cake was a lie?". Portal came out in GODDAMN 2007, for what reason is this happening? How? Why must we suffer? CrossCode, for my tastes, does a bang up job at more pointed meta humor that hits more at general game knowledge quirks. For example, there can be an NPC that Lea talks to that questions what she's doing, she replies "Hi?" and the NPC barks back that you've discovered his crimes and it's time to be silenced. This totally takes the piss out of poorly scripted characters not even realizing or caring what is being said, the player input doesn't matter as a bog standard reply is all they can do. This actually loops back into the main plot itself considering the game has to make the distinction between NPCs within the crossworld universe, and NPCs within the…game crosscode. These real players notice Lea is weird, yet she can't explain why, while she sees little to no issue navigating the MMO world as the NPCs aren't able to notice or give a shit. This type of thing is dotted all around the game, such as an ingame player marveling at one of the NPCs for having a rich backstory in comics outside the game, yet in CrossWorlds this NPC is a nothing tutorial character that simply loops attacks on a punching bag all day. These moments are great as they work on their own merits, Lea being unable to communicate yet seeing no resistance from ingame characters is inherently funny and relevant to the plot on its own, even without connecting the dots at the rest. In some ways it can be a caricature of gaming itself, or good natured ribbing that came off as charming. Not everything needs to be played up for laughs, though, as there are also plenty of moments such as players in a post-boss area talking about ways they cheesed the game that are entirely possible for you to have replicated, a cute subversion where the developers themselves are aware of their own exploits. Or I guess, designed these exploits into the fight itself specifically to have the character remark on it.

One of the first takeaways upon getting control is that gameplay in CrossCode is crisp as hell. Movement, momentum, and attacks just feel right. Lea is a spheromancer, which means within CrossWorlds she's a class that fights with two rings in her hand and can fire ball projectiles out. These projectiles can also be charged, which causes ricochets that become vital to many aspects of the game. Melee attacks, ranged attacks, dashing and guarding are the 4 actions that can get amplified by Combat Arts, which function as special attacks that you can choose within a skill tree. One of the ultimate goals of the MMO is to essentially become the Avatar; master of elements. Lea can then instantly swap from a neutral state into an elemental one, and though the 4 actions remain the same, the Arts change things up a lot. While a neutral dash special sees Lea do a barrage of attacks on an enemy, a dash fire art can place land mines that blow up on enemies. These ultimately culminate in some truly cool looking moves that impact the entire screen, like a fire dash attack that now summons meteors to rain down from the sky. This is all accompanied by impressive VFX and sound effects to add the extra oomph attacks like these need to feel satisfying.

What really makes the combat here, though, is the enemy design. Almost everything in the game has special strategies that lead to stun states for increased damage, which helps push this out of feeling mashy and instead implements light puzzle elements into encounters constantly. Two early examples are Hillcats and Bovines, two enemies seen in the first area. Bovines are like bulls with a protected face, so they barely take damage from the front, but can be kited to crash into walls so you can easily whack them in the back. Hillcats are like moles that pop out to throw things at you that burrow away when you get close, and hitting them with a charged ball while they're about to throw an object at you stuns them. It seems simple enough, but throughout the game the specific strategies and enemy makeups lead to a lot of fun juggling of various strategies to keep in mind. Enemy encounters, after completion, have a short timer on the screen that resets if a new fight starts as well, which adds to an overall combat rating that affects drop rates. While this is never really necessary, if there are specific drops the player wants, this feature is a satisfying way to tackle farming as S rank increases drop rates by a lot on top of adding special effects and a new combat tune to fight to. Add element swaps and weaknesses/strength to the mix, alongside a mechanic where overusing an element can overload Lea and force her into a neutral state for awhile and you have a combat system that does a good job of keeping the player engaged throughout.

Combat can almost be split into three categories, also. While on the overworld maps, the party members are all there. These fights are much more chaotic and lower stakes. Within a dungeon, the ingame world becomes instanced, so it's just Lea vs. the world, which is where the game can have more curated encounters designed around her specifically. Then there's the boss battles, which really flex the more puzzle based elements. This game has a ton of really fantastic fights that are not just screen filling and well animated, but genuinely tricky to pull off the strategies necessary to win.

And now for something completely different.

If Ori is gamefeel: the game, CrossCode is level design: the game. Every single area is filled to the brim with criss crossing pathing, using different layers of elevation in ways I have not seen a 16 bit style game use before. Key to all of this is a Zelda style auto-hop instead of a traditional jump button, as this does not put the onus on the player to actually perform and time these actions, instead they must figure out HOW to even navigate these areas. Areas in crosscode are all like one large map from above, flowing from one screen to the next. It is entirely possible that to reach a screen exit that goes south, one needs to actually go 2-3 screens away, find smaller platforms to get up, then circle back around. Here is a screen from Chrono Trigger.

This is a fairly typical example of how a game screen is laid out. The trees act as blockades, with the pathing being clear. There is probably a goodie in the dead end slot, and a split at the top. Here is a random shot from CrossCode.

Note that there is still a clear dirt pathing to guide the player, but if you were on the bottom layer, the elevated platforms dotted around the area are all navigable space that lead elsewhere. The top right of this screen is a smaller stepping stone Lea could use to get up and around here, but in some cases you may see something up above and reverse engineer back a few screens to mentally parse the navigation. The cherry on top? This is basically all optional. If you look at this and say "fuuuuuuck that", there are standard paths that just go to where you need to be. This is where side content comes in, as it often has you explore these deeper levels, and many of these culminate into some really fantastic moments. And, hell, here's the area above but pulled out to showcase the whole thing.

Alright. It's probably hard to make out the fine details from this, but I think it still showcases a few things. First, the way screens flow into eachother is really apparent. The second is while boundaries exist, they're more the sheer border of the map, while the rest is all explorable. This is essentially the first real area in the game, and the most simple. But even here, there is not only that dirt path that clearly shows a way through, but large portions of this (like the south split on the right side) are screens you can only reach via height. There's 4 screens in this one spot alone that you simply will not see without exploring, and I absolutely love that. It turns each screen into a puzzle; each area a wider place that can be visualized in your head. CrossCode does this E V E R Y W H E R E. Towns are not safe. An early harbor you reach immediately has a character sleeping behind boxes you can't reach, but it's possible to find a path to jump onto the fence of the area, and see how this dock now turns into its own little fence platforming space that leads you behind the boxes where this character is. The marketplace has a gap up a staircase that turns the top of the shops into stepping stones. It was so, so, so incredibly enjoyable to navigate these play spaces and see that your exploration was constantly rewarded. This all even ties back into the MMO stuff mentioned above, as the fake players populating these areas can sometimes be seen hopping around the upper levels, hinting at pathways you can trace. The only issue I had with any of this was some internal wrestling with depth perception, though I found this went away entirely later on. I'm not sure if I just became better at "reading" the level design to better parse the length of my jumps or not, but it's something to be aware of. This game takes the Zelda style hop to its natural conclusion. Again: it is critically important that the game doesn't let you get an extended jump via spinning off a ledge or something, as it lets them go crazier with the general layouts as it won't put the player in a spot where they question if a jump IS possible, they just flubbed it. CrossCode is secretly a syyyyck ass parkour game.

Beyond all of this, there's the dungeons. These are much more direct about puzzles and combat, and as mentioned earlier are instanced from your party so they have a more measured pacing within them. Big shocker: The dungeons are incredible. Lea's ranged attack is an absolute knockout as beyond the combat utility, the ricochet from the charge shot is used to an unreal degree for the puzzles dotted all throughout the game. The different elemental states also add further to the types of puzzles that get thrown at you, and this is also a game where simply solving what to do isn't enough. Execution, actually, is pretty tight and a big part of the obstacle at times. Strict timing, elemental swapping mid puzzle, and more are things the player needs to juggle. There is a modifier that can slow things down if it's too much, though I kept it at the standard speed. The game just feels like it really respects the players' intelligence to figure things out. There's a specific puzzle mechanic that absolutely broke my brain in half, but my party members were chipping in to mostly say how much they were also being massacred by this. Eventually through the various rooms the game puts you through, this all clicked and I felt like I ascended to a higher form. And it did so without a robot companion telling me the solution after trying once. They're great, and offer a good diversion from the overworld design which still feels puzzley in a different way.

CrossCode is simply the total package. It took me around 45 hours and never felt like it was just going through the motions, there is a constant level of clever scenarios being thrown at you, to the point that I have to question how a game like this even gets made at such a high quality. It begins to make sense when I see it's a small team of people that made this game over the better half of a decade, and every hour of that shows. The smart baseline mechanics get so much usage that never gets old, including side quests that offer entire genre swaps where the ball tossing mechanic is now being used to power up turrets for a tower defense game. There's even a stealth portion that doesn't suck, somehow. CrossCode has an enjoyable story with a charming cast of well written characters, wrapped up in a remarkably dense game that never failed to impress. It's my game of the year in a year that had steep competition, and I can't wait to dive back in for the DLC they're making. Play CrossCode, friends.

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I feel like I have to briefly touch on some other games, as I had so much trouble only making a list of 10 this year.

Honorable Mentions

Monster Train – A satisfying card based roguelike that features lane based fighting with minions from hell. It's a great contrast to Slay the Spire, as I found runs ramp up into their own at a much faster pace. Very fun and varied.

Legends of Runeterra – More cards! This Riot-fueled card game is a deep and fun experience, with a lot of visual flair and money behind it. Also the single most generous card game I've ever played, as outside of a $5 starter pack purchase I have 100% of the collection and have a truckload of resources to make whatever new comes out.

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling – A very strong RPG clearly going for the old Paper Mario crowd. Does plenty to feel like it isn't just a ripoff, however; with a strong central cast and a combat system that feels like it properly builds upon TTYD.

Spiritfarer – Why does a game that is ultimately like a farming sim have such ridiculously good looking animation? Why does Stella have a better double jump float than a lot of full blown platformers? It is a mystery.

Hypnospace Outlaw – It is genuinely wild to see such a well done recreation of the old internet. Nostalgia is hit for a time otherwise forgotten entirely in a way I don't think could be captured without a videogame like this.

Persona 5: Royal – It is simply unfair to other games if I had this on my proper list, so I discredited it for ultimately being an upgrade over the same game. This is the year where Among Us can be put on a list despite coming out years ago, so I can be arbitrary too, dammit.

The Last of Us Part II – I would not hesitate to call this the most impressive AAA game out there. It maintains a frankly dizzying amount of setpiece moments, strong encounter design, and looks absolutely gorgeous throughout its shockingly long runtime. There is a specific blend ND games hit between narrative and gameplay that falls flat without investment, which was the vital element that kept me from being grabbed as much as I would have liked.

Final Fantasy VII Remake – A game of extreme highs and lows, when this game is firing all cylinders it's one of my favorite games this year, period. The big remade moments like Wall Market are absolute knockouts, but inbetween these moments is some shoddy level design littered with slow walking and squeeze holes that damper the playability a lot. The combat system is an excellent marriage of modern and classic, which did a lot of heavy lifting in the moments I wasn't fully engaged. Leslie needs to be fired out of a cannon.

Astro's Playroom – A tech demo that is way better than it has any right being.

Demon's Souls – This is still probably my least favorite souls game, but god DAMN does it look good. The extra flair on the weapon specific backstabs was a great move from Bluepoint to further add to the impact in combat.

I'm probably forgetting stuff.

Half-Life: Alyx is the one game I really wanted to try but who knows if I ever will.
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And for the actual vote to count:

[XBO] [Action RPG] [Radical Fish Games] CrossCode
[XBO] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps
[XBO] [Shooter] [id Software] Doom Eternal
[XBO] [RTS] [Mimimi Games] Desperados III
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[XSX] [RPG] [Sega] Yakuza: Like a Dragon
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PS4] [Platformer] [Mossmouth] Spelunky 2
[XBO] [Action] [One More Level] Ghostrunner
[XBO] [Shooter] [Ghost Ship Games] Deep Rock Galactic

Xtortion · Feb 27, 2021

Welp

CrossCode gang rise up

CrocodileGrin · Feb 27, 2021

1. Persona 5 Royal - I knew the game was going to drop earlier in the year, but I had a not so successful history with the Persona series. I stopped playing P3 early on and I stopped somewhere in the second dungeon in P4G. I knew I couldn't play P5R until I completed P4G, the game I abandoned way back in 2013. Finished it, loved it, got the platinum trophy and was super excited to jump into P5R. This is not only one of the best games of 2020, it's one of the Top 5 games of the generation for me. The story is gripping, the cast of characters are fun and even though some parts of the story are predictable, there was one major twist I wasn't expecting and literally shocked me. A fantastic game, through and through.

2. Yakuza: Like A Dragon - A true surprise. I felt like I needed a break from all things Yakuza after playing so many of the games these past few years, and yet I bought this because there was a great deal on it. I really thought I'd drop off the game pretty early, however, I couldn't put it down! It's a parody of all things RPG, yet it is a competent RPG title in its own right. Many of the flashy summons and special class moves are hilarious and hard push the skip button on, because they are cool to watch each time. I didn't think anyone could replace Kiryu, nor Majima, two lovable and memorable characters from the franchise. Ichiban stands out on his own and is a perfect protagonist to take over. He's emotional, caring, stupid, and has a passion for helping friends out of a jam. He's awesome! I do hope one day they return to the beat'em up format, but I also hope they keep this RPG style strictly for Ichiban. Without spoilers, for the next game, they better make one pink haired Lightning doppelganger a playable character.

3. Streets of Rage 4 - The most challenging game I've played all year. I played so much that I eventually reached out to help friends to earn their own S-ranks. I never thought I'd get the platinum trophy for this, but I did it. I hope the devs consider dlc in the future.

4. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - It starts off confusing as hell. By the time you reach the middle, it's still confusing as hell. By the end, I thought I knew what was going on, but was still confusing lol. Seriously, it's a cleverly written story and the narrative presentation is what really makes it special with examining each character's path. I even enjoyed the tower defense gameplay.

5. Ghost of Tsushima - A good game. I feel like whatever the next Assassin's Creed game will be will just copy everything from it, but not fully grasp why it worked for GoT.

6. Nexomon: Extinction - The funniest game I've played all year. It's Pokemon, but with humor that isn't afraid to make fun of itself and is totally self-aware of what it is doing.

7. Marvel's Avengers - Let me get the bad stuff out of the way. This game has had its issues. There is the case of glitches, the post-game content sucks, the cosmetics are boring, and the rollout of dlc isn't moving fast enough. Game publishers and developers really need to reach the conclusion that mimicking the Destiny format has only worked for Destiny. Just loading your game with loot, daily/weekly missions, and copying similar design choices found in Destiny, but not doing anything beyond that will kill your game. Now for the positives. The campaign is really enjoyable and each character is unique to play as. As far as post-release, Kate Bishop was a fantastic addition to the team. I'll be honest and say I don't get the hate for her and Kamala. If you're upset that you don't know who they are and feel like they wasted a slot on the roster for them, I hate to break it to you, but they are the future. Marvel will be shoving the next generation of heroes down your throat in these next few phases of the MCU until the X-Men arrive, and this feels like a great introduction to them. Because of their inclusion, I bought and finished reading all of Ms. Marvel's first run and started to read Matt Fraction's Hawkeye, which seems the characterization/personality they are basing Clint and Kate on in the game. Overall, I just hope Square-Enix doesn't abandon the game after their next-gen launch and keeps pushing for more content. I still need She-Hulk in there before they quit for good lol.

8. Spiritfarer - I have a history of working in the field of death and dying, so this was something I could relate to and felt comfortable playing. What I didn't expect was it reminding me a lot of Stardew Valley, but with the theme of vulnerability, memories, coping, and death built around everything. It's the Kubler-Ross Model of Grief: The Game. If you can handle it, I definitely recommend it if you recently lost a loved one. For a game about death, Spiritfarer is a peaceful, relaxing, heartfelt, and tiring journey.

9. Cuphead - I can see why so many people listed it as GOTY when it was on Xbox. It's fantastic. I aced all the levels in the first world, but got stuck on the multiheaded dragon and clown in the second area of the game and never returned. I'll try to finish it this year.

10. Final Fantasy VII Remake - This is more like an honorable mention, but I'll include it anyway. I liked many things about FF7R, but the combat killed my interest. The combat caused me to jump on and off the game so many times throughout the year. What's funny is that when I switched over to Yakuza 7, I never came back for a long time, because I felt that game did a better job being a JRPG than this did. Around Chapter 8, I felt like I must have been playing the game wrong and I was blowing through my stash of healing items against normal enemies. It made me upset and when I died for a third time, I quit and never came back. This was all because I didn't want to reduce to difficulty to Easy. It's a pretty looking game and they actually gave Cloud a personality, omg! So yeah, I could compliment so many things about the game, but gameplay definitely wouldn't be one. I'll revisit it soon, but when I do, I'll most likely just lower the difficulty just to complete the story.

Honorable Mentions aka Games I Never Finished:

Crash Bandicoot 4 - Fun game, but yeah, it's hard. I didn't get to finish it unfortunately, but I did enjoy my time with it.
Nioh 2 - I like Souls games. This didn't click with me at all. Maybe I'll return to it, maybe I won't. I didn't care for it, but it did have an unique combat design and customization.
Immortals Fenyx Rising - I liked it, but need to continue the story.
Paradise Killer - I have it but was too busy to touch it.

[PS4] [RPG] [Atlus] Persona 5 Royal
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sega] Yakuza 5
[PS4] [Beat 'em up] [DotEmu] Streets of Rage 4
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PC][RPG][Lime Turtle] Nexomon Extinction
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Crystal Dynamics] Marvel's Avengers
[PS4] [Adventure] [Thunderlotus] Spiritfarer
[PS4] [Shooter] [StudioMDHR] Cuphead
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake

Illusionary · Feb 27, 2021

Xtortion said:
Welp

CrossCode gang rise up

Absolutely! Love to see it.

Papercuts The DLC was released on Friday (for PC at least), so for consoles only a few months to wait now.

CrocodileGrin · Feb 27, 2021

It said not to re-edit your post. I accidently voted for the wrong game lol. So trying this again.

1. Persona 5 Royal - I knew the game was going to drop earlier in the year, but I had a not so successful history with the Persona series. I stopped playing P3 early on and I stopped somewhere in the second dungeon in P4G. I knew I couldn't play P5R until I completed P4G, the game I abandoned way back in 2013. Finished it, loved it, got the platinum trophy and was super excited to jump into P5R. This is not only one of the best games of 2020, it's one of the Top 5 games of the generation for me. The story is gripping, the cast of characters are fun and even though some parts of the story are predictable, there was one major twist I wasn't expecting and literally shocked me. A fantastic game, through and through.

2. Yakuza: Like A Dragon - A true surprise. I felt like I needed a break from all things Yakuza after playing so many of the games these past few years, and yet I bought this because there was a great deal on it. I really thought I'd drop off the game pretty early, however, I couldn't put it down! It's a parody of all things RPG, yet it is a competent RPG title in its own right. Many of the flashy summons and special class moves are hilarious and hard push the skip button on, because they are cool to watch each time. I didn't think anyone could replace Kiryu, nor Majima, two lovable and memorable characters from the franchise. Ichiban stands out on his own and is a perfect protagonist to take over. He's emotional, caring, stupid, and has a passion for helping friends out of a jam. He's awesome! I do hope one day they return to the beat'em up format, but I also hope they keep this RPG style strictly for Ichiban. Without spoilers, for the next game, they better make one pink haired Lightning doppelganger a playable character.

3. Streets of Rage 4 - The most challenging game I've played all year. I played so much that I eventually reached out to help friends to earn their own S-ranks. I never thought I'd get the platinum trophy for this, but I did it. I hope the devs consider dlc in the future.

4. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - It starts off confusing as hell. By the time you reach the middle, it's still confusing as hell. By the end, I thought I knew what was going on, but was still confusing lol. Seriously, it's a cleverly written story and the narrative presentation is what really makes it special with examining each character's path. I even enjoyed the tower defense gameplay.

5. Ghost of Tsushima - A good game. I feel like whatever the next Assassin's Creed game will be will just copy everything from it, but not fully grasp why it worked for GoT.

6. Nexomon: Extinction - The funniest game I've played all year. It's Pokemon, but with humor that isn't afraid to make fun of itself and is totally self-aware of what it is doing.

7. Marvel's Avengers - Let me get the bad stuff out of the way. This game has had its issues. There is the case of glitches, the post-game content sucks, the cosmetics are boring, and the rollout of dlc isn't moving fast enough. Game publishers and developers really need to reach the conclusion that mimicking the Destiny format has only worked for Destiny. Just loading your game with loot, daily/weekly missions, and copying similar design choices found in Destiny, but not doing anything beyond that will kill your game. Now for the positives. The campaign is really enjoyable and each character is unique to play as. As far as post-release, Kate Bishop was a fantastic addition to the team. I'll be honest and say I don't get the hate for her and Kamala. If you're upset that you don't know who they are and feel like they wasted a slot on the roster for them, I hate to break it to you, but they are the future. Marvel will be shoving the next generation of heroes down your throat in these next few phases of the MCU until the X-Men arrive, and this feels like a great introduction to them. Because of their inclusion, I bought and finished reading all of Ms. Marvel's first run and started to read Matt Fraction's Hawkeye, which seems the characterization/personality they are basing Clint and Kate on in the game. Overall, I just hope Square-Enix doesn't abandon the game after their next-gen launch and keeps pushing for more content. I still need She-Hulk in there before they quit for good lol.

8. Spiritfarer - I have a history of working in the field of death and dying, so this was something I could relate to and felt comfortable playing. What I didn't expect was it reminding me a lot of Stardew Valley, but with the theme of vulnerability, memories, coping, and death built around everything. It's the Kubler-Ross Model of Grief: The Game. If you can handle it, I definitely recommend it if you recently lost a loved one. For a game about death, Spiritfarer is a peaceful, relaxing, heartfelt, and tiring journey.

9. Cuphead - I can see why so many people listed it as GOTY when it was on Xbox. It's fantastic. I aced all the levels in the first world, but got stuck on the multiheaded dragon and clown in the second area of the game and never returned. I'll try to finish it this year.

10. Final Fantasy VII Remake - This is more like an honorable mention, but I'll include it anyway. I liked many things about FF7R, but the combat killed my interest. The combat caused me to jump on and off the game so many times throughout the year. What's funny is that when I switched over to Yakuza 7, I never came back for a long time, because I felt that game did a better job being a JRPG than this did. Around Chapter 8, I felt like I must have been playing the game wrong and I was blowing through my stash of healing items against normal enemies. It made me upset and when I died for a third time, I quit and never came back. This was all because I didn't want to reduce to difficulty to Easy. It's a pretty looking game and they actually gave Cloud a personality, omg! So yeah, I could compliment so many things about the game, but gameplay definitely wouldn't be one. I'll revisit it soon, but when I do, I'll most likely just lower the difficulty just to complete the story.

Honorable Mentions aka Games I Never Finished:

Crash Bandicoot 4 - Fun game, but yeah, it's hard. I didn't get to finish it unfortunately, but I did enjoy my time with it.
Nioh 2 - I like Souls games. This didn't click with me at all. Maybe I'll return to it, maybe I won't. I didn't care for it, but it did have an unique combat design and customization.
Immortals Fenyx Rising - I liked it, but need to continue the story.
Paradise Killer - I have it but was too busy to touch it.

[PS4] [RPG] [Atlus] Persona 5 Royal
[PS4] [RPG] [Sega] Yakuza: Like a Dragon
[PS4] [Beat 'em up] [DotEmu] Streets of Rage 4
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PC][RPG][Lime Turtle] Nexomon Extinction
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Crystal Dynamics] Marvel's Avengers
[PS4] [Adventure] [Thunderlotus] Spiritfarer
[PS4] [Shooter] [StudioMDHR] Cuphead
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake

hydruxo · Feb 28, 2021

1) The Last of Us: Part II - What is there to say about this game that hasn't already been said? I loved the first game, but Part 2 really blew it out of the water for me. There's just so much to take in, from the devastatingly emotional story to the brutal well crafted combat. As far as I'm concerned, the journey that this game puts you through is up there as one of the all time greats. I have rarely been as invested in a game's story as I was in this, and it's hard to talk about the game's story without spoiling anything, so I'll just say it is a rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish for all characters involved. The performances by Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, Troy Baker, and the rest of the cast are nothing short of excellent.

The world that Naughty Dog created for each area and level is painstakingly crafted with immense levels of detail. There is so much thought poured into each encounter in order to give the player numerous routes and methods to get through them. The combat is fine tuned to perfection, and it's incredibly satisfying to use every type of weapon that you are given at your disposal. I was constantly finding myself impressed more and more by each subsequent area / act of this game, and it just continued to get better and better to the point where it's really baffling that Naughty Dog was able to achieve such a masterful game. This is one of those games where you just really don't even know how it was made because it's so impressive. As far as I'm concerned, The Last of Us Part II is the best game of 2020 and one of my favorite games of all time.

2) Ghost of Tsushima - From the moment Ghost of Tsushima was revealed, I knew I wanted to play it. I love samurai films and that initial reveal trailer nailed the feel and atmosphere of that era better than any other games ever have to that point. Sucker Punch taking such a drastic departure from InFamous to create this game paid off big time. The open world is a joy to explore and it is absolutely stunning. I must have taken 300 or more screenshots throughout my playthrough because the environments are picturesque at every turn you take.

The story is also captivating, and I really enjoyed Jin Sakai's arc. His struggle between remaining true to his samurai roots or breaking from them to become the ghost in order to save the people of Tsushima was really engaging and well done. I loved the way they gradually give you different side missions for the side characters that you can partake in if you want to know more about them, or don't if you aren't interested. Also liked doing the side quests in this game a lot because it really fleshed out the citizens of Tsushima and helped you understand what they were going through during the Mongol invasion. The best of the side quests were the Mythic Tales, which were special quests that were told as folk legends and had you retracing the steps of those tales in order to eventually gain a new ability by the end. They were all very well done and enjoyable. The combat also was surprisingly satisfying and fun. You're given more and more tools to add to your arsenal the further you progress, and you really do feel like a samurai. The stand-off mechanic turns normal fights with enemies into incredibly cinematic looking fights that are perfect for quick screenshots. There were also some really awesome duels in this game that make you feel like you're in the middle of a Kurosawa film. I cannot stress enough how well Sucker Punch nailed that vibe of a cinematic samurai film. This game is just oozing with style and I love it so much. The score by Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi is on point, and really fits the tone of the game well. There are moments that I vividly remember because of how memorable the music cues are (looking at you, title card drop).

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the incredible extra mode they added post launch in Ghost of Tsushima: Legends. It's a co-op mode with story missions, wave based missions, and even a three part raid. All with four classes, full level progression, and cosmetics. All for free, and it's an absolute blast. I had so much fun with my friends playing through it all. Overall, Ghost of Tsushima is just a fantastic game and I cannot wait to see what Sucker Punch does with the franchise going forward because the potential is endless.

3) Hades - First of all, I adore every game that Supergiant has created so far. Pyre is one of my all-time favorite games. As a result, I was feverishly excited to play Hades ever since the initial announcement trailer. It took a year and a half before it finally released on Switch and it was well worth the wait. What an experience this game is. I often have a good time with roguelikes but they usually fail to capture my attention long term. Hades has a perfect blend of excellent gameplay and well written captivating story beats, and this results in a game that you just don't want to stop playing. When you die, you're actually excited to see what new story beats are unlocked due to your death. That's part of the beauty of Hades. It's so well crafted that no matter how you're doing in the game, you're always advancing the story and your progression in some way that benefits you and keeps you invested. There's never a run that doesn't help you in some way and I just think that is a masterful feat by Supergiant. The gameplay is fast paced with a load of variety between the weapons and buffs from the pantheon of Greek gods. It's difficult, but with time you grow stronger and more capable until you eventually escape from the underworld in spite of the odds against you. Lastly, like every Supergiant game before it, Hades has breathtaking art and an incredible score that really helps you immerse yourself in this world. It's one of the greatest roguelikes ever created and one of 2020's very best games.

4) Genshin Impact - This game came out of nowhere for me. I hadn't even heard of it until a month before it released, and it has since consumed my life since it came out in September. It admittedly takes a lot of inspiration from other games, but Mihoyo manages to combine it all into a truly wonderful package. The open world is absolutely stunning and filled with thousands of chests and puzzles. They don't litter your map with icons, and instead you have to naturally discover them simply by exploring. It's one of the most addictive and fun open world experiences that I've had in a long time. I also really love the combat because while it's rather simplistic on the surface, it has a ton of depth with all of the weapons, artifacts, talents, and elemental combos to delve into. The large roster of unique characters with great designs is also a big draw for me, and it's always exhilarating to pull a character that you're excited for. I've put over 500 hours into the game so far and I still haven't gotten tired of it yet. I can't wait to see how the game evolves over the coming years and I recommend anyone who may be on the fence about the game to try it out because it's a blast.

5) Doom Eternal - I got to Doom 2016 a few years late, but I really enjoyed it when I did get around to finishing it. The feel of the gunplay in Doom is borderline perfect, and it's even better in Eternal. The sequel takes everything about the first game that made it great and just piles more on top of it. They add more movement abilities that make the combat even more frenetic and chaotic than ever before. They added platforming throughout the game and it gives the levels a sense of verticality that the first game didn't have. Speaking of the levels, I was really impressed by the atmosphere and vibrant colors in Eternal. There is a really diverse amount of environments in this game, and you never linger around on one long enough for it to get tiring. The level design is fantastic and there are tons of collectibles to find. The combat in Doom Eternal is incredibly satisfying, and it never gets old blasting demons into a billion pieces with your super shotgun. Oh and Mick Gordon's score is pitch perfect for the game.

6) Animal Crossing: New Horizons - There was a point in the first half of 2020 where Animal Crossing would have been my GOTY without a doubt in my mind. I spent hundreds of hours with it as a respite from the madness of last year and for that I have to give it the appreciation it deserves. As time has gone on, my opinion of the game has wavered a bit due to some criticisms I have of it, but I really did enjoy most of my time with New Horizons. The jolly art style, positive atmosphere, and lighthearted dialogue helped me stay in a good mood during some really tough times. Designing my island was a lot of fun, as was visiting the islands of my friends to see how they'd designed theirs. I also was into catching fish and bugs to fill up my museum, and the thrill of finally catching that massive fish that had eluded me is unmatched. In the end, while it has its share of flaws, I had a lot of fun with New Horizons and it kept me going for the first half of 2020. I think it was a game many of us needed during last year.

7) Spider-Man: Miles Morales - I love Insomniac's games, and Spider-Man 2018 was another favorite of mine from that year. Miles Morales builds off of that and it's great. Miles is a wonderful character and I found myself really invested in his story throughout this game. The way Insomniac grounded the game in Harlem to help the player see how Miles interacts with his friends, family, and community really added a lot to the story. Combat gets some new changes with Miles' other powers such as invisibility and venom attacks. Miles Morales is a stopgap between the first game and the eventual sequel, but it does enough to make it a worthwhile and very fun entry in Insomniac's Spider-Man series.

8) Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - I got a Switch in late 2019 and it was my first Nintendo console since the N64, so there was a long list of games I had wanted to catch up on over the years from Nintendo. Xenoblade Chronicles was one that I was always interested in but never was able to play until the Definitive Edition came out. I didn't really know much about the game, but what little I had seen had me intrigued. Needless to say when I played it, I had a blast. The world sucked me in right away, and the music is just so damn good. The combat is very unique, and it took me a bit to get used to it, but once it clicked I found myself getting really into it. I started going out of my way to initiate combat because I was enjoying the flow of it. I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed the story and characters. There's a lot of genuine emotion in the game that creates some memorable moments. Overall I really enjoyed Xenoblade and I'm looking forward to trying out XC2 eventually.

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9) Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 +2 - I have fond memories of playing THPS1 on my N64 back in middle school. I'd rush home to play it every day and it was the start of my love for skateboarding as a kid. Vicarious Visions clearly understood exactly what fans of the series wanted out of a remake of these games, and they absolutely nailed everything about it. It looks fantastic, runs flawlessly, has nearly all the original music as well as new music, lots of customization, etc. Just playing that demo of the warehouse level while 'Superman' by Goldfinger played nearly got me tearing up from the pure distillation of nostalgia it awoke in me. Just really could not have asked for a better remake and I think it's one of the best remakes of any game ever.

10) Immortals Fenyx Rising - This is a game that takes a lot of inspirations from other games such as Breath of the Wild, Assassin's Creed, and other open world titles, but it does so in a way that makes it really enjoyable. It wears its inspirations quite blatantly at times, but it never feels like a rip-off. Instead, it comes off as a passionate attempt to take aspects of those titles and improve upon them then create their own take on it. For example, the vaults in Immortals are similar to the shrines from BOTW, but I think the puzzles in Immortals are far more engaging and interesting. The puzzles stack a lot of layers on top of each other and are much more complex than I expected from a game like this. The combat is rather simplistic, but the way you upgrade your weapons and abilities is addicting and works well. The world is extremely vibrant and colorful which makes it a joy to explore. Zeus and Prometheus narrate the story throughout the game, and they usually will pop in with some humorous jokes about other gods which also serves as a good way to offer some Greek mythology history to the player. The humor isn't always on point, but I found the lighthearted tone refreshing. It's a fun game overall, and I had a good time with it. It doesn't take itself too seriously and as a result it's a very jolly experience.

Honorable Mentions:

Fall Guys Ultimate Knockout - I had a lot of fun with Fall Guys for a few weeks when it came out on PS+, but got a little bored after a while. Still a neat concept for a game and I'm sure I'll revisit it.
Super Mario 3D All-Stars - Never played these three games, so it was cool to play them for the first time. Some held up better than others, but it was still overall enjoyable. Especially Galaxy.
CrossCode - Sadly I did not get around to putting more time into this, but what I did play of it I played was great. Loved the concept of a single player RPG set inside of a MMO.

Lots of other games I didn't manage to get to at all in 2020 like FF7 Remake, Nioh 2, and Ori & The Will of the Wisps, so not sure how those would've affected my list. Overall 2020 was really an amazing year for games though!

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PS4] [Action RPG] [miHoYo] Genshin Impact
[PS4] [Shooter] [id Software] Doom Eternal
[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Insomniac Games] Spider-Man: Miles Morales
[Switch] [Action RPG] [MonolithSoft] Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
[PS4] [Sports] [Vicarious Visions] Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Ubisoft] Immortals Fenyx Rising

Andrew J · Feb 28, 2021

1. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - This game is a miracle. I mean that if you were to reduce it to an elevator pitch nobody would ever think it would work. An visual novel/adventure game, split across 13 different character paths, each reflecting different sci-fi inspirations, in anachronic order between and occasionally even within the character paths. Oh, and there are flashforwards to a completely different game, a real-time strategy giant robot RPG. Pitch that to most gaming executives and you'd get kicked out of the building.

Somehow, though, it actually works. Structurally, the writing and gating have been carefully crafted so that world-shattering reveals are doled out a deliberate and mostly manageable pace, and everything comes together in a way that actually makes sense. The character art and backgrounds are gorgeous, and while the adventure segments sometimes get a little fiddly on the ludic side they do a great job of putting you in the characters' minds and letting you understand their motivations.

The battle segments do a lot with a little; there wasn't enough budget to pull off really elaborate combat scenes that you might see in the likes of Super Robot Wars, but the small animations that play whenever you highlight an attack give just enough context for your imagination to bridge that gap. Defeating a large number of enemies with a huge AOE attack feels satisfying in a way few other tactics games have ever approached.

2. Ghost of Tsushima - A prestige game where the realism dial was pulled back just enough to produce some of the most impossibly beautiful natural landscapes ever seen, and where the game's systems all push you to live in those landscapes as much as possible. It takes inspiration from Breath of the Wild in the way it tries to guide the player more through diegetic cues than artificial markers, so that you are present in the world instead of wading through menus or focusing on the minimap. Smoke, golden birds, haikus, and especially the guiding wind allow you to immerse yourself in the world in a practical, functional way throughout.

The story and character presentation is an anachronistic samurai movie pastiche, lovingly made by weebs for weebs, highly enjoyable when taken on its own terms. The gameplay systems not mentioned above are largely an unoriginal but well-executed implementation of the usual AAA open world/stealth/combat/traversal/sidequest/collectathon/skill tree/equipment upgrade gumbo; I don't play a ton of these types of games myself, so it didn't feel very played out.

Ghost of Tsushima is also a technical marvel, with fast loading times and noticeable framerate drops only in the big climax, even on a base PS4.

3. Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Everything from the first Ori is retained, the art, the music, the cuteness, the traversal mechanics that demand speed and precision but feel so satisfying when you just nail a bunch of tricky moves in a row. Plus: actually good combat! The initial sword move you get early would in itself be a large improvement over the original, but Ori gets a number of combat skills, each with their own specific feel and utility. It's a good thing too, because there are now for-real boss fights, although the signature escape sequences are still impressive, occasionally intertwined within the boss fights in ways that just add to the spectacle. The main story of Ori and his family is as affecting as ever, and there's a revelation in the ending that genuinely surprised me, although the NPCs in the quest hub mostly seemed kind of pointless.

Had a few crashes, but never in the middle of anything important, and otherwise I didn't have any technical complaints on a base XB1.

4. Spider-Man: Miles Morales - More Spider-Man, but shorter and (largely) easier. Miles has fewer gadgets than Peter but Venom powers more than make up for it; the Mega Blast in particular, when used at the right time, can trivialize what might otherwise be very tough fights. Invisibility also lets you reset stealth segments if you get discovered that wasn't possible in the original. The final boss, I will say, is here both harder and more engaging.

The story is really where this game sets itself apart. Miles's warmth and kindness, his representation of marginalized people, and his youthful exuberance make him incredibly endearing, and its a joy to watch him grow into a more confident hero. Contra Dr. Mario I thought it did a good job of explaining why Tinkerer would reject everything Miles had to say out of hand after a certain point.

The game probably should have leaned more explicitly into racial justice discussions than it actually did, although the difference in attitude towards cops between the original game and this one is both a vivid illustration of the effect BLM has had on public percepts of the police and just flat out hilarious.

5. Persona 5 Royal - The quality of life changes alone are immense. Refilling ammo every fight makes guns much more useful. Having Baton Pass unlocked for everyone automatically is great. The music changing with every new zone of Mementos should have been like that in the original, and not just because the default Mementos theme is kind of bad. The grappling hook nakedly exists as an excuse for showing off dynamic camera movement as Joker zips around, but it's pretty impressive-looking all the same.

The new story content is pretty dope. Kasumi is charming and has a good arc, the new villain has understandable motivations, Joker's relationship with Akechi over the course of the whole game is more interesting, the darts minigame feels good, and the final dungeon has some neat gimmicks.

6. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Scratched that Zelda itch while also providing a fairly substantive musou game. Far from being a thoughtless button masher, it demands you balance meters, items, and character positioning to achieve victory, which I usually accomplished pretty narrowly. The Divine Beast segments were a little unwieldy at first but after getting used to them it was great fun wiping out hordes of enemies with them. The story I expected to be a fairly straightforward expansion of events previously seen, but actually turned out to be about time travelers trying to create a separate timeline. Funny, that seems to be a theme this year...

7. Final Fantasy VII Remake - I only played the original FFVII earlier last year, but I naturally absorbed a lot of it through cultural osmosis, and I can't say I don't have any secondhand nostalgia for it. With that said, VIIR really nails the storytelling. Every character is so expressive, and we spend so much more time with them, that we get an overall much clearer picture of everybody's nuances much earlier in the story. Cloud fronting a cool persona, Aerith's mischievousness and hidden feelings of isolation, Barrett's soft side, Tifa's ambivalence, Sephiroth...is still pretty one-note grandiose egotism, but that's what we love about him.

And it leans into all the weird shit, too! Every bizarre monster is back with an improbable explanation, Cloud in a dress is prettier than anyone could have hoped for, they even reminded everyone that a corporate executive is remote-controlling a robot cat way before that even becomes relevant.

The gamier parts are where it falls a bit short. Even standard ATB is a bit too action-focused for my taste in turn-based combat. The combat here was admittedly engaging at the start, but I didn't have the patience to really learn the boss fights from the midpoint on and just turned it down to easy. A lot of the dungeons leave a lot to be desired aesthetically, and the amount of squeeze-through loading points got to the point where it felt like the game was mocking me.

8. Hades - The randomness and lack of permanent progression in roguelikes turns me off, so when I heard high praise for one that had a fair amount of story and mechanical progression after death I was willing to give it a try. You always get something from a run, especially if you're on God Mode, and the characters comment on Zag's frequent deaths. Combined with snappy, satisfying moment-to-moment gameplay, beautiful character portraits, and voice acting that elevates the charming, witty dialogue and you have an excellent experience.

The randomness still annoyed me, though. While rare you do run into occasions where the boons you get just don't gel right. It's also frustrating to not run into a character you want in a run, or to head back to the House of Hades and see that Meg isn't there when you wanted to give her more nectar or something.

Also, doing the last four clears to see credits all in a row made my right shoulder ache for days, and however irrational I will hold that against this game.

9. Streets of Rage 4 - I have a lot of love and respect for beat-'em-ups, even though I've rarely been very good at them. I tried out the first three SoR games before playing 4, and from what could tell it faithfully replicated a lot of what made the originals so popular, the simple but fun fighting system, the fun sets of heroes and villains, and a pretty punishing difficulty level. The new characters sprites look amazing still and in motion.

10. The TakeOver - 2020's other big beat-'em-up revival, The Takeover's polygonal graphics admittedly look pretty janky, but it still plays quite well. It gets a bit more experimental in places, and it actually makes the slightest effort to make its story interesting!

11. Star Wars Squadrons - Tries to split the difference between the deep systems management of the PC games and the arcade action of Rogue Squadron and doesn't really land as well as either. Still an enjoyable (if short) campaign once you adjust your explanations. Well probably rate much better with people who are into multiplayer.

12. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 - More classic Castlevania from Inti Creates and Iga. Playing through the same stages for the various routes does get repetitive, but the alternate paths unlocked by various configurations of party members injects some novelty into the proceedings.

13. Astro's Playroom - A neat little package of platforming challenges and Dualsense tech demos, what will really stick in my memory is a reverential nostalgia for gaming hardware I previously only associated with Nintendo.

14. Murder by Numbers - Everyone is right, this is a fusion of Ace Attorney and Picross. I've loved Ace Attorney for year, and it turns out Picross isn't really for me. I was able to power through it and enjoy the story nonetheless.

[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[XBO] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Insomniac Games] Spider-Man: Miles Morales
[PS4] [RPG] [Atlus] Persona 5 Royal
[Switch] [Hack and slash] [Omega Force] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PS4] [Beat 'em up] [DotEmu] Streets of Rage 4
[Switch] [Beat 'em Up] [Pelikan13] The TakeOver
[PS4] [Space combat] [Motive Studios] Star Wars: Squadrons
[PS4] [Platformer] [Inti Creates] Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sony Interactive Entertainment] Astro's Playroom
[Switch] [Visual Novel] [Mediatonic] Murder by Numbers

TheGreatLugia · Feb 28, 2021

I mostly played older games last year, so this is a very short list.

1. Final Fantasy VII Remake - Out of the Square-Enix developed games I've played, this is easily one of my favorites. It takes the already great characters from the early section of Final Fantasy VII and fleshes them out really well. The combat system is a really neat hybrid between full action combat and ATB mechanics. The soundtrack is great and the way Midgar's been rebuilt is really something. I think it says a lot that this game feels like a full sized adventure when the original version of the story section it covers only lasted about 5 hours. I'm really excited to see what the second game will be like.

2. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - I've gushed for years about Xenoblade Chronicles being my favorite game so I'll mostly skip that just to say everything I loved about the original game is still intact in Definitive Edition. As for the remaster itself, I think its additions are excellent. The characters look incredibly close to how I had always pictured them in my head, and the updated environments often look stunning. The redone soundtrack has a lot of changes I really like, and the original soundtrack being included as an option is nice to see as well. The redone menus and the quality of life changes definitely help to alleviate some of the smaller issues I had with the original version, and Expert Mode lets you do as much side content as you want without having to worry about getting overlevelled. Future Connected is a solid bonus chapter with lots of fun character interactions, and the Bionis' Shoulder is now one of my favorite maps in the game. I wouldn't rate Future Connected as highly as Torna - The Golden Country, but I think it gives some nice additional closure to one of the main game's story arcs.

[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[Switch] [Action RPG] [MonolithSoft] Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Limabean01 · Feb 28, 2021

1. 13 sentinels: Aegis Rim - easily the best narrative written this year among games, tv and movies, and possibly the best I've ever experienced in a game. It's not a perfect product, but the masterful storytelling/character building along with sheer sci fi charm more than makes up for its missteps. Furthermore, the real-time-strategy gameplay is exactly what I needed to accompany the extremely ambitious sci fi story, and I'd truly enjoyable in its own right. The plot twists are just so satisfying - they are surprising, and yet completely make sense within the information given. Everything just connects so well.

2. Xenoblade Chronicles Defninitive Edition - one of my favourite games of all time got a wonderful remaster; it was always destined to be high on this list, and it not being number one is a testament to the strength of the game above. Widely considered monolith's opus, this game truly has everything you could want in a JRPG... loveable cast, an engaging fantastical story, surprisingly unique/fun gameplay, and almost unrivalled exploration. This was my third time playing it and I fell in love all over again. It's a shame future connected isn't at the same level as the main game, but it's purely additional to the overall product regardless.

3. Pikmin 3 Deluxe - another game I had already played. In fact, Pikmin 3 was one of the games I first fell in love with, when I played it back in middle school. Genuinely one of the most creative and unique games and a strong testament to a fun gameplay loop being the most important thing a game can have. The characters and scenery are of course very charming/beautiful too, which just enhances the absurdly fun & relaxing game underneath.

4. A Short Hike - I randomly impulse bought this the day it launched and shocked myself with how much I enjoyed it. Something about the stunning pixelated graphics, along with a beautifully symbolic and simple story, reminded me a bit of celeste (my equal favourite game of all time), which is perhaps why I liked it so much. It was just really relaxing and joyful to play, both a lovely piece of escapism and self reflection.

5. Hades - though definitely not supergiant's best, this was undeniable extremely enjoyable and addictive to play. It kind of perfects the whole roguelike formula gameplay wise, I just wish other aspects like characters, visuals, and ESPECIALLY sound design were stronger. Regardless, it was a true joy to play, and the varied play styles make it highly replayable.

6. Final Fantasy VII Remake - my first time playing 7 was through this game, and honestly I was really impressed. Tifa and Aerith largely held the game together character and story wise, but the gameplay and progression were fun enough to keep me engaged. Despite common complaints it really is a stunning game visually speaking, midgar looks amazing. Looking forward to the next entries.

7. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE encore - this is an odd entry but it's kind of purely because of a combat system that has NO right being so good. Literally better than any SMT or persona game I've played and for what?! The idol situation and FE elements are often fun enough and the performances rly slay but tsubasa is annoying. Kiria and Eleonora INVENTED the occupation of girlboss though omg

8. Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin - a very charming game combining the unlikely pair of rice farm simulation with 2d platforming and resource management. The story isn't really much to write home about but the cultural elements and gameplay are unique and a real blast. So glad it's doing well bc we need more stuff like this

9. Super Mario 3D All Stars - many complained about the packaging of this collection, or wished for remasters over simple emulation. These may have been fair arguments, but as someone who was 6 when galaxy came out it was great to finally experience these classics. To me it was essentially three new 3D Mario's, all fantastic highly acclaimed games in their own right (well, two of them at least). 64 and galaxy held up astonishingly well and were extremely fun, whilst sunshine was at least... interesting to experience. 3D world and Odyssey outdo all 3 imo but overall a fantastic group of games

10. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - even if covid wasn't around, this game would be on this list and would have become a massive phenomenon worldwide. The core idea is just that good, along with the execution. I got bored after a while, but like the past games it's just so calming and nice and comfy... it knows what kind of experience it wants to deliver and it does so effortlessly.

Neiteio · Feb 28, 2021

I played about a dozen major games in 2020 (including Doom Eternal, The Last of Us Part II and Pikmin 3 Deluxe), but below are the six titles that made the strongest impression:

1. Final Fantasy VII Remake — This game may very well be the best "Stars Wars" adventure since the original Star Wars trilogy — and it's not even set in that universe! While the original FF7 hasn't aged all that gracefully, between its Popeye-armed Lego people and clumsy English localization ("This guy are sick!"), the remake of the Midgar arc dramatically expands and enhances the tale with characters that sound and act like REAL people (anime grunting aside). The remake makes the original game's characterization look like a skeleton of a rough draft — and it shows just how much potential the original game left untapped in its mad dash from one scenario to the next.

Here, the remake takes its time, emotionally grounding the characters in a way that is truly resonant. Chapter 4 is the perfect encapsulation of this: It's a completely new addition to the tale, elevating a group of side characters (Jessie, Biggs and Wedge) from relative nobodies in the original, to people you care about in the remake. Jessie is now a firecracker, high on life; she knows what she wants (Cloud!) and she's empowered to get it. But she's not some vapid flirt, either — she struggles with guilt over collateral damage caused by her group bombing the reactors; she has unfulfilled dreams as an aspiring actress; and she has anxiety over the well-being of her family. In getting to know her, Cloud begins to think about the feelings of somebody other than himself and his childhood friend Tifa.

In the same chapter, Cloud finally cracks a smile, and he jokes around; he comforts the worrywart Biggs, and he even expresses concern for a wounded Wedge, walking him home. At the end of the night, Tifa meets with Cloud and remarks, "You're losing that hard edge." Thus, this chapter that at first appears like "filler" reveals itself to be one of the most important additions to the story: It's the point at which Cloud's selfish ice-cold facade begins to thaw out, and the point where he begins forming connections with those around him. It humanizes Cloud — and the story is much stronger for it.

The overall adventure is incredible, with consistent escalation and deescalation and re-escalation, from the opening bombing run, to Cloud falling through the church, to the fateful night in Wall Market and beyond, culminating in the famous infiltration of Shinra HQ and the dramatic escape thereafter. More than 20 spectacular bosses, each its own memorable set-piece, serve as anchor points that propel the cast to places above and below Midgar's plate, dividing them and reuniting them, with so many quiet moments in between to catch your breath, soak up the atmosphere of a richly detailed city and just *bask* in the company of these characters. The combat in this game is truly excellent, possibly the finest battle system I've seen in a JRPG, deftly blending the best of both worlds — slowing time to a crawl with the tap of a button so that you can evaluate the battlefield and select commands, alongside fancy footwork and fast-paced slashing, shooting, brawling and spell-casting that feels reminiscent of a stylish character action game.

To me, it's like another all-time classic, Resident Evil 4, in that another favorite moment is always right around the corner. It's exciting to think that with the newly announced FFVIIR Intergrade, we will have even more adventures in Midgar while we wait for Part 2. And it's even more exciting to think of the enormous totality of what they're attempting with these audacious remakes. So long as they don't lose sight of the heart of the characters, it's a project destined for greatness. Part 1 is already there.

2. Resident Evil 3 — Another remake, and a more polarizing one, too — but for my tastes, RE3R is a much more enjoyable game than the acclaimed RE2R. The key to its appeal is it doesn't overstay its welcome. Whereas RE2R began to tire me out past the police station, RE3R whipped me along from one focused scenario to another. You can even pause and skip the briefest of cutscenes, like the canned animation when you jump gaps! It also lends itself well to memorizing level layouts and enemy placements (until they get remixed in the higher difficulties), with just enough complexity that my brain could retain these details but barely so (your mileage may vary!). The game also encourages replays with an unlock system yielding new weapons and power-ups, around which the higher difficulties are designed (although not impossible to beat without). The addition of a dodge-roll into slow motion, similar to Bayonetta's Witch Time, elevates the combat to something more artful (and less hapless) than the easily cornered rookies of RE2R. And Jill herself makes for a brilliant protagonist — an extremely capable woman who is pursued by an overwhelmingly powerful and nonconsensual masculine force: Nemesis! This game has "Terminator" or "Alien" vibes where the stalker just won't take the hint — and where finally taking him down is SO satisfying.

3. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity — I devoured this game, 90 hours straight, completing it 100%, which is amazing since I rarely do that these days. But I relished the opportunity to revisit the world of Breath of the Wild, in this epic prequel story that is canon, albeit with a twist that is a spoiler to say… Here, we get to spend more time with characters that had compelling designs in BotW, but who were under-utilized in that game. And the linear nature of the story, with its abundance of voiced cutscenes, hits differently than the piecemeal approach of BotW, where the story was told in flashbacks you had to manually discover, often out of order and with hours of exploration in between. That model worked well for that game, but I appreciated the more straightforward approach here, diving into the history of the war that brought Hyrule to its knees. The action is thoroughly addictive, challenging you to find efficient ways to dismantle your foes, using your runes and rods along with environmental traps and your slow-mo dodge into flurry attacks, all to expose your enemy's weak-point gauge. Dealing with multiple strong enemies at a time, and learning who to prioritize and how, is a puzzle in itself. And the rewards are materials that fulfill well-written side quests that power up your party in meaningful ways. The game perfectly captures the atmosphere of BotW, and is an essential companion piece to it.

4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons — The addition of do-it-yourself recipes, with materials to mine and items to craft, add a layer of mechanical richness to Animal Crossing's winning formula that makes the experience more addictive and engaging than ever. Dramatically expanded creative options also make this the series' most expressive entry yet. You can display furniture and other items anywhere, even outside, and you can freely reshape the landscape by adding and subtracting paths, cliffs, rivers, ponds, waterfalls and more. You have complete control over the location of neighbors and public works, and each new addition arrives at a measured pace that sees the island evolving daily. Nurturing my town to its current state was one of the best ways to beat the pandemic. It's also a surprisingly beautiful game, with subtle shaders and strong lighting that makes the art style pop. Simply one of the most therapeutic games around, arriving at the perfect time for the world.

5. Hades — At first glance, it may be difficult to decipher the appeal of this game, which to the uninitiated looks like a hot-footed sprite of a man, dashing left and right past an onslaught of enemies. But once you've gone through its cycle of reincarnation — attempting to escape the underworld only to die and return to the hub area — it begins to make sense. Each time you die, you bring back with you resources that can permanently power up your character to get you farther on the next attempt. And each attempt is different, because the chambers of the labyrinthine underworld rearrange themselves each time, changing their contents as well — not only the enemies you face, but also the gifts you receive from the gods, which modify the way you attack and evade. Each time you get a bit farther than before, but when you die and find yourself back at the House of Hades (your home as Prince of the Underworld), you also advance the story, since each NPC seems to have new observations to share, slowly revealing more about themselves in the process. It's a marvel how after so many attempts, they still don't repeat themselves, and each NPC is worth hearing, with wonderful writing and voice acting. It's also a marvel how you always feel like you're making progress in Hades, even if the game offers a challenge befitting its namesake.

6. Part Time UFO — I cannot help but smile every time I play this game, whether by myself or in couch co-op with a friend. From the developers who makes the Kirby games, this title is an absolute gem, with an art style and animation that is infectiously charming. Pay attention to the backgrounds and you will see something that makes you laugh in just about every level. Your goal as an adorable UFO is to help people with odd jobs you see advertised in the newspaper, using your crane arm to lift and plop into place such things as the pillars of a temple in Greece… or gerbils in a circus, delicately set on the balancing stick of an elephant riding a unicycle on a tightrope… or cheerleaders who need to be stacked on top of each other for a high school photo shoot. Grasping and releasing items feels great in part because the physics of how they fall together (and apart) is perfectly on point. One of the game's best modes is where you (or you and a friend!) see how high you can stack a never-ending stream of ludicrously shaped objects before they topple over and come crashing down. That mode alone is worth the game's modest price of admission.

[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS4] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[Switch] [Hack and slash] [Omega Force] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[Switch] [Puzzle] [HAL Laboratory] Part Time UFO

chancellor · Feb 28, 2021

The last of us part 2 - ND knocked it out of the park. Great storyline and improvements on combat were exceptional.

Miles morales - an awesome miles story and it is always fun to swing around nyc

Ghost of Tsushima - such a great open world game. Best I've played in a long time. Fast travel was like having a ps5 5 months early.

Persona 5 Royal - the new ending was brilliant to play through

Ff7 Remake - My only other Ff game was 15 and I did not like it. 7 I loved its made me want to try other games in the series

Astros playroom - can't wait for a fully fledged game but this was still fun for 3 - 4 hours and my first ps5 platinum

Resi 3 Remake - Excellent but short. The multiplayer tagged on is ok.

Fall guys ultimate knockout - Winning a crown always feels great. Best ps plus game since rocket league

Hades - played this most recently and was tempted to place higher but felt this was right spot. The best rogue like I have played ever.

Tony hawk - sports game of the year

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Insomniac Games] Spider-Man: Miles Morales
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PS4] [RPG] [Atlus] Persona 5 Royal
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sony Interactive Entertainment] Astro's Playroom
[PS4] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[PS4] [Party] [Mediatonic] Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[XBO] [Sports] [Vicarious Visions] Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2

SlickVic · Feb 28, 2021

2020 was undoubtedly a hard year for us all. More than ever, it made me appreciate playing video games perhaps more than I have in the past. After long and treacherous days at work, there was a nice comfort in immersing myself in a good game over a free weekend. And truthfully, not every game I played in 2020 was a peaceful and chill experience (as evidenced by some of the titles I listed below), but if nothing else, it was nice to have some moments where I didn't have to think of the pandemic, and the toll it's been taking on us all.

So without further ado, I present my favorite games of 2020:

Main List:

1. Last of Us Part 2

The Last of US Part 2 joins Uncharted 4 for me in terms of being a sequel I never asked for (I was wholly satisfied with how the first game ended and would have been perfectly fine if a sequel was never made), but I'm so glad it was made all the same. At it's core, The Last of Us 2 is a story of revenge, the cost of exacting it, and the age old question of 'was it really all worth it?'. This is of course not a novel concept in storytelling (video game or otherwise), but I think it's the way it's presented here that makes it especially impactful to me. The idea of presenting a story from different perspectives made me appreciate and understand characters I had initially thought of as simply 'the bad guys'. It's a story I'll probably continue to reflect on in my mind for quite some time to come. And in terms of atmosphere, it still amazes me just how detailed and finely crafted the 'levels' in the game are, and just how well they brought the 'post apocalypse' to life.
I'd also be remiss not to mention that I found the combat quite satisfying as well, and as someone who primarily tries to play these games by sneaking around, it also felt good to be able to switch to a more aggressive play style with a mix of crafted items and guns when I got spotted. I appreciated the game offered that flexibility (at least on moderate difficulty). I personally really liked the mid-encounter checkpointing for the most part, and also appreciated having the fallback of not having to redo an entire encounter when things got really dicey. And I think Naughty Dog also deserves a lot of credit for offering so many accessibility options in general.
If there's one thing I was less thrilled about in the combat it was probably the melee stuff. It feels built off the Uncharted 4 system, and I just never felt super satisfied with the dodging aspects of it, especially when they seem to use it in the big story moments in both games. But it's still admittedly a small part of a game I otherwise enjoyed the combat for.
Overall, I had a great time experiencing The Last of Us Part 2. Though as I write that down, I admit it's almost a bit odd to say that, considering how 'hard' and difficult some of the moments in the game can be to actually experience. But at the same time, there's an intensity to the story that kept me gripped all the way though, and it's a game with a lot of polish overall. It's what makes it my overall GOTY for 2020.

2. Cyberpunk 2077

There's no denying Cyberpunk 2077 is a buggy game, and depending on the hardware you try to run it on, a game with unacceptable performance issues. While I've personally been fortunate enough not to have run into too much of the latter on the PC (for now), I have seen plenty of the former. Bugs that have ranged from the benign (things like weapons and phones floating in the air, V's shadow being bald despite selecting a hairstyle) to the more annoying (including a quest that prevented me from saving the game after completing it, or another that refused to complete as the NPC quest giver 'glitched out' and wouldn't give the dialogue choices clearly required to advance the quest). While most of the 'bigger' issues I've run into have been fixable by rolling back to an earlier save or finding a solution online (and one key for this game to save often and drop as many manual saves as you can), there's no doubt these issues as a whole cause some loss in immersion, which is quite unfortunate, to say the least.

And yet despite the above issues, I have to admit that I'm really enjoying the game and the actual content of what's in here. And to be fair, I'll be the first to admit I love Cyberpunk as a genre, and Cyberpunk 2077 had been one of my most anticipated games for a long time heading into its release. Especially in a time where AAA Cyberpunk games are so few and far between these days (the last one I can really think of is Deus Ex which is nearing 5 years old at this point and appears to be on an indefinite hiatus). It's safe to say I was really looking forward to playing any AAA game in the 'cyberpunk' space, especially one coming from the developers of 'The Witcher 3', one of my favorite games of the last generation. And I find myself really enjoying this game both for the feeling of being inside a 'Cyberpunk' world, but also for the main reason The Witcher 3 was endearing to me. Which is an interesting main story and great side quests that flesh out that world. Full disclosure, I haven't finished the game (I've put about 40 hours into it) so it is possible my opinions may change by the time I wrap up my time with it. But at least for now, I've enjoyed the writing quite a bit, with the quests reminding me of what I enjoy about writing in science fiction stories, by exploring themes of technology and how it shapes us. Certain quests give off that vibe to me like I'm seeing something that could be features as a concept in a 'Black Mirror' episode, and it's just really fun to experience that 'first hand' in a video game.

I admit I was also very skeptical when CDPR announced the game would be presented mostly in first person perspective. One of my favorite aspects of a third person game is the ability to see the character I so carefully created, especially in cutscenes. And while I wish the game would give us more opportunities to customize our character after we create them (I was disappointed to learn that I needed a mod to change V's hairstyle for example), I really do like the first person perspective to the world. I find the facial animations for NPC's are quite well done overall, and are easy to appreciate in the first person view during conversations. It's a system that creates a strong sense of immersion for me (where I feel like I really am 'V'), even if bugs do unfortunately take that overall immersion down a notch.

And on topic of the Witcher 3, I will say I am enjoying Cyberpunk's combat a lot more. While the actual gunplay isn't too different from what I'd expect out of an FPS, hacking enemies I feel provides a more distinct 'niche' for the game's combat, while trying to launch off a hack to augment combat, or a different one to facilitate a stealthier playthrough. It's good fun.

In terms of the games controversies leading up to launch, I think the conversation surrounding inclusion and representation are very important. Personally, I would have loved to see more trans representation in the game, but I will say I did enjoy running into Claire in one of the game's many side quests and learning more about her backstory. I feel she became one of my favorite NPC's in the game I've run into so far (also was glad to hear that a trans woman was her VA). I was also glad to see the character customization options, including the one that allowed me to pick a feminine voice with a masculine body, or vice versa. CDPR's decision to tie pronouns to voice is not one I agree with, and I would have vastly preferred a more elegant system that allowed pronouns to be selected as a separate option. Regardless of the logistical complications that may have made this challenging (including the main character VA's having to record certain lines with different pronouns as well as a non-gendered option, in addition to potentially having different NPC dialog recorded in reaction to that), I do think it's too bad we didn't get more options here.
But at the same time, I feel 99% of the video games I play with a character creator have 'gender locked' voices and don't even provide such an option to select a different voice type begin with (the only series I can think of in recent memory that did this was Saints Row 2-4). While games may have understandable reasons to do this (i.e. romance options tied to a specific gender are only recorded with said voice), I just wish we took other games to task for this as well. Yes, Cyberpunk 2077 is a game existing in a world where body modification is a norm, and it's not unreasonable to expect the game to have more options for inclusion as a result of this. But I wish video games as a whole would do better here. Games like Cyberpunk and Saints Row feel like rarities where I have at least some option to play as a non-binary character if I choose (and again, CP2077 doesn't handle this perfectly). And I think that's unfortunate more games don't have such options in character creators (even if I understand why it happens). So I am glad this game allowed me some more freedom in that regard.

To wrap things up, I think if Cyberpunk 2077 released in 2021, and in turn fixed more of its bigger bugs and performance issues during that time, there's a good chance this would have been my overall GOTY for 2021. Despite the bugs, I've really enjoyed a lot of what I've played, to the point that I still feel confident in saying it was my second favorite game I played that was released in 2020. But it's hard for me to deny this is a game that lacks polish at the moment, and is still in need of more post-release patches to fix its bigger technical issues. And again, while I have enjoyed this game a lot, it's unfortunate they didn't take the time to address more of these issues at the time of launch.

3. Dragon Quest XI S

Full disclosure, I did actually play this on the Switch where it released in 2019, but I did play the game in 2020, and I enjoyed the game so much that I'd feel remiss if I didn't get to include it on here (especially when the 'S' version did come to other platforms in 2020). I'll have to admit, when I first started playing DQXIS I honestly wasn't really sure I was going to finish it. It's always challenging for me to commit the time to play longer games (even though I wind up going through at least a few 'long games' a year) but beyond that, I wasn't sure if the game was for me. The last DQ game I played was VIII a good while ago, and I remember falling off that one pretty hard after about 20 hours or so.
But I'm glad the game had a demo, as it just clicked for me pretty early on. I think I really just like the way the story is presented and paced, especially in the first act. The story is split into smaller story arcs, almost like multi-episode story arcs in a season of a TV show (kind of feels like each Act could be its own 'season' of a show as it were). I liked how the story kept moving forward with something new to discover in each new town explored, along with the large cast of characters to meet along the way. As the mark of an endearing tale, its almost felt a bit sad to see it all end once I was approaching the final boss.

I'm really glad I got to experience the journey, and it's a great feeling to really enjoy a game that I wasn't quite sure I would like going into it. Really looking forward to DQXII, whenever that comes out.

4. FFVII Remake

Before diving into discussing this one, I'll start with saying I don't have that much reverence for the original FFVII (I did enjoy it, but remember only getting as far as somewhere in Disc 2 some 16-18 years ago before moving on), but I did enjoy this Remake quite a bit. I think it was fantastic getting to know the cast of characters. From seeing Cloud and Barret's interactions change from hostility to something more amiable as the game progressed, hanging out with Tifa and Aerith, and getting to know some certain Avalanche members, I felt the game did a good job spending enough time to develop each character on the protagonist side.

In terms of environments, I did feel it was hit or miss for me. Places like Wall Market were a lot of fun to explore (and Chapter 9 probably remains the highlight of the game for me), but going through sewers and junkyards were a bit less exciting. I feel some of that also led into some slight issues with the pacing to me, as I did find some chapters (especially towards the end of the game) a bit long in the tooth. Still nothing that hampered my enjoyment of the game that much.

I did enjoy the combat a lot, but I did have some issues with it, and perhaps some of it relates to me just not being very good at action-oriented combat. I did find the 2 segment ATB gauge a bit restrictive, especially since just about every action in combat revolves around it, including item use. There were quite a few instances where I was ready to pull off an attack, only to have to wait a moment for the bar to fully fill up, and thus feeling like I was losing the 'smooth flow' of the combat. Along with that, I did find it pretty demotivating when enemies would cancel out a party member attack while the ATB gauge still got used up, especially when I was relying on a big heal or strong magic attack to shift the momentum in a fight. I can't help but feel I would have had more fun with the combat if the ATB gauge was expanded a bit.

All that being said, I still enjoyed the combat quite a bit. There's a certain cadence to the combat in terms of pressuring and staggering enemies that flows together so nicely when things are working out, especially when playing as characters like Tifa and Cloud. Overall, I'd still say it's one of the more satisfying combat systems I've seen in a game, and I can't wait to see it expanded upon in future games.

5. FFXIV

FFXIV-5.3-Update-patch-notes-Reflections-in-Crystal.jpg

FFXIV Shadowbringers was my overall GOTY in 2019, with a big part of that for me being the wonderful story it told. It's a game I keep coming back to (while I haven't strictly tracked hours of all the games I played in 2020, I wouldn't be surprised if FFXIV was the game I put the most time into overall in 2020) to level alt jobs, play through the side content, and of course have fun with the glamour system. In 2020, the game also released patch 5.3 which served as the conclusion to the Shadowbringers storyline. And while I won't go into a specific spoilers here, I thought it was a very satisfying ending to that story, and reminded all over again of why I love playing XIV for its story. And so I just wanted to recognize that in my list here, even if the game didn't have any major expansions in 2020.

6. Hades

Rogue-lites are one of those game genres that haven't really clicked for me in the past, but I enjoyed Hades a lot. The story was enjoyable to follow between runs (mostly driven by the strong character personalities and their at time surprisingly astute reactions to your success and failure), I loved the game's art style, and the music definitely fits the game really well.

I think one of my favorite aspect of the game is the natural progression of getting better. Every time I made it to a new boss it felt a bit like hitting a wall, followed by a moment of thinking to myself 'this is really tough, I don't know how I'm going to beat this one'. Then after a few more runs, getting a bit closer each time, I could sense myself just getting better at dealing with the boss. To me, there was no epiphany or 'aha moment' where I suddenly 'figured out' the game, I simply got better with more practice and experience (though to be fair, I also did have god mode on which adds some extra damage resistance and helped out quite a bit as well). And while that's true of a lot of games (and experiences in life in general), I can't think of many games I played where the sense of progression just felt so natural. It's wasn't some intense hardcore grind, I just got better by playing the game and having fun in the process. And I credit the developers for tuning the experience just right (and having some form of difficulty adjustment a swell to make the experience more accessible to people like me).

7. Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Having played every mainline entry in the series, I consider myself a pretty big fan of the Assassin's Creed Series. And while I put a decent amount of time into Valhalla (~40 hours or so), this was another big single player game that I simply didn't have the time to finish up at the time of putting this list together. That being said, I have liked what I've played so far overall. Like Origins and Odysseys before it, the combat is enjoyable overall, and there's a decent enough mix of being able to play stealthy as well as going all in with the combat system when I get spotted (or during raids). I really like that Valhalla continues with the trend of Odyssey in a choice in our main character's gender.
While Valhalla is by all contents a very lengthy game, at least so far I am appreciating the way it's paced a bit more than Odyssey. I like that side quests have been reshuffled into 'World Events' that tend to be a bit more focused and shorter stories. The main story is split into different arcs, which at least so far, have felt somewhat independent from one another. I really like this format in a longer game, as it makes the length feel a bit more approachable (you can play a few hours to get through one of the game's regions and associated arc, and perhaps take a bit of a break from the game for a bit without fully feeling like you're abandoning the story in the middle). Though truthfully, I still have a lot of Valhalla to play, and it's certainly possible its format may wear out its welcome for me as I get deeper into it, but for now, I'm really digging its approach of telling 'smaller stories to make a larger one'.

8. Genshin Impact

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Perhaps Genshin Impact is a game I would enjoy more if it wasn't a Gacha F2P. One where cool characters could be earned through in-game progression rather than Gacha mechanics. But all that being said, I've still had a lot of fun playing Genshin Impact. There's just something very cool about exploring the game's open world, finding hidden chests and other secrets to uncover. And forming a party of 4 characters, most of whom feel fairly distinct to me, was good fun, especially when I found a team that best fit my playstyle (my team so far has mostly been Fischl, Mona, Xiangling, and Barbara). I also really love the art style of the game, and it really brings that sense of 'playing an anime'. From a graphics standpoint, it may very well be the prettiest looking game I played in 2020.
Genshin Impact is certainly one of those games where it's easy to sink a lot of money into gacha mechanics, but I will say for amount of money I put into it ($10), I feel I got my money's worth for what I played.

9. Resident Evil 3 Remake

RE2:Remake was one of my surprise favorite games of 2019 (I say surprise because I've never been a big fan of horror games). And I wound up having a really good time with the RE3 remake as well. Both games certainly seem to aim for a different pace (with RE3 definitely being a more action oriented game), but I think the reason both worked for me is they really nail the atmosphere. Both games feel tense at the right moments, and even as someone who struggles getting through 'scary games or movies', there's just something really satisfying to me about the sense of immersion these games provide. I think one of the things that also helps is I enjoyed taking on the role of these games' protagonists. I think the VA for Jill (including the moment to moment lines and reactions to the unfolding events) was great. Also, I think both games have one the best map mechanics in video games (changing sections to blue when cleared is just such a smart QoL feature).

To me, the game's length felt about right. I really wasn't looking for a longer game than what I got (especially in an age where it feels like every AAA single player game I'm interested in is at least a 60-100 hour time commitment), and when the credits rolled, it felt like the right time for the game to end to me. To be fair, I didn't play the original, so I live in ignorance of any potential impact of cut content. But I feel each level of the game felt fairly distinct and also very tightly paced in a good way. Didn't really feel like any section really overstayed its welcome (I feel RE2 was mostly good about this too, but I did feel some areas of that game dragged a bit for me, like the sewer sections).

There are some things about both games that I was less thrilled about, like my constant back and forth to dump items into the storage box because I kept running out of slots in my inventory even after getting all the upgrades. I can't say I've ever found inventory management to be particularly enjoyable in any video game I've played, so I wasn't crazy about it here either. I do get some of the rationale for limiting the inventory in a game like this, but in practice, it just wound up feeling like more an annoyance than something that was adding something meaningful to my experience.

10. Paradise Killer

Paradise Killer has what I can only describe as a game with a rather strange premise, but to it's credit, it works remarkably well. It's a game that reminded me a lot about Ace Attorney in terms of clues to find, people to interrogate, and also with a decent sized open world to investigate. I really enjoyed exploring the island and slowly building up a case. There were a lot 'aha moments' from not knowing what was going on to uncovering a key piece of evidence that helped put things together. It was also interesting to kind of randomly stumble into key pieces of evidence. In terms of things I didn't like as much, I do think traversing the game's world got a bit tedious over time, especially if the 'investigation clues' didn't really indicate a specific place to search for more clues. I wasn't really interested in randomly roaming the entire map on the off chance of uncovering something important (which given the important things I did stumble upon randomly, I'm sure I probably missed some other big things hidden in the world), so I think most of my investigation relied on what I found on my first pass of walking around the island and what the clues guided me to. I feel the cost with fast travel was meant to encourage more exploration around the game world, but eventually I just started fast traveling every time a suspect had something new to say.

But overall I had a really good time with the game, and it definitely scratched that 'detective game' itch from all the years of me playing Ace Attorney games.
I would also be remiss not to mention the game's awesome soundtrack. Here's a sample track to give you a sense of the style. Definitely one of my favorite soundtracks of the year.

Honorable Mentions:

11. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2

I have a lot of nostalgia for the Tony Hawk games from my childhood, and it made me really happy to see a proper remake of the first 2 games for our modern times. It was great to hear so much of the soundtrack of the original games remain in tact, while also introducing new songs that for the most part seem to blend it quite nicely. The game plays just how I remember it and while I'm still terrible at these games, they're still a good time to me. For whatever reason, I didn't get a chance to put too much time into this one yet, but I am looking forward to playing more of it hopefully later this year.

12. The Avengers

I can mostly only speak to the game's single player campaign (I didn't check out most of the live service features), but I enjoyed the campaign quite a bit. Whatever issues the live service aspect of the game has, I do think they did a good job of making each of the main heroes fun to play as, and to me at least, they each felt like they had a distinct play style. Moreover, I think one of the smartest decisions they made for the story was anchoring the story around Kamala Khan. She's just a very likable personality and a lot of fun to play as. I'm just glad to see her get featured like this in a big budget game, and it's awesome to see an Asian American Superhero featured prominently in a big budget game like this. I do think the story perhaps lost a bit of steam for me towards the end, but I still had a lot of fun with it.

13. Streets of Rage 4

I don't have too much to say about this one. This was my first Streets of Rage game and I had a good time going through the campaign with a friend via online co-op. Also another game with a very good soundtrack.

And with that, that's a wrap for my list of my favorite 2020 games. Here's hoping for a better 2021 overall, and looking forward to playing some more quality games this year, including some of the big 2020 games I didn't get a chance to check out yet.

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PC] [Action RPG] [CD Projekt] Cyberpunk 2077
[PC] [RPG] [Square Enix] Dragon Quest XI S: Definitive Edition
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PC] [MMORPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy XIV
[PC] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PC] [Action RPG] [Ubisoft] Assassin's Creed Valhalla
[PC] [Action RPG] [miHoYo] Genshin Impact
[PC] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[PC] [Adventure] [Kaizen Game Works] Paradise Killer
[PC] [Sports] [Vicarious Visions] Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2
[PC] [Action Adventure] [Crystal Dynamics] Marvel's Avengers
[PC] [Beat 'em up] [DotEmu] Streets of Rage 4

White Glint · Feb 28, 2021

1. Doom Eternal - Feels like a complete reinvention of first person shooters. Without a doubt the best game the genre has ever seen. Incredible music, an incredible looker with peerless performance. After Doom 2016 I would have expected them to just make another one of those but id software went above and beyond. Can't speak about this game without superlatives.
2. Yakuza: Like a Dragon - Top tier RGG Studios game. Some of the funniest and heartful writing in the series, and I'm only 12 hours in. I welcome the move to turn based combat as well, after 8 games of mashing square on street thugs I was growing tired. Truly fresh.
3. Hades - Sharp action gameplay with maybe less build variety than I prefer and that would have been a fine game. But then you beat the final boss and they do something utterly insane with the story, putting the roguelite structure into service of the narrative and giving your struggle to clear repeat runs such a strong reason that my jaw was on the floor. Absolutely mental.
4. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - Placing it so high solely because of the way the story is structured. The story itself didn't knock my socks off and the combat bits certainly weren't great. But the way progression is gated just always made me stop and thing how much work had to go into it. 13 Sentinels is definitely a once in a lifetime kind of game.
5. Noita - Another roguelite, also pretty chill. Voted for it last year and it left early access, still great. Lots of customization and fun exploration.
6. Final Fantasy VII Remake - Half the time it's absolutely incredible. Sometimes there'll be a boss fight where you'll just be hitting all the right skills, the visuals are unbelievable and the music is just the best rearrangement of some of the best themes in all of games. Then there's the other half which is doing everything in its power to make me absolutely hate this game. The minigames, the atrociously boring sidequests, the shoehorned blubbering new characters and their sideplots, the horrible visual inconsistencies. It's a game I wish I could love but its main mission seems to be making that impossible.
7. Ghost of Tsushima - Absolutely a chill time. Nice music, visuals, story, combat. I guess I wish there was more variety in the exploration but I have seen in Valhalla what happens when you overextend yourself with variety.
8. Cyberpunk 2077 - Based on 15 hours on a PC equipped with a 3600/GTX1660 I had a really good time with it. Stepped away to play other games but I'm excited to hop back in whenever I feel like not flipping out on demons in Doom Eternal, chilling out in Yakuza 7's Yokohama, beating up dad in Hades, resisting the urge to snap FFVII Remake's stupid disks in half or exploring the caves of Noita.

[PC] [Shooter] [id Software] Doom Eternal
[PS4] [RPG] [Sega] Yakuza: Like a Dragon
[PC] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PC] [Roguelike] [Nolla Games] Noita
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PC] [Action RPG] [CD Projekt] Cyberpunk 2077

Taka · Feb 28, 2021

1. Final Fantasy VII Remake - After all the stumbles the Final Fantasy franchise has had lately, I admit I did not believe that Square was still capable of making a game that could live up to the original. To my astonishment, they met that high bar and then some. The battle system is the final culmination of everything Square has been working towards since FFXII. The presentation is stunning. The characters are more charming than ever. They kept the humor of the original, which I truly feared for after Advent Children.

2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - The game that got so many through lockdown. It cemented the franchise's status as a giant that can stand alongside the likes of Mario.

3. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - When I think about games that I spent tons of hours on this year, Age of Calamity had to merit a spot on the list. It's the best Musou ever made. Every character has a unique gimmick for their combat system, giving each one tons of personality, and a meaningfully different way to play.

[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[Switch] [Hack and slash] [Omega Force] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

LiquidSolid · Feb 28, 2021

Lots of games I didn't get around to playing, like Total War Saga: Troy and Dreams, but it was still a great year with a lot of great games.

1. The Last of Us: Part II - Naughty Dog could've easily played it safe and had another adventure with Joel and Ellie but they didn't. They took massive risks and while the end result can get very dark and depressing, it's a story I'll never forget and I massively appreciate that. On top of that, TLOU2 has some of the best gameplay mechanics in the industry and is a joy to play.
2. Demon's Souls (2020) - A brilliant and very faithful remake from the masters.
3. Final Fantasy VII Remake - A brilliant and very original remake from the other masters haha. The characterisation of the entire cast was perfect and I can't wait to see where they go.
4. Ghost of Tsushima - I honestly didn't think Sucker Punch were capable of this but what an amazing game. The combat system, non-existent load times and use of the touch pad in particular make me adore it.
5. Spider-Man: Miles Morales - More Spider-Man but there's enough differences to differentiate Miles from Peter. Can't wait for the full blown Spider-Man 2.
6. Astro's Playroom - Brilliant little platformer, can't wait to see what Asobi does next.
7. Trials of Mana - After Adventure and Secret, I was blown away by how great this remake was. Fantastic game.
8. Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Valhalla definitely has its problems, like the awful pacing, trash tier audio and ridiculous number of bugs but it's a good game.
9. Bugsnax - A bizarre but fun little game.
10. Sackboy: A Big Adventure - A very fun platformer, gets pretty brutal by the end though.

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS5] [Action RPG] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Insomniac Games] Spider-Man: Miles Morales
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sony Interactive Entertainment] Astro's Playroom
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Trials of Mana
[PS5] [Action RPG] [Ubisoft] Assassin's Creed Valhalla
[PS5] [Adventure] [Young Horses] Bugsnax
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sumo Digital] Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Mob · Feb 28, 2021

Animal Crossing: New Horizons
A perfect game for 2020. Last year was rough for everyone but having this wonderfully charming game to play on a daily basis really helped my mental health. It obviously has it's issues, like the cumbersome online functionality but this was easily my game of the year.

Half-Life: Alyx
I've been waiting for more Half-Life for so long I'd accepted it wasn't going to happen. To finally have a return to Half-Life & have it be an amazing VR experience blew me away. Had to repost my vote as I forgot this came out in 2020, feels like more than a year since I first played this.

Astro's Playroom
A wonderful platformer which showcases the Dualsense magnificently. Packed with nostalgia & little Easter eggs, it's the PlayStation love letter I didn't know I wanted!

Demon's Souls
This is a beautiful looking game with fantastic gameplay. I've always enjoyed the Souls games but I'm not particularly good at them, the superfast loading after death really allowed me to enjoy this.

Hades
Been a big fan of Supergiant since I discovered them with Transistor & Hades really delivered. Cracking gameplay, wonderful score.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Great interlude between the Spidey games, Miles' venom powers were a lot of fun & I really enjoyed the story & characters of Harlem.

Ghost of Tsushima
I've suffered a lot from open world fatigue in recent years but the stunning art direction & sound design in this just made me want to keep exploring.

Final Fantasy VII Remake
The original is one of my all time favourite games & I was a little skeptical of the remake but I thoroughly enjoyed it & was pleasantly surprised with how it played out, looking forward to more.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
I loved Breath of the Wild, this delivered more story with some charming characters & it's a great musou!

Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Art direction, soundtrack, level design are all top notch, it basically improved on everything I loved from the original.

[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[PC] [Shooter] [Valve] Half-Life: Alyx
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sony Interactive Entertainment] Astro's Playroom
[PS5] [Action RPG] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Insomniac Games] Spider-Man: Miles Morales
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[Switch] [Hack and slash] [Omega Force] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
[XSX] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps

brokenswiftie · Feb 28, 2021

Im not good at writing out why I like things, but here we go
1.TLOU2: this is probably the best game I've played all my life need that ps5 patch asap, probably the best tps ever, Ellie controls like soo naturally. the animations are crazy, not to mention loved how the story goes
2. FF7R: The soundtrack baby! soo good
3. DS: Was never into souls games but this one somehow clicked and its soo good
4. Tsushima: The best Open world game this gen!
5. Astro: those speedruns hooked me for tens of hours and the dualsense woof
6. Miles: I've always loved spiderman, but this short story on it has something special in it
7. LAD: didn't play it, because PS5 but I know its good
8. 13: not finished yet but I'm liking where its going
9. Genshin: pretty good for a free game, wish the boss battles was better
10. Dreams: played some neat creations, could be great with more users

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS5] [Action RPG] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sony Interactive Entertainment] Astro's Playroom
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Insomniac Games] Spider-Man: Miles Morales
[PS4] [RPG] [Sega] Yakuza: Like a Dragon
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PS4] [Action RPG] [miHoYo] Genshin Impact
[PS4] [Game Creation] [Media Molecule] Dreams

Defuso · Feb 28, 2021

1) I played more than 1000 hours in factorio and will play even alot more. I love this game for his kinda unique style
2) AC NH was my game of the first phase of the COVID pandemic and i played it alot

[PC] [Simulation] [Wube Software] Factorio
[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Deleted member 13370 · Feb 28, 2021

Despite this being the "perfect" year for playing I really didn't spend as much time with games as I might have. Possibly I spent more time on the games I actually played but I didn't play as many different things. In the end, there were only two games released this year that I played and would want to nominate, so...

The Last of Us Part 2.
Naughty Dog does the undoable - they make a sequel to a game that didn't need a sequel, and they do it in a way to expands on the themes, setting and characters, tells a more mature story, and explored new themes. It's a refinement of gameplay - I'd say the most well designed game Naughty Dog has ever put out - and an absolute technical masterpiece, carried by the most impressive cast of actors and animators even seen in the medium.
While the gameplay is never compromised by the storytelling, as is often the case with narratively driven games, there is no doubt that what really makes The Last of Us stand out is the storytelling. It's not like Part 2 is the first game to handle complex moral questions and characters, but where other games have handled these questions through analogy and metaphor, what sets The Last Of Us apart from other games is how human the story is. No gods or armies or mages are needed to portray the narrative. Sure, there are the Infected, but compared to the first game they are almost tangential to the actual story, serving more as a backdrop and palette variation in the gameplay. The bulk of this story is told by humans, and it's about humans. About hate, but primarily about love, and how these emotions express themselves in hardship.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
It's been said time and time again, but out of all the games released this year, no one can be as contemporary as New Horizons.In a year where we could not meet, celebrate, and sometimes even leave our homes, Animal Crossing has been a refuge where we can relax, meet friends and make new ones, see the seasons passing as if all life was free of troubles.

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Thiago · Feb 28, 2021

1 - The Last of Us Part II - For a long time I thought that The Last of Us didn't need a sequel. And thankfully, I was wrong. The story will let you emotionally drained in a good way, gunplay and stealth mechanics feel really good and are much improved from their previous games, in terms of presentation, Naughty Dog is still ahead of everyone else, and in terms of polish, Part II can easily rival Nintendo's best. A true masterpiece.

2 - Final Fantasy VII Remake - 7R features a great combat system, every character plays differently than the others while keeping faithful to their original trails. I wish SE would turn this combat system into a default for the series going forward (hello, XVI). I loved revisiting Midgar and those characters, didn't mind the changes made. Presentation is a very mixed bag, but the glorious OST made my eyes teary more times than I would like to admit.

3 - Astro's Playroom - Fluid controls, bright and colorful graphics and a joyful OST, you'll smile a lot while playing this. Despite being a short game, Playroom really demonstrates how the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers on the DualSense can be meaningful to the experience if implemented correctly. Also, the game is a love letter to PlayStation's legacy.

4 - Yakuza: Like a Dragon - Turn-based JRPG Yakuza is something that may sound so weird on paper, but worked so well in this game. Replacing Kiryu is not an easy task, but Ichiban does a great job with his companions. Yokohama is fun to explore, the sub-stories and mini-games keep the same level of silliness as in previous games. I'm not sure if they will keep this style for the next entries, but I definitely wouldn't complain.

5 - Paper Mario: The Origami King - The humor and charm characteristic of Paper Mario are present, the levels make exploration fun, always with a collectable here and there. The new battle system is great for bosses, but boring for the random battles, and the lack of XP helps to amplify this sentiment. I also miss more custom characters, like in the beginning of the series.

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sony Interactive Entertainment] Astro's Playroom
[PS4] [RPG] [Sega] Yakuza: Like a Dragon
[Switch] [RPG] [Intelligent Systems] Paper Mario: The Origami King

vbwh · Feb 28, 2021

I spent most of 2020 catching up on my backlog, since a lot of the year's releases didn't particularly appeal to me. But there was one enormous exception, one smaller-but-still-sizable exception, and I'll also take the opportunity to vote for Outer Wilds since it apparently technically qualifies for this year. (I still haven't played Hd)

The Last of Us: Part II
A creatively daring, technically groundbreaking, deeply absorbing, and utterly haunting story about the cost of obsession, the power of perspective, and the process of

grieving someone with whom you a had a difficult relationship and unfinished business

. It grabbed me from its first hour and honestly still hasn't let me go.

Spelunky 2
A worthy followup to the legendary roguelite. It inevitably can't quite have the impact of the original, but it's crafted with no less love and attention and is no less absorbing and addictive.

Outer Wilds
A beautiful miniature universe houses a compelling mystery and some spine-chilling moments of realisation. Let down very slightly by a couple of irritating puzzles and the lack of a quick way to

restart the loop

, its exploration and investigation mechanics are clear standouts in the genre, and it bursts with obvious care and passion throughout.

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS4] [Platformer] [Mossmouth] Spelunky 2
[PC] [Adventure] [Mobius Digital] Outer Wilds

MrFrankFontaine · Feb 28, 2021

I didn't play enough games this year to even make a top 10 (mainly blame Warzone for that), but what I did play was some of the best games I've ever played. I also have a good backlist based on what I didn't get through, but here we go:

1. Half-Life: Alyx - It still amazes me that this game exists. I mean, not only is it another Half-Life game, but it's also the best VR game ever made. I hated the poison crabs in HL2, but to have them come at me in VR in tight spaces. Literally makes my heart pound. It's unfortunate that more people (or even gamers) will get to experience this game given the barriers that PCVR has. Because this is one of those experiences I will never forget.
2. The Last of Us 2 - An amazing sequel to an already amazing game. The first game was a masterpiece with the exception of the combat that I thought was just ok. I feel like they really tightened up the controls for the sequel as I always felt in control and didn't struggle like I remember doing in the first game. The story hit me just as much as the first one did and that's saying a lot.
3. Cyberpunk 2077 - Despite all of the controversy surrounding this game and CDPR, I can honestly say that I enjoyed my time playing through this amazing experience. I was fortunate to play through this on a high-end PC. So while I did run into some bugs, they were never game breaking and didn't sour my experience. The world they created with Night City is just something else (especially with RTX). However the most impressive part of the game is how they handled the NPC conversations during story and side missions. I don't think anyone has done it better and I truly looking forward to a second play through once they continue to make improvements to the game.
4. Ghost of Tsushima - Love the setting, characters, art direction and combat. Truly an excellent game that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish.
5. Warzone - I spent more time with this game than any other on my list. There's just such a rush when you get down to the final enemies and get that win. While I hate that the devs keep changing the meta weapons (often breaking the game) to keep streamers talking about their game. The core gameplay is excellent and it's become my favorite BR hands down. Bring on PUBG2!!!
6. SW Squandrons - I mean you get to fly iconic SW ships in VR. Do I need to say more? The campaign is excellent and that along with the excellent ship system management makes it one of my favorite games this year.
7. Oriand the Will of the Wisps - These types of games aren't really my jam. However, this game sucked me in and was not only beautiful, but had such excellent level design and control.
8. SoR4 - I still have fond memories of the original games. To be able to play through this one with my kids was a great experience.

[PC] [Shooter] [Valve] Half-Life: Alyx
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PC] [Action RPG] [CD Projekt] Cyberpunk 2077
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PC] [Shooter] [Infinity Ward] Call of Duty: Warzone
[PC] [Space combat] [Motive Studios] Star Wars: Squadrons
[XSX] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps
[XBO] [Beat 'em up] [DotEmu] Streets of Rage 4

Zhao_Yun · Feb 28, 2021

1. Final Fantasy VII Remake - I was hesitant to put this on top as this game surely has its flaws (Level Design, Pacing, Quest Design) and other games have been objectively better, but I don't think any game this year had such an impact on me than FFVII Remake. Remaking one of the most beloved JRPG titles of all time is a tall order and I think they mostly nailed it with this first installment. The character portrayal is great and made me remember why I fell in love with them in the first place. The combat is sublime and probably the first time where Square actually nailed this hybrid system containing real-time action and strategic choices. I also liked that every character had a completely different playstyle and that the game encouraged you to switch between everyone. Square also did not cheap out in the music department and it's impressive how many tracks they squeezed into this 40 hour game and some of the new arrangements are just breathtaking (looking at you, Airbuster!)

2. The Last of Us Part II - Visually impressive, a harsh but engaging narrative that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout my whole playthrough. Naughty Dog took a lot of risky decisions and while not everything worked in the end, I just can't deny the overall quality of this game.

3. Hades - This game hit me completely out of left-field, but once I started it I immediately understood what all the fuss is about. I usually do not like Roguelikes, but the roguelike mechanics are so smartly weaved into the narrative that it did not bother me at all. The game also provides the player with a great sense of progression despite the roguelike nature and the combat just flows so well once you get going. I always liked Supergiant's output, but there was always something that held their previous game back. Hades is an absolute gem though!

4. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - It's so hard to explain why this game is so good without delving into story spoilers, but it's so impressive how they managed to build this overarching narrative while telling it through 13 different characters. I was afraid that everything could fall apart at the end, but it actually comes together beautifully. As always with Vanillaware it is visually very pleasing as well and the soundtrack is awesome.

5. Demon's Souls - I loved the original Demon's Souls and seeing it being remade in such a beautiful way was the perfect way to enter the new generation of consoles. Bluepoint are masterminds of remasters/remakes.

6. Nioh 2 - Even with a lot of great melee combat systems last gen, I think that Nioh has one of the best if not the best. Getting into the combat, can be dauting at first, but once you get to grisp with it, there is no other game where the combat flows so well. The new Switchglaive was fun as hell and paired with the Ki Pulse mechanic and 3 different stances the game provides a lot of depth and it's so satisyfing to get proficient at the combat.

7. The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero - Thanks to the Geofront I was finally able to play this and it doesn't disappoint. Even though I can't agree with many Trails fans that this game is better than any of the Sky games, it has all the things that I love about the games. Amazing world building, great characters and a very interesting story. Can't wait for the Ao Fan Translatio to get released so that I can finally play the latest 2 Cold Steel games as well.

8. Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Thanks to the new combat this game improved so much compared to the first game. Great controls and platforming, stunning visuals and a beautiful soundtrack made this an amazing experience.

9. Astro's Playroom - This game is such a love letter to Playstation and an amazing introduction to the capabilities of the DualSense.

10. Spider-Man Miles Morales - Liked this game more than I originally expected. As with Uncharted The Lost Legacy I think that the shorter lenght of MM was perfect.

[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PC] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PS5] [Action RPG] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Team Ninja] Nioh 2
[PC] [RPG] [Nihon Falcom] Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero
[PC] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sony Interactive Entertainment] Astro's Playroom
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Insomniac Games] Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Bundy · Feb 28, 2021

1. Final Fantasy VII is my favourite game of all time. The remake is just awesome. The developers behind the game should feel a great sense of pride because this could have been an easy miss. But it wasn't. It was the best game of 2020.
2. Ghost of Tsushima is Sucker Punch Productions best game they ever made. A brilliant story-mode and an amazing multiplayer mode. Even I played the multiplayer mode. So you know it has to be great.
3. Together with the Shadow of the Colossus Remake this is Bluepoint's best game yet. A fantastic remake and the best looking game on consoles today. Demon's Souls on the PS3 is an all-time classic and the remake tops it in every conceivable way.
4. I was never a big fan of Resident Evil 3 on the PS1. But I love the remake. It's an excellent survival-horror game. And Jill Valentine will always be the best RE character
5. Nioh 2 is simply more Nioh. And that's great, because Nioh 1 was amazing. And so is Nioh 2. Excellent combat.
6. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is a Wii classic with better graphics. Monolith Soft's best game they ever made. Imagine being a platform holder who cares about the japanese fans/market and even has a JRPG 1st party studio. What a fascinating sight to behold.
7. Trials of Mana has a fun battle-system, a nice story and a beautiful & colorful world. Overall a nice remake.
8. Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate is the best fighting game on the market. Pure fun and Rambo is in it. Yes, Sly's Rambo! GOAT fighting game.
9. CrossCode has great art, puzzles and a cool main character. Radical Fish Game can be proud. I've waited long enough for this, Lachsen 😉 Well done!
10. Crazy but good story and beautiful 2D art. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is one of the top contenders for the most-underrated game of 2020. Buy and play this game people!

[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PS5] [Action RPG] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
[PC] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Team Ninja] Nioh 2
[Switch] [Action RPG] [MonolithSoft] Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Trials of Mana
[PS5] [Fighting] [NetherRealm Studios] Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Radical Fish Games] CrossCode
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Korigama · Feb 28, 2021

1. Aokana: Four Rhythms Across the Blue - This will be a truncated version of my previous, spoiler-filled thoughts in another thread elsewhere. First of all, I must compliment Aokana on being one of the most well-paced visual novels I can remember. Nothing felt padded or superfluous. The breezy, cozy island setting in the summer and light tone compared to what I'm normally used to from the genre were also welcome, beautiful soundtrack as well. Very much enjoyed the interactions between the main cast, and was pleasantly surprised by how sensible Masaya could be concerning behavior and interactions even with his occasional screw-ups taken into account, certainly not something I would've expected from the lead of a VN with eroge origins. And, for something else I'm certainly not used to but also believe deserves attention, I absolutely appreciated there not being a route labeled as a "true" end. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it's possible to make the argument that one route in particular is the closest thing to one, yet clearly the developers at Sprite don't seem all that fussed about making players accept one possible outcome for the story and invalidating all others, with even the "finale" chapter after completing all four routes being nothing more than a what-if following the bad ending. Going into 2020, I never would've expected a sports-themed romance VN would end up becoming my GotY, but here we are. It turned out to be exactly what I needed in a VN, or any story right about now, and I couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity to play it.

2. Final Fantasy VII Remake - Undeniably, I dreamed of this game for years before finally seeing it realized, even if as only a fraction of a much larger planned retelling of FFVII's story. I won't say that I was wholly satisfied with every creative decision made with it, especially its ending. However, the highs by all means outweighed the lows for me, this game reflecting a level of competency and passion that I felt had been lacking from Square Enix's output for quite some time. The characters I grew up with look and sound great, the presentation is outstanding, the music is excellent (though the new Shinra Company theme is weak and I preferred the remixed version of The Oppressed over the new Wall Market track introduced), the combat is the best I've experienced in Final Fantasy to this point, and the way it handled boss battles represents the new gold standard for JRPGs. I may not have full confidence in the direction the story is suggesting that it'll take in future installments, but given the fact that I'm still using the Tifa theme that I got from that candy bar promotion before it was made free to everyone and consider the free upgrade minus paid Yuffie DLC my only real incentive to get a PS5 at this point, at the very least I can say that I'm interested in seeing where the rest of this reimagining will go.

3. Persona 5 Royal - Without question the definitive version of Persona 5. From the various gameplay, script, and QoL improvements to the expanded and occasionally revised story, it's effectively a new experience even for anyone who's played the original, which will be nigh impossible for me to go back to as a result of how much better this version is.

4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - The long-awaited conclusion to the Erebonia arc of the Trails series and the culmination of more than a decade of story build-up by Falcom, serving as the equivalent to Endgame for the franchise as Cold Steel III was to Infinity War. That said, considering their prior experience publishing the series beginning with the previous game and just how important an installment in such an ambitious story this is, I am disappointed that NISA have once again dropped the ball with parts of the localization, leading to the need for another patch to be delivered at an unspecified date (likely coinciding with this year's Switch port).

5. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore - Having missed out on the original as a result of not owning a Wii U, it's understandable that many people were disappointed with what this project turned out to be after a crossover between Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem was first announced by Nintendo. That said, the bright, colorful style and the lighter tone spoke to me, leading me to enjoy #FE not only for its unique scenario but also its combat that's similar yet manages to be its own thing compared to SMT and Persona alike.

6. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - I can easily say that I've never played anything quite like this game. Wonderful artwork and a brilliant soundtrack, 13 Sentinels told a compelling story that one would think shouldn't work for how sprawling and complex it was, yet it did. Could've done with less RTS battles, yet they weren't too bad with the action pausing while selecting commands, and I was adequately challenged by needing to rethink my approach during the very last battles in the game.

7. Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late [cl-r] - Updating to this version of Under Night from UNIEL on PS3 had been long overdue for me. Pretty much the best tutorial out of any fighting game on the market, the visual novel approach to the storytelling also being entertaining. Would've been nice to have rollback netcode, which French Bread are apparently looking into at least.

8. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - Featuring improved visuals and QoL features, in addition to a brand new epilogue (there's the remixed soundtrack as well, but I preferred using the original), picking up this portable remastered version of Xenoblade for posterity to go along with my original Wii copy only made sense.

9. Sakura Wars - My first experience with the Sakura Wars franchise, this steampunk adventure with a hybrid of light dating sim elements and hack-and-slash mecha combat proved quite charming.

10. Granblue Fantasy Versus - A weapons-based alternative to Street Fighter with some of the best visuals produced by Arc System Works. While still fun and with frequent single-player and community updates to encourage continued play, I would've preferred if the final game hadn't shifted from the beta's slower, more methodical gameplay to making it another hyperaggressive rushdown fighter with weak defensive options, the game continuing to have questionable rebalancing decisions and being a more expensive investment by the genre's standards. Delay-based netcode and lack of punishment for rage quitters are also problems.

11. Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection - Having only had the original US MMZ1 and a JP copy of MMZ2, it was nice being able to have all four games plus the ZX duology as a bonus on one cart. A shame that there's no option to play the JP versions with English text, though.

[Switch] [Visual novel] [NekoNyan] Aokana: Four Rhythm Across the Blue
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS4] [RPG] [Atlus] Persona 5 Royal
[PS4] [RPG] [Nihon Falcom] The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV
[Switch] [RPG] [Atlus] Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PS4] [Fighting] [Arc System Works] Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r]
[Switch] [Action RPG] [MonolithSoft] Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Sega] Sakura Wars
[PS4] [Fighting] [Arc System Works] Granblue Fantasy Versus
[Switch] [Action] [Capcom] Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection

Temujin · Feb 28, 2021

1. Demon's Souls : I played it on PS3 back in 2010 but gave up about a third in. The QoL improvements of the PS5 version made me give it another try, and I'm happy I did. I actually beat the game (first From Software game I ever finished!) and more importantly, I enjoyed it and really learned to appreciate the craft that went into the game.
2. The Last of Us Part II : Emotional and brutal. It's also, by far, my most liked Naughty Dog game.
3. Yakuza: Like a Dragon : I love Ichiban. It's not my favourite Yakuza game, and I'm neutral on the turn based combat, but I'd very much like to see more of Ichiban.
4. Tokyo Mirage Session #FE Encore : I'm not into the whole idol thing, but the combat here is easily my favourite combat system in any recent JRPG.
5. Final Fantasy VII Remake : it looks and sounds great, I enjoyed it even with that fair amount of padding and some new story elements I didn't like. And I didn't cry when Jessie died, nope. Who told you that?
6. Ghost of Tsushima: I spent a whole lot of time messing about with the photo mode, but it's still a great, beautiful adventure to go through, even though some aspects of it felt quite outdated.
7. Animal Crossing New Horizons : probably the game I spent the most time with this year, played it every day from launch up until early July. Easily my favourite AC game.
8. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim : This is a very, very special game. The way the character stories intertwine is outstanding. I just wish there were more Destruction events.
9. Command & Conquer Remastered Collection : A lot of effort went into this, kudos to the people who worked on it. Red Alert is still one of my all time favourite RTS games.
10. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity : I was already a fan of the first Hyrule Warriors, and what amazed me the most about this is that I really cared about the characters (mostly Zelda and Rhoam).

[PS5] [Action RPG] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS4] [RPG] [Sega] Yakuza: Like a Dragon
[Switch] [RPG] [Atlus] Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PC] [RTS] [Petroglyph Games] Command & Conquer Remastered Collection
[Switch] [Hack and slash] [Omega Force] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

WannabeSage · Feb 28, 2021

Apathetic year in games for me. There are several that I should still try (Troubleshooter, Yakuza 7, CK3, PS4 exclusives like FF7: Remake, TLoU2, 13 Sentinels) but I didn't feel passionate about most games, new or old, I played in 2020.

1. Suzerain - The Dark Horse of 2020. Came out of nowhere for me. The shock and regret I felt when things went bad was something more mechanics driven strategy games can't emulate.
2. Spelunky 2 - This is really a double feature with Spelunky HD which I conquered for the first time this year also. No game has my heart pounding as Spelunky 2 when I reach Hundun. One mistake and it was all for nought.
3. Call of Duty: Warzone - My group's multiplayer game of 2020.
4. Hades - My favorite Super Giant game by far. Presentation is top notch (I especially like the comic book styled outlined artwork) and combat is a pleasure with fluid, responsive controls. Trying to achieve epilogue just takes too long and made me wish for more bosses, Hydra's pretty boring fight even with Extreme Measures on.
5. Umurangi Generation - The presentation and of course the soundtrack are the stars here. Very impressive work from first timers.
6. Genshin Impact - Cool alternative to ubisoft style open world games.
7. Streets of Rage 4 - I was skeptical of the new style but playing the game it didn't take long to turn me over.
8. Horizon's Gate - Imagine Mount & Blade expect with ships and srpg combat. And a story.
9. Kentucky Route Zero - Beautiful game with great moments but boring for long streches. Glad to be done with it in the end.
10. The Flower Collectors - Teen's first political thriller. Had I played more games this definitely wouldn't hang but with the short playtime and intriguing premise they squeak in my top 10.

[PC] [Simulation] [Torpor Games] Suzerain
[PC] [Platformer] [Mossmouth] Spelunky 2
[PC] [Shooter] [Infinity Ward] Call of Duty: Warzone
[PC] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PC] [Simulation] [ORIGAME DIGITAL] Umurangi Generation
[PC] [Action RPG] [miHoYo] Genshin Impact
[PC] [Beat 'em up] [DotEmu] Streets of Rage 4
[PC] [RPG] [Rad Codex] Horizon's Gate
[PC] [Point-and-click adventure] [Cardboard Computer] Kentucky Route Zero
[PC] [Adventure] [Mi'pu'mi Games] The Flower Collectors

Gift of Fury · Feb 28, 2021

1. The Last of Us Part II - Excellent game. Tells a story that takes some chances and takes advantage of the gaming medium. The gameplay is better than the first and the presentation is top notch.
2. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout - I got this with PS Plus and it's a fun diversion. I'll pop into it every now and then and do a couple rounds.

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS4] [Party] [Mediatonic] Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

t26 · Feb 28, 2021

1. Final Fantasy VII Remake - Amazing game that lives up to every expectation and more. Might be the RPG of the generation.
2. Last of Us - Prefect story and gameplay - was on the edge of my seat for the whole game.
3. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - best story of the year. The tower defense surprisingly is fun too.
4. Disaster Report 4 - feels like you are in Japan kind of game
5. Robotics;Notes DaSH - Best Visual novel of the year.
6. Trials of Mana - a great way to bring a classic RPG back to life
7. Sakura Wars - solid game, hope there will be a sequel
8. Iron Man VR - control could be better but I am Iron Man
9. Kandagawa Jet Girls - best jet ski games in years.
10. Watch Dogs Legions - a very by the book kind of game.
11. Fall Guy

[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Granzella] Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories
[PS4] [Visual novel] [Mages] Robotics;Notes DaSH
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Trials of Mana
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Sega] Sakura Wars
[PS4] [Shooter] [Camouflaj] Marvel's Iron Man VR
[PS4] [Racing] [Honey?Parade Games] Kandagawa Jet Girls
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Ubisoft] Watch Dogs: Legion
[PS4] [Party] [Mediatonic] Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

Sasliquid · Feb 28, 2021

So that was strange year.

First some honorable (or perhaps dishonorable) mentions:

I really enjoyed my time with Final Fantasy VII Remake. As a big fan of the series I felt it did a good job expanding and staying true to the originals themes even if I didn't like many of the next characters. However the ending was awful, completely damaging all the thematic work that preceeded and for that reason I can't vote for it in good conscious.#

Similarly Ghost of Tsushima was a solid experience but I also watched a lot of classic Jedaigeki films this year and when the game openly acknowledges its ambition to be like Kurosawa its flaws stick out all the more.

Astro's Playroom almost made the list but it's hard to argue for it too hard a it is essentially a demo for the PS5 controller (but what a demo!).

Persona 5: Royal was a re-release of one of my favourite games of all time and Demon's Souls was a beautiful recreation of a classic. Either would easily make the list but neither are new games and so I will not count them.

1. The Last of Us: Part II

I am not huge fan of the original Last of Us, its a solid enough hodgepodge of lots of generic zombie and post-apocalypse tropes. Its best aspect was its challenging ending. The Last of Us: Part II is better in every way. There are the obvious graphical improvement and gameplay tweaks but where it excels is where most AAA game never dare go. It's narrative is difficult, it has no easy answers. Its bleak but has a streak of hope throughout it. Its characters are three dimensional and make difficult decisions that remain honest to the plot. It is not just a typical "revenge = bad" narrative but an exploration on moving past grudges and trying to be a better person.. Its the furthest thing from escapism and that can be hard to stomach in 2020 but it was the rare example of a big studio taking a risk and having something to say.

2. Yakuza: Like A Dragon

In contrast I had high hopes for Yakuza 7 which were wonderfully matched. I love JRPGs and its lovely to have a non-traditional setting (i.e. Urban and Adult) explored in the same mix of seriously core plot lines and weird tangents that Yakuza never fails to bring. Whether its the story of family and what that means or beating a crane driven by a monkey it kept me gripped for well over 50 hours.

3. Nioh 2

Nioh remains an under appreciated story. While the Souls games have gone in multiple directions, some good and some bad, Nioh has taken that core gameplay loop and kept refining it to such a fine sheen that it has arguably the greatest sword fighting combat in the industry. Nioh 2 isn't a huge leap forward but it has such a large degree of content to play through, tweaks to its already fantastic fighting and an army of Scampusses to back up.

4. Hades

I am sure lot's of people have already covered why Hades is pretty great. Supergiant has built of the greatest rogue-likes yet with their typical plenty of beautiful arts, skilled writing and pitch-perfect gameplay. Yet another great notch to their diverse library of indie classics (even of Pyre remains my favourite).

5. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

While many games (including the above) rip how they tell their stories from film and television, 13 Sentinels is an example of narrative that can only function through a game. There may a some light tower defence mechanics but the true joy of this game is having dozens of out of order plot threads and characters dumped in front of you and slowly working out how they are connected. I am not sure its overall story themes have much to say but there is really artistry in how they are told.

6. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla

The only game on this list I haven't yet finished but I am just a sucked for what AC has become. The historical action-rpgs are now such a source of comfortable, well over 70 hours in so far and this one plot may be the best in a while. I can't say its particularly special but its nice way to kill time on long winter weekends when you aren't even allowed to leave the house.

7. DOOM: Eternal

The new additions may make this a less refined experience than the fantasy first game in the reboot franchise, there are few purely enjoyable experiences than kill demons in DOOM. Plus the soundtrack once again kicks ass. Nothing else I can really say but if you hate DOOM maybe its because you love Demons (and that's not cool).

8. Bugsnax

Like many I was enamoured with this game when I first saw it but wasn't sure what to expect. Its a lovely chill (until it isn't) experience that is both actually funny and surprisingly emotional. It's also a nice showcase for how you can make Pokemon game that doesn't need to be still reliant on combat. All Hail the Snax.

9. Star Wars: Squadrons

My VR Headset didn't get a huge amount of use this year and I am not a huge fan of flight sims (or Star Wars anymore for that matter) but combined this was something. Few experiences can match that moment when an X-Wing passes you over head and just a second you forget about the outside hellscape and are truely immersed.

10. Cloudpunk

Finally by Cyper-punk game of the year (but honestly I did not play 2077). Another non-combat experience that sets a wonderful atmosphere and explores this dystopic world in ways big budget games would avoid.

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS4] [RPG] [Sega] Yakuza: Like a Dragon
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Team Ninja] Nioh 2
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PS5] [Action RPG] [Ubisoft] Assassin's Creed Valhalla
[PS4] [Shooter] [id Software] Doom Eternal
[PS5] [Adventure] [Young Horses] Bugsnax
[PS4] [Space combat] [Motive Studios] Star Wars: Squadrons
[PS4] [Adventure] [ION LANDS] Cloudpunk

goldblum · Feb 28, 2021

I'm terrible at describing how I feel about something, so apologies in advance for this.

01 The Last of Us
Just an incredible achievement in game design and storytelling. I can't quite summarise how much I loved this game, and how much it stuck with me after completion. A truly daring sequel. Something I think is often overlooked is the innovation in accessibility, and I hope more games take this approach going forward.

02 Half-Life: Alyx
I had yet to play a VR game that I liked — until this. I was really fortunate to play this due to work, otherwise it would have been a lost gem to me — like it is for a large number of players. It takes the most simple of tasks, basics in gaming, and turns them into something immersive and special.

03 Demon's Souls
I hadn't played the original so went into this completely fresh to the experience — and wow. Challenging in the best ways, and truly stunning on the PS5.

04 Hades
The voice acting and art-style is top-notch, and I am glad it got the attention it deserved last year. Probably one of the most AAA experiences that actually isn't? It's just so well done.

05 Final Fantasy VII: Remake
I went into this with apprehension — a game I loved but hadn't played for years, and one where I didn't want my nostalgia to be tainted by a disappointing remake. But they nailed it — and that soundtrack! Whew.

06 Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Beautiful and surprisingly moving.

07 Dreams
Massively underrated and a game that should have been included with the PS5 (or free with PS Plus) to get a large community going — it lives and dies with the community and deserves far more.

08 Astro's Playroom
A joyful love letter to gaming history, and an experience I didn't expect to have so much heart. Thoroughly enjoyable.

01 [PS4] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
02 [PC] [Valve] Half-Life: Alyx
03 [PS5] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
04 [PC] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
05 [PS4] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
06 [PC] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps
07 [PS4] [Media Molecule] Dreams
08 [PS5] [Sony Interactive Entertainment] Astro's Playroom

NeoKnight · Feb 28, 2021

I really loved 2020 for games. I both got to play amazing new games (and a lot of them earlier in the year) and I got to play some older games that I greatly enjoyed.

1 - Ori and the Will of the Wisps
This is probably one of my favorite games of all time honestly. I love Metroidvanias, and it's hard to see a game surpass the classic Metroid and Castlevania games like Super and SOTN. However, a few years ago I played Hollow Knight, and it became in my opinion the best Metroidvania I had played at the time. Move over, cause Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the best Metroidvania I have ever played, and maybe one of the best 2D games of all time. This game is just outstanding, from the level design to the music and controls, just an accomplishment (that deserves way more praise by the mainstream media). The music is even better than Ori 1, such as the "Shriek and Ori" theme at the end. The game was designed to allow you to level up your character based on the currency you collected, giving the player immense versatility in what to do. The control and powers are also spot on, easy to switch on the fly and use as needed. The game also includes tons of secrets and challenges which keep ya going, and helps synergize with the aforementioned currency level up system. Just amazing, and my GOTY of 2020.

2 - Demon's Souls
I am a Souls fan, so this one was easy to love. The game has a great atmosphere and the combat is replicated flawlessly from the original PS3 game (which was my GOTY in 2009) flawlessly. Playing on PS5, I appreciated the improved loading times a ton.

3 - Ghost of Tsushima
A better version of Assassin's Creed set in feudal Japan. Finally someone answered the mail. Combat is great and the open world is beautiful. IMO this is the best Playstation game of 2020 (yes, I know Demon's is above, but as I said, I am a Souls fan). I did beat both FF7R and TLoU2, but this is the game that at the end of the year is the one I remembered the most and I wanted to replay more.

4 - Journey to the Savage Planet
Surprise of the year. This game is great (thanks Gamepass). My brother and I played it over a weekend thanks to Gamepass, and we collected all the secrets and beat it, but it was an addicting amazing metroid like game. The exploration and the level design is fantastic, and hope to see more games from this developer.

5 - Deep Rock Galactic
Another amazing surprise and thank you Gamepass. I had heard good things about this game, and when my friend and I tried it in co-op one day, it became our obsession for a whole month. Great 4 player co-op exploration game with mining, upgrades, and wave combat.

6 - Daemon X Machina
As close to a new Armored Core as we get, and I loved it for it. Even if it came out in 2019 for Switch, and I dislike voting for games released previously (otherwise, it would be higher on this list), the game also came for PC in 2020, and is where I loved it. The combat feels fast albeit a bit shallow at first, but the feeling of flying a mech and destroying everything is still fun.

7 - Valorant
I do not like games like Counter Strike (except for maybe R6 Siege) where you have only 1 life, cause it adds stress that I do not appreciate. However, I loved what I played from Valorant, it plays great, and for a free to play title, it's a great time.

8 - Resident Evil 3 Remake
I did not play the RE2 remake cause I did not like the demo and did not like the Tyrant chasing you in it (not a big fan of horror games either). Really loved the new design of Jill Valentine however, so I tried RE3. Jill quickly became one of my favorite characters in the past generation of gaming with this version of RE3. The game was fun, and not too long which was a plus in my book. I would actually like to see if Capcom made more games with her as a protagonist. I actually now want to go and play the RE2 remake due to this game.

9 - Maneater
I love sharks, but I dislike GTA open world games. However, for sharks, I will make the exception. This game was just fun all around. Really liked upgrading my shark and figuring out how to cheat the combat system, which is sometimes a little finicky. Thank god I played this on the Xbox with my Elite controller, which allowed me to use the back pedal buttons to use as the lock on button, making combat a much better experience.

10 - Disintegration
Ok, so a lot of people hated this game, and yes, the multiplier looked abysmal. But playing the single player campaign, I had a lot of fun. It's a game I would like to go back and replay, which is more than I can say of other AAA games that were received/reviewed better that I also played this year, but I have zero interest in ever going back to. It says something when I think back to Disintegration and have a very positive memory of the fun I had.

[XSX] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps
[PS5] [Action RPG] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[XBO] [Adventure] [Typhoon Studios] Journey to the Savage Planet
[XBO] [Shooter] [Ghost Ship Games] Deep Rock Galactic
[PC] [Shooter] [Marvelous] Daemon X Machina
[PC] [Shooter] [Riot Games] Valorant
[PC] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[XSX] [Action RPG] [Tripwire Interactive] Maneater
[XBO] [Shooter] [V1 Interactive] Disintegration

StraySheep · Feb 28, 2021

Some people might have been bothered by the cut off date being so late, but it gave me the opportunity to finish three of the games on this list this weekend, so I am grateful. If it had been a few days later I could have started Like A Dragon on PS5. I also own 13 Sentinels and Kentucky Route Zero (trapped in a different country), and now that I have a PS5 may buy TLOU 2. In other words, there are still plenty of games I couldn't get to yet.

Final Fantasy VII: Remake - What an experience this was. Initially I was unsure whether I wanted them to follow the original story to a T, but by the end of playing it I was so into the risks they were taking I can't imagine it any other way. Great combat, great art direction, great music, one of the best sequences of gaming I can think of in the attack on the slums. It has it all.
Persona 5: Royal - I wasn't sure if I wanted to include this game at all as a extended port of the original. That status keeps it from getting the number one spot – which I am not thrilled went to a remake either. But Royal has elevated Persona 5 to being possibly my favorite game of all time.
Ghost of Tsushima - In my eyes the best version of the Ubisoft format possible which usually bores me. I found JIn's story compelling. And of course its a beauty.
Hades - Supergiant doesn't miss. Probably hooked me the most out of the games on this list in the early hours.
Astro's Playroom - Actually enjoyed this more than Rescue Mission. A true love letter to the past and future of Playstation.
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1+2 - Hot take: THPS1 has the better levels.
Fuser - A twitter video has never sold me on a game so hard.
Animal Crossing NH - In the end it rang a bit more shallow for me then I remember the other Animal Crossings, but it was a good early days and I love what it stands for.
Dreams - Like everyone else I didnt play you enough Dreams.
Murder By Numbers - Haven't finished this yet but I dig it. Could have gone higher if Honor's character design was less lame.

[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS4] [RPG] [Atlus] Persona 5 Royal
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sony Interactive Entertainment] Astro's Playroom
[PS4] [Sports] [Vicarious Visions] Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2
[PS4] [Rhythm] [Harmonix] Fuser
[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[PS4] [Game Creation] [Media Molecule] Dreams
[Switch] [Visual Novel] [Mediatonic] Murder by Numbers

Wanderer5 · Feb 28, 2021

Didn't really play so much new games from 2020, so I'll just make it top 5 this time.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons - This game really came out at the perfect time. Literally just got furloughed from my job at the time, and the game really brought me a lot of joy through those days of the lockdown and beyond. It is just bursting with charm and relaxation, with many colorful and memorable characters to interact with. The deserted island premise is great, and is made even better during these rough times. I mean, getting away to a deserted island did really feel appealing last year ha ha. Overall New Horizons is quite a lovely game that was made even more special last year, and it shows.
Hades - I usually not a fan of roguelike/lite, but Hades is so damn fun. It has a really nice depth system of gaining skills for a run, and it has a great progression system. Beside being a lot of fun, it has stellar presentation, and a great story to boot to flow with the nature of roguelike. Overall it just feels extremely tight, and if not for how special Animal Crossing turn out to be during these rough times, it would have been my GOTY for sure.
Resident Evil 3 Remake - I love this remake so much, and yet it frustrates me, cause it felt just short of possibly being GOTY and maybe even my favorite Resident Evil title. It is really fun, has great pacing, and the characters have been improved so much, especially Carlos. I just wish it could had at least just squeeze in one more section to give Nemesis some more time to stalk you, and the Mad Jackal mode. Still again, I love it for what it has.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Ori is back looking as beautiful as ever, and now has a lot more going on in the gameplay that feels welcoming, including now mixing the combat with different weapons that makes for a fun experience. Overall just a really damn solid sequel.
Murder House - The retro style horror games from Puppet Combo tend to be very interesting, yet pretty rough, but Murder House definitely feels like it comes together the most. It feels like a nice blend of Clock Tower and Silent Hill, as you explore the house, while avoiding the Easter Ripper. It might be short (and don't think the complete ending was added yet heh), but it certainly left me with a good impression, and makes me excited for future titles from Puppet Combo.

[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PC] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[PC] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps
[PC] [Survival Horror] [Puppet Combo] Murder House

NotLiquid · Feb 28, 2021

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
I can't in good conscience put anything else above this game when this is the game that's been the most evocative of the year 2020. In a pandemic period where all the joys of normalcy have been moved to the wayside, Animal Crossing came like a lightning bolt and offered the world a simulacrum of a simpler time. It's a game that made routine stimulating, and even appealing. I can't say whether or not the game would've resonated with me to this extent if it released in any other time, but in a year that had us boxed in by so many outside tensions and when a lot of entertainment was only exacerbating that sensation, Animal Crossing stands out all the more for the reprieve it granted. That it wound up being the biggest game of the year, if not the biggest, only helps instill a sense of comforting togetherness in our search for normalcy - and how cool is it that said game would also wind up both being so diverse, and directed by a woman?

2. Streets of Rage 4
A game that's instantly locked itself into my shortlist of favorite games of all time; Streets of Rage 4 is one of the increasingly rare games where it does everything you'd want out of a retro revival. What stands out about the game outside of its bone-crunching feedback, beautiful direction, and satisfying game play, is how much the game feels like it oozes so much pure reverence for everything right down to the series' abstractions. Why "only" just get back Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima for the soundtrack? Why not go the whole yards with nine new composers who have followed in the wake of the originals' legendary tunes? Why amass an in-house team when you can recruit a collective of studios who's entire bread-and-butter comprise of games that celebrate the mere idea that video games were made to be crazy and cool, one of whom had made their own crazy beat 'em up that was actually great even with its outlandish presentation? Streets of Rage 4 is as "video games" as video games can get. What more could you ask for?

3. Paper Mario: The Origami King
I expected this game to be an enjoyable time but I didn't expect the game to embed itself in my memory to this extent after the adventure was well done and over. For a series that often sees its creators and fans locked in a perpetual strife over what the series should be, Origami King arrives as a distillation of what Paper Mario is all about - a charming world, something that makes you feel like you've truly been on a spectacular journey by the end of it, characters you'll remember, presentation that's one of a kind, a cocktail explosion of emotive moments that leaves you laughing, sad, tense, and a little bittersweet by the end of the experience. I'd be here all day if I heaped praise onto all of its moments and how it comes together by the very end, from its memorable set pieces to its absolutely immaculate soundtrack (which I made a thread about and consider the most accomplished Mario soundtrack), but I can sum up this games' strengths as succinctly as; this is a game where they made a pair of scissors one of the most memorable characters of all year, and the most memorable boss battle of all year.

4. Doom Eternal
Hamish Todd who wrote for Tim Rogers' old Action Button website once summarized the game God Hand as a game that "would never lie to you". I think a lot about this quote when it comes to games, and I recall upon it now as I'm writing about Doom Eternal. In my lead-in about it, I thought of the game as the most shockingly honest triple A game I've played in years; moreso than even its immediate predecessor. This is sometimes to its very detriment; it emerges a rougher, yet more chunkier cut of a gem by comparison, and feels not just like a throwback to old shooters but to the mentality of game design in its infancy. Here's a game that juxtaposes a much more lore-heavy, story-driven experience with UI and overall graphic elements that's moved to be non-diagetic; weapons now "float", everything's just a little bolder, the interactable elements are more abstract, everything's just a little more cartoony - practically deliberately so, as if to remind the player that in spite of its over-the-top story, this is still a goofy-ass video game. At the same time the game design has now moved to be more mechanics driven, wanting you to sample everything and take advantage of all the little nooks and crannies to the extent that it is willing to bend its suspension of disbelief in a matter to truly elevate the sensation of being a one-man army against hell where you earn your victory. Where I'd only played Doom 2016 a couple times after already being burned out toward the endgame, Eternal is a game I've already replayed multiple times just to get better at it. All of this could have been a fluke; even when there's appeal in how its slightly less pristine exterior begets more interesting choices than 2016, it could've all been by accident or troubled development. It wasn't until The Ancient Gods expansion came out later last year though and when the designers decided to drop two Marauders at once in the first level when I realized "they know what they want out of their game, and I love it".

5. Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
This is one of those games that makes you ask what other gems we've been missing out on in the west, and how far back games already decided to experiment with the mere concept of games as artistic statement, the audience's own investment with the medium, and deconstruction of games. While the game shows its age in a lot of ways, it makes you realize that for most major games out there which the media are ready to lavish as narratively risk taking, this medium is still playing catch-up with the playing books that were written and lost to time since at least the 90s. In a year where players have been forced to interact with games more than ever, one can only hope that said time can also be used as reflection, looking back and seeing if there are any more gems like this that are hiding and yet to be unearthed. Moon may not be an inarguably great game, but it's very likely to expand how you think about games, if only for how it tried to convey the message that developers were thinking about the medium's meta long before some of this site's users were likely even born.

6. Hades
I've never been the biggest Supergiant fan, so it says a lot that I consider it one of the easiest contenders for GOTY. Hades is remarkable for the many successful ways it excels at multiple micro elements that add up to an incredible holistic package. Roguelikes and roguelike progression has never been a particularly "unsolved" formula, but the way Hades is able to weave in narrative into that progression stands as remarkable. A lot of narratively driven games often have a tendency to invite would-be critics to ruminate on whether those games should embrace their choice of genre, why mechanics work the way they do, or pointing out the many ways these elements are at odds with the way the games themselves want to be. Hades runs into no such problem; not only is there a staggering amount of immaculately written and acted dialogue - in so many unique permutations - but it expertly employs this formula to deliver a very poignant tale about parenthood and relationships in a way that feels like it could only work in this type of game. Hades isn't just proof that video games can contend with acclaimed stories and art, but that they can shoot higher in ways only video games can.

7. Helltaker
I don't know why there were so many good games about hell this year. Helltaker is a funny game that gets on my list for no other reason than it feeling like it was a genuinely positive, unexpected force-of-nature for this unquantifiable period of time from 2020 onward - and I say unquantifiable because we've only just recently gotten to a point when we're getting Nendoroids of it. Helltaker is a game that's larger than itself in the most literal sense; the game is free, can be beaten in an hour, and is fairly simple. It's unassuming in intent, its story feels like a joke, but the writing and design is ultimately what makes it (and the catchy music), culminating in a funny, weird ending which has had the knock-on effect of creating a social media firestorm of artists all over the world creating cool fan content that's driven by pure energy and affinity for creation. Helltaker is less here because it's a "game" and more because it's basically become its own miniature enterprise that the game itself was only a catalyst for. To this day there's still a sense of osmosis that's perpetuating with the game, and the kicker is how it all spawned from the developer's single atypical interest in wanting to see demon girls be portrayed with business suits.

8. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Sakuna is one of the few games I played this year that I feel like I learned something from. Game design is no stranger of looking toward life itself and finding means to "gamify" them (that's why so many games like Persona set themselves in a high school after all; it's the period in life where you'll most regularly contend with the most "game-like" systems), but Sakuna manages to do so via the practically unexplored-in-games concept of rice farming. It's not hard to look up articles about how the design of the game is a surprisingly accurate reflection of the process, and surprisingly it's engaging to get embroiled in all these systems, if not the least for the fact that you literally reap the rewards of what you sow, translating the labor aspects into fruitful boosts for the moment-to-moment side-scrolling action game play, which is also fun and engaging to get involved into. Hell, Sakuna is one of two games on this list that has a grappling hook mechanic, so if that's not saying something about objectively good design then I don't know what would.

9. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
On one hand, it feels like a cheat to put the game on here. These are all games that have come out separately across various periods of time to critical acclaim. These are also remasters which some people would be quick to argue don't constitute a worthwhile package. On the other hand, Super Mario 3D All-Stars gets on here because it's the one game this year that's inspired this remarkably book club-ish aspect that very few remasters has ever done in my eyes. When we look at remakes and remasters that have come out over the years, they're often treated as formalities given their old stature, yet 3D All-Stars felt like a moment where large swathes of the gaming community as a whole came back together to re-examine their past and present of the most iconic video game series, before the future would prosper onward with the advent of the recently released Bowser's Fury. Whether it truly deserves the attention or not, this is the one notable time I can think that a remaster has caused exciting conversations between newcomers and veterans alike of this scale. Reading through the OT for the game was a hoot during its prime, and the reflection of the series' history through this title has been one of the more memorable moments of 2020.

Honorable mention shoutouts to: Spiritfarer, Yakuza Like A Dragon, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, and Paradise Killer for being games I couldn't quite get to before writing this list.

[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[Switch] [Beat 'em up] [DotEmu] Streets of Rage 4
[Switch] [RPG] [Intelligent Systems] Paper Mario: The Origami King
[PC] [Shooter] [id Software] Doom Eternal
[Switch] [RPG] [Onion Games] Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PC] [Adventure] [Vanripper] Helltaker
[Switch] [Action] [Edelweiss] Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
[Switch] [Platformer] [Nintendo] Super Mario 3D All-Stars

jph139 · Feb 28, 2021

1) Crusader Kings III
If you play strategy games, you know the cycle: a game comes out, it's worse than its predecessor, but after a few years of patches and DLC it stands up fine on its own. Until it reaches the end of its lifecycle, the sequel comes out, and it all starts up again. Crusader Kings III is astounding in that it breaks that cycle: it's, fundamentally, a perfect sequel to CK2. It takes all of its systems, keeps what's needed, and laces together its systems in a way that's not just engaging but approachable. It's a new gold standard for Paradox, and if it's this good at launch, I can't imagine how it'll look after a few years of support! I'm already over 200 hours of play - if I haven't crossed 1000 by the time CK4 is out, I'll be shocked.

2) Animal Crossing: New Horizons
I've always been an Animal Crossing person, down to my bones. It's been part of my daily routine for over a decade now, and after so long without a console installment I was eager for more. While it's still lacking some features (see: The Roost), I'm surprised to say that the crafting system was a great addition, and the quality-of-life changes have been appreciated. And it looks so nice! Never before have my little animal friends been so cute.

3) Resident Evil 3
I was a little disappointed with Resident Evil 3; it's a pale shadow of RE2, which is easily a high-water mark for the series. But it's a little unfair to hold it to those standards. For what it is - a survival horror jaunt with an action focus - it's successful! The basic mechanics were iterated upon well, and its reimagined takes on Jill and Carlos were instant hits. Just... not worth the full price.

4) Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics
Such a Nintendo product. Simple idea - just basic board games, digitized - but executed with tons of charm and polish. The little vignettes with the figurines are memorable, and the amount of games included is honestly staggering. Kind of a must-have for Switch owners.

5) Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
While I've fallen off Fall Guys pretty hard, I enjoyed it immensely during those first couple weeks. Strong basic platforming mechanics with enough variety to keep from getting stale... for a while, at least. I never won though. :(

[PC] [Grand strategy] [Paradox Interactive] Crusader Kings III
[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[PC] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[Switch] [Party] [Nintendo] Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics
[PC] [Party] [Mediatonic] Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

KyleP29 · Feb 28, 2021

1. Hades - Supergiant has always impressed me with their games but Hades is amazing. From great character design, fun writing, and deep game play it was the complete package.
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizon - It was my first Animal Crossing game and it didn't look like my sort of thing but it got its hooks into me and i absolutely loved building up my island. Finding new designs to incorporate.
3. The Last of Us Part 2 - What a beautiful game. I was quite impressed with the advancements in game play and finding new ways to approach an encounter and how it plays out when it all blows up. The story also packs a punch as is expected.
4. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 - What a remake. It perfectly captured the look and feel of the originals that i spent so much time playing in my youth.
5. Final Fantasy 7 Remake - So much nostalgia for a great game. Cant wait to see the other parts.
6. Spider-Man: Miles Morales - The new electro powers were fun to use and once the story got going it was a blast to play through.
7. Ori and the will of the wisps - Beautiful game with just the right amount of challenge that keeps you wanting to explore and gain access to those new abilities and areas.
8. Astro's Playroom - Loved the way the game showcased the PS5 and think the team has something that could really be built out.
9. Ghost of Tsushima - A really stunning world to explore with some fantastic side quests.
10. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout - Just pure fun.

[Switch] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[XBO] [Sports] [Vicarious Visions] Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Insomniac Games] Spider-Man: Miles Morales
[XSX] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sony Interactive Entertainment] Astro's Playroom
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PS4] [Party] [Mediatonic] Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

GhaleonQ · Feb 28, 2021

1. Moon: Remix R.P.G. Adventure is the greatest video game ever made.

Moon is the only video game that trains you to be a good human being.

Here's how it did it for me.

[Switch] [Adventure] [Love-de-Lic] moon: Remix RPG Adventure

subcutaneousphat · Feb 28, 2021

The Last Of Us Part 2

Not just my GOTY but in a brutal three-way battle for my GOTG. That it both delivered on my lofty expectation and confounded them is testament to a studio not just working at the top of their game, but one with the most ridiculous ambitions. In some ways it feels like Naughty Dog set themselves an insurmountable challenge in regards to the storytelling
- can they [redacted] and yet [redacted redacted]. I still marvel at the sheer chutzpah when I think about it. And I still tear up if I watch that final cutscene. I can't think of another recent piece of media that kept me so intensely engaged throughout and that nailed the landing so satisfyingly.

Story aside, the gameplay is top-notch - it's the best playing tps out there IMO, controls are fluid and responsive, the world and encounter design constantly keeping me alert and invested and of course the presentation and sound design is best in class. In short - What a fucking ride.

Factions had better be coming soon.

Demon's Souls

Only my second souls game, after Bloodborne. It doesn't quite hit those heights, of course. Its roots are betrayed by markedly less sophisticated boss fights and the 5 different worlds lack the magical cohesion that BB's world offered. But at times it's absolutely punching up there. World 3 and 4 in particular filled me with a similar sense of wonder. Combat is as satisfying as you'd expect, and it's all absolutely dripping in atmosphere.

Sackboy

It's been a long time since I've played a platformer and I'm afraid to say I'd forgotten just how fun they could be. Sackboy is absolutely bursting with charm, a surprising amount of creativity, and its musical levels brought me joy just when I really needed some. A wonderful return and I hope Sumo get to do another. In the meantime I suppose I need to consider getting a Switch (as if Hades wasn't already making holding off hard enough).

Spider-man: Miles Morales

I'm not even a superhero guy but somehow this is the second time Insomniac have managed to bring tears to my eyes with this franchise so they're doing something right with their storytelling. Mechanically it feels like an improvement on Spider-man PS4 and overall it's a tighter experience.

Ghost of Tsushima

I have complaints about GoT, mostly the exact same complaints I have for all of these similarly structured open world games. What elevates it above the likes of Ass Creed for me is the finely tuned combat, the one-on-one duels in particular are a highlight, and the deeply evocative landscape. The environmental climbing puzzles were surprisingly engaging too.

Honourary but non-eligible mentions

Dead Cells - I was late to this obviously but I put more hours into this this year than anything else. Addictive as crack and tuned to perfection. If only I was good enough to get that fifth boss cell. Would be 2nd on my list overall if it had released this year.

Sekiro - Demon's Souls left me craving a little more From action. Ultimately it sits behind BB and Demon's for me, but it's still a satisfying manifestation of the Souls formula (and possibly harder than either?)

Fallen Order - I'm not a Star Wars fan so I slept on this. Essentially a blatant mash-up of other established franchises but aside from a minor irritant here and there (that fucking map for one) it's a whole lot of fun.

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS5] [Action RPG] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
[PS5] [Platformer] [Sumo Digital] Sackboy: A Big Adventure
[PS5] [Action Adventure] [Insomniac Games] Spider-Man: Miles Morales
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima

Raylan · Feb 28, 2021

1. Ghost of Tsushima: I've played over 100h of the singleplayer mode and at least 200h of the multiplayer mode. Enough said.
2. Final Fantasy 7: Its characters, the story and the soundtrack are still as awesome as they have been many years ago. A Squaresoft masterpiece.
3. Demon's Souls: My favorite From Soft game. Bluepoint outdid themselves again.
4. Spelunky 2: It's more Spelunky and more addictive than ever.
5. Remaster of a legendary RTS game series. I already know I will play this game for at least another five years.

[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PS5] [Action RPG] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
[PC] [Platformer] [Mossmouth] Spelunky 2
[PC] [RTS] [Petroglyph Games] Command & Conquer Remastered Collection

PC90 · Feb 28, 2021

1) Yakuza: Like a Dragon - The new turn-based system works well and Ichiban is the GOAT protagonist. A strong entry in one of my favorite game series.
2) Final Fantasy VII Remake - Possibly my favorite combat system in an Action-RPG.
3) Resident Evil 3 - Yes, the cut content is a bummer. Instead of expanding upon the city, it felt more like two streets. Overall, this game feels like a missed opportunity. However, I still had a blast playing it and Jill is great in this.

[PC] [RPG] [Sega] Yakuza: Like a Dragon
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PC] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake

Burt · Feb 28, 2021

1. Half-Life: Alyx - Just picking up a janitor's broom and feeling the handling characteristics change as I choked up was probably my gameplay moment of the year -- until I had to keep raising the bar as things got topped again and again throughout my playthrough.
2. Cyberpunk 2077 - There's a side scrap of content where you walk into a... place with two... people... doing ... something and talking about it in a certain... manner, and it definitely ended up being my favorite roleplaying moment of the year, without a single dialogue option, stat check, or XP reward. larrydavidunsure.gif
3. Wasteland 3 - Still has bugs clinging on, but overall just all around really good. Surprisingly, the world and situations that it thrusts you into are often nastier than those in Cyberpunk. Kudos to the devs for having the reward for 'doing the right thing' sometimes just be 'that warm fuzzy feeling you get from doing the right thing -- and that's it!'.
4. Resident Evil 3 Remake - Better than RE2Remake. Its brevity is a blessing.
5. DOOM: Eternal - More DOOM -- nothing wrong with that.
6. The Last of Us 2 - It's very good.
7. Nioh 2 - More Nioh -- nothing wrong with that.
8. Final Fantasy VII Remake - I'm lukewarm on most the narrative elements here , but like, goddamn, you can't hear that music come in over those production values and not go nuts. That being said, "Nailed it, I know, thank you, moving on" is probably Line of the Year.
9. Hades - Gorgeous, fun, engrossing, endlessly replayable.
10. Ghost of Tsushima - I'm not huge on open worlders, but the gameplay, aesthetic, and production here squeak it in the end as I start running out of games to list because I spent too much time on Warhammer 2 this year.

[PC] [Shooter] [Valve] Half-Life: Alyx
[PC] [Action RPG] [CD Projekt] Cyberpunk 2077
[PC] [RPG] [InXile Entertainment] Wasteland 3
[PC] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Team Ninja] Nioh 2
[PC] [Shooter] [id Software] Doom Eternal
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PC] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima

TeenageFBI · Feb 28, 2021

While there are games that may wind up on this list in the end, like Desperados 3, Streets of Rage 4, or Umurangi Generation, I'm not far enough into them to know for sure!

Honorable mention to Demon's Souls for being Bluepoint's best remake and to Animal Crossing for being a lovely game that really calmed me down in an otherwise miserable year.

Half-Life: Alyx - After all this time, it somehow didn't disappoint. Alyx easily as good as the other two so it's automatically one of my favorite games ever made. The sense of scale from VR really elevates the experience. And those gravity gloves! The reload mechanic! Manhandling trash to dig up upgrades! I only wish that it was cheaper and easier for other people to try it.
Hades - Supergiant's best game, and I love them all. Here's hoping other devs can learn the lessons from Supergiant's approach to roguelite storytelling. <3 Dusa <3
Doom Eternal - Awful story, sublime combat. Just feels great to play.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - It's Yakuza! With a new main character that somehow isn't a disappointment compared to Kiryu! But the biggest surprise for me was how well the writers handled your party members. Good vibes. I hope Sega continues with the turn-based thing.
The Last of Us Part II - Few surprises here. Just another nearly flawless game from Naughty Dog.
OMORI - A meaty JRPG with a great art style and a surprisingly affecting story.
Paradise Killer - I love detective games. Especially open-ended detective games with INCREDIBLE MUSIC and some of the most interesting characters I've ever seen. I just wish it stuck the landing.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Few surprises here. Just another nearly flawless game from Moon Studios.
Paper Mario: The Origami King - This is the fist Paper Mario that I really enjoyed since the GameCube days. Everyone is right, the combat is kind of pointless. Everything else more than makes up for it.
Necrobarista - A visual novel about death that somehow manages to stay uplifting. The charming cast and excellent dialogue helps. While I don't think it looks too good in screenshots, the presentation is entirely in 3D and there are a LOT of little animations and camera movements so the game stays visually interesting.

[PC] [Shooter] [Valve] Half-Life: Alyx
[PC] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PC] [Shooter] [id Software] Doom Eternal
[PC] [RPG] [Sega] Yakuza: Like a Dragon
[PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
[PC] [RPG] [Omocat] OMORI
[PC] [Adventure] [Kaizen Game Works] Paradise Killer
[PC] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps
[Switch] [RPG] [Intelligent Systems] Paper Mario: The Origami King
[PC] [Visual Novel] [Route 59] Necrobarista

Burnburn · Feb 28, 2021

1. Resident Evil 3 Remake

Short but sweet, perfect replayablity. It's not as good as RE2make, but that's partly because 2 was fresh whereas 3 is more of the same with more action sprinkled on top. There's a few subtle differences that end up changing how you play it. Where in 2 it was really powerfull to use the dismembering to the full potential, in this one... the system is really dumbed down and not worth going for dismemberment. In RE2 you aim for any limb, in this one for the head. I really liked the addition of the dodge mechanic, makes the bosses a lot of fun and I wish there were more bosses than just Nemesis variants. Also Carlos's character is great especially in the police station.

The real fun was doing multiple playthroughs and challenge runs. Where the length made the first playthrough a bit shallow (but still enjoyable), for subsequential playthroughs it was the perfect length. I ended up doing 5 runs in total, each run going for a different objective. Fuuuck the final boss on inferno though

2. Hades

I had been waiting for Hades to get out of Early Access ever since it was announced back in 2018. So when it got the V1.0 release I was in! All three previous Supergiant games have been amazing so there was no doubt in my mind that Hades would be good too. Supergiant delivered once again with a very enjoyable game that overstays its welcome and ends up being way too grindy. Of course doing a lot of playthroughs is a big part of rogue-likes, but at about 30 runs in it already started feeling like work. I understand that the writing is the highlight and the dynamic conversation trees are an absolute treat, but please don't make me do 50+ runs to showcase it.

As said earlier, the characters are the stars of the show, as with all Supergiant games, and they nailed it again. The combat is a lot of fun too and building an OP build feels really rewarding. All in all I do think this might be my least favourite Supergiant game because the package didn't feel as intricately crafted as the other ones, but that's also a sign of how good the previous ones are. I wonder if there will be more new content coming in the future that is not merely balance like how it has been after V1.0.

3. One Step From Eden

As a kid I loved Mega Man Battle Network and played (almost) all of them. So when I saw a trailer for One Step I know I had to play it. I do have to say that what made me love the MMBN games was the whole package and especially the adventure aspect of it. For MMBN, the actual battling is okay, but not the highlight of the show. OSFE though focuses fully on the combat, which is understandable as it's made by just one person with the help of some others. I've seen that he's interested in making a full fledged adventure game with the combat form OSFE and already can't wait for it!

This game is hard and with hard I mean REALLY HARD, I love playing hard games so when I say that this game almost made me quit at the beginning I think it's a testament of how hard it actually is. There have only been a few games I can think of that made me feel like the difficulty level was actually outside of my grasp. The combat is really fun though and because of that I was able to power through the initial insane difficulty curve. There's a lot of content with plenty of characters with completely different playstyles, multiple endings, additional challenges and community mods (which I haven't tried myself but I saw some fun ones online so I might try some out). Even after getting all achievements I still pick the game up from time to time for a few runs because it's just that much fun.

4. Valorant

Some of my friends just got a new gaming PC before Valorant released which made our group-size 5, the perfect size for some Valorant since it's free too! Very frustrating going from games like Apex and Overwatch to this, both have similar character specific mechanics, but Valorant is so much different than those two. So I had some trouble getting adjusted to the change of pace. After getting familiar with the game some more it did end up being a lot of fun. I still boot it up from time to time, but Apex has trumped it in the pecking order.

5. Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.8 Matsuribayashi

After what feels like years of waiting we finally got the conclusion to the Higurashi saga (well at least officially released on Steam)! What can I say, from the moment it released to now I've absolutely loved the series, especially the Questions arc. What made Higurashi shine was the horror, mystery & shit escalating and while the Answers arc still has these aspects, it does so in a lot lesser quantity since we're getting the explanation of what happened in the earlier episodes. And for the first time there's even a little bit of gameplay going on! In the end it was nice to get the answers to the mysteries the first 4-5 episode posed and seeing what was and what wasn't a red herring. Loved my time with Higurashi, but I'm glad it's over now. Time to move on to Umineko!

6. Going Under

A fun, charming and stylish rogue-lite. Coming from Hades I had a bit of a hard time playing it at first, but that's more of a sign of how great and fluid Hades was. I really liked the structure of the game where you're not redoing the same floors over and over but there's a few "dungeons" to complete. As I've been an intern not that long ago and rolled into the IT world 2 years ago the story subject really spoke to me. I've been through some of the same stuff and thought it was handled well and with a good sense of humor. It served as a good reminder that even though your work environment might be toxic, your collegaes don't need to be.

7. Murder By Numbers

I decided to try out Murder By Numbers since I love Picross and it seemed like it was that plus a nice story. Initially I was playing it for the picross, but as time went on and I got to some of the later trials I was enjoying the story more than the picross. At one point the picross puzzles actually became more of a nuisance than something I was looking forward to, which is ironic since at first I wanted to play the game because of the picross and the story was a nice extra bonus. It's just that sometimes you had to do 3-4 quite large picross puzzles almost in succession while there's something really interesting going on in the story and once you have solved all the puzzles you're kinda wondering what was going on in the story again. The story itself was quite nice and wholesome, I enjoyed it. It was a little bit predictable at certain points and a bit cheesy but hey, that sometimes is exactly what a light detective story needs.

[PC] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[PC] [Roguelike] [Supergiant Games] Hades
[PC] [Roguelike] [Thomas Moon Kang] One Step From Eden
[PC] [Shooter] [Riot Games] Valorant
[PC] [Visual Novel] [07th Expansion] Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.8 Matsuribayashi
[PC] [Roguelike] [Aggro Crab] Going Under
[PC] [Visual Novel] [Mediatonic] Murder by Numbers

StraySheep · Feb 28, 2021

I didn't even read all of the posts on this page so I'm sure others are also great, but I really enjoyed reading your lists Andrew J and Neiteio

Sumio Mondo · Feb 28, 2021

Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS4) - This game awakened me to life getting better despite how shitty my life was in 2020. There was a few occasions I didn't know I would make it but this game's cast connected to me on a deeper level (being old and being "forgotten" or feeling like a spare part or feeling like you have no importance) than other Yakuza games, which I honestly didn't expect. Especially Ichiban. His perseverance despite how bad things get is a testament to keep carrying on in life and he's an absolute joy to play as. The side quests are also amazing as ever. The music is some of the best in the series (Mabuchi combat theme + Omi Alliance Combat Theme are both hot fire) I also really felt the bond between the cast. The game's underlying themes are deep and the game's mechanics, despite needing improvement, are risk taking in a series known for beat 'em up action. I love the action gameplay of previous titles but I also love turn based with weakness systems too (see: SMT/Persona). I think they'll nail that down further with successive entries but as far as I'm concerned, I didn't enjoy a game more in 2020 or one that spoke to me as a dork in life much like the entire cast.
Persona 5: Royal (PS4) - The original Persona 5 was already a flawed masterpiece, this just seems to make a flawed gem better in a lot of ways. Having not finished the game yet (so long, just completed the 5th dungeon). It's a constant reminder that Atlus makes my favourite JRPGs and keep one upping themselves in the gameplay department. The new cast members are also really good and fit in really well to the events of the game. The improvements to dungeons and bosses are also great to see. If Persona 4: Golden is still my favourite Persona game overall, then this comes at the very least very, very close to surpassing it. It's brilliant.
Streets of Rage 4 (PS4) - Was genuinely shocked how much I loved this. I ended up playing through it with all characters and unlocking almost all of the secret characters. The mechanics are rock solid and after the patches, they made an all ready fantastic beat 'em up, even better. I am really excited to see what this dev team does next, whether it's SoR5, a new Golden Axe or something else entirely. SEGA chose very wisely and the wait was worth it. Bravo to the dev team. I love beat 'em ups so much and this series was a childhood favourite and they did it great justice.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake (PS4) - I was not expecting to love this game as much as I did. Having never played the original until way after the fact and never finishing it (not a fan of the gameplay). This version appealed way more to me, what with the perfect hybrid between flashy action and strategic pause skill systems, merged together to almost perfection. I have full faith in this team providing the goods with successive entries, despite fans clamouring over the climax, I was entirely engrossed throughout and will be going forward. This game has such good vibes and was worth the wait for me.
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia (Switch) - Never thought I'd see this IP return, let alone for this sequel become one of the best games of the year (I honestly thought they'd botch it). As it turns out, it's one of the best Tactical RPGs I've played in years. Similar to beat 'em ups, Tactical RPGs is definitely one of my top favourite genres of gaming and the mechanics here are really solid, well implemented, the music is atmospheric and the art is really well done.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (PS4) - Yet another absolutely brilliant game from Vanillaware, an incredibly consistent dev. I loved GrimGrimoire, so was happy to see them experiment with new genres again taking a break from action gameplay. The real-time w/ pause tactical RPG gameplay is flashy and the closest thing I'll get to a new Front Mission nowadays (if Front Mission was gridless, that is) and the visual novel storylines are so engrossing (if they are overwritten in parts, with just the right amount of convoluted for me) and music from Hitoshi Sakimoto and the rest of Basiscape is one of the best soundtracks of the year. Thankfully surpassed my expectations and made the extremely, extremely, long wait worth it.
Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection (PS4) - My first run through these gems. After playing these, now I'm a massive fan of former Capcom devs Inti Creates and will play everything they make. Everything. They're one of the very last bastions of classic 2D pixel art gaming and they're damn good at it. I beat Zero 1 and 2, now on to 3 which is even better than the first two, if that was possible. Capcom please keep releaisng these amazing Mega Man collections so I can experience them, thank you.
Resident Evil 3 (PS4) - Having made peace with the fact that this isn't a remake but rather a reimagining, I really enjoyed the game. Jill is awesome and Calos is awesome (way better than in the original) and I hope they both reappear again soon. Nemesis was a disappointment but I enjoyed the boss battles and the hospital section (one of my favourite areas next to the Clock Tower) is really well done. Hunters are intimidating in this game and I plan on doing another run through again soon. Yes it was shorter than it should have been but what was there was more of the brilliance that RE2 Remake introduced. I hope Capcom do an extended version of the game next gen or with the rumoured RE4 Remake keep more in tact. It's still RE and still engrossed me.
Final Fantasy XIV (PC) - Got to throw this game a vote since it's amazing, love returning to this world and have almost finally gotten through ARR now, can't wait to reach Heavensward. Yes, there's parts of it that's a slog but the gameplay systems and world are great.
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise (Switch) - My god this game was one of the worst performing I've witnessed in my over 30 years playing video games...but also was a blessing in disguise. I never thought I'd see a sequel for the extremely flawed first game which I inevitably loved since weird Japanese adventure games are totally my kind of thing... I'd take any adventure game from SWERY over most others. Yes, this is extremely flawed in story content, in performance (candidate for the worst in the past 10+ years...since Drakengard 3), bad combat, bad dungeons, bad dialogue, rushed climax and mystery and yet...there's just something about this game that really sunk its teeth into me, venomous though it is. Call it a sweet tasting poison. Yes, that's a good way of describing this weird adventure, isn't it York? Hurt me MORE, SWERY.

Honourable mentions:

Moon: Remix RPG Adventure - Wonderfully weird and powerful.
Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories - Bizarre, flawed fun adventure.
Langrisser 1 and 2 - Langrisser 2 is a great Tactical RPG with tons of routes.
Super Mario 3D All Stars - Fantastic games one and all. SM64 is one of my all time faves.

[PS4] [RPG] [Sega] Yakuza: Like a Dragon
[PS4] [RPG] [Atlus] Persona 5 Royal
[PS4] [Beat 'em up] [DotEmu] Streets of Rage 4
[PS4] [RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy 7 Remake
[Switch] [Tactical role-playing] [Matrix Software] Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[PS4] [Action] [Capcom] Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
[PS4] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[PC] [MMORPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy XIV
[Switch] [Survival horror] [TOYBOX Inc] Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise

Dancrane212 · Feb 28, 2021

Coming in hot with a list-minute list!

1. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Even before launch the game was something I already had a bit of investment in, with getting to see it revealed in-person at E3 being a highlight of that trip, but actually playing and finishing the title left such an impact on me that I started to re-evaluate what I was doing with my work. That I wanted to go through more creative endeavors with my time rather than functional. Will of the Wisps is easily one of the best games I've played this generation, if not ever.

2. Biomass

A wonderful Souls-like that rewarded discovery in a way I wasn't expecting (and for fear of spoiling things I'll leave it at that) and will be a game I will continue to sing praises of for years to come.

3. Final Fantasy VII Remake

FFVII was a game I heard a lot about in school as it was the talk of the town for years after its release, but it wasn't something I played through from start to finish until very recently. Despite that lack of attachment I was thoroughly hooked by the surprisingly sharp characterization and combat that finally made real-time JRPG into something that I actually loved and not tolerated once the novelty wore off.

4. Tenderfoot Tactics

Wandering this desolate world and building up my squad of goblins has been something I enjoyed picking at for the last 5 or so months. Going around with my paper map that I printed off and filling in my discoveries and path through the world made the time spent exploring between the fast-paced (and reactive) combat encounters something very memorable.

5. Luna: The Shadow Dust

Short, sweet and right to the point. The game was a wonderful way to spend 3 or so hours puzzling out its secrets, both in the obstacles presented and the wordless narrative. Beating the game and then seeing all the extra detail and thought put into the game by going through the art book was a real treat this year.

6. Resident Evil 3

The tension action and rapid pace of Resident Evil 3 made it a very fun companion to the Resident Evil 2 remake, I ended up running through the campaign multiple times to go for the unlockables and achievements, something pretty rare nowadays for me.

7. Mafia Definitive Edition

A high budget open world game that avoids all the cruft and focuses in on the narrative? It's pretty much unheard of, and I give the remake credit for not trying to shoehorn a bunch of extra content into the release. The content that is there is solid with a lot of weight coming from the narrative and performances, it's a fun period piece.

8. Deliver Us the Moon

A surprisingly well polished and visually appealing indie title that has a lot of ambition that helps it lands a surprisingly emotional tale. One of the best games I've backed on Kickstarter so far!

9. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

The highs of 13 Sentinels were fantastic (an extended tribute to a sci-fi train movie was a wonderful surprise) but it tracks a bit lower on the list for me due to its extended length loosing steam for me and giving me plenty of time to figure out the latter twists and turns hours before the story would reveal them. Still, it's well worth checking out, and it was fantastic to see a "next-gen" Vanillaware title!

10. Unto the End

A solid cinematic platformer backed up by giving you real choice in how you want to handle encounters. Part of the fun though was finding out what the choice actually was, you could just go in swinging or spend a bit of time to try to pick up on the signals the game was giving off and try a more peaceful option instead,

[XBO] [Metroidvania] [Moon Studios] Ori and the Will of the Wisps
[PC] [Action RPG] [FinalSceneDev] Biomass
[PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
[PC] [Turn-based strategy] [Ice Water Games] Tenderfoot Tactics
[PC] [Adventure] [Lantern Studio] Luna: The Shadow Dust
[XBO] [Survival Horror] [Capcom] Resident Evil 3 Remake
[XBO] [Action Adventure] [Hangar 13] Mafia: Definitive Edition
[XBO] [Adventure] [KeokeN Interactive] Deliver us the Moon
[PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
[XBO] [Action Adventure] [2 Ton Studios] Unto the End

Dr. Mario · Feb 28, 2021

Thanks for reading my list and the shoutout Andrew J , FWIW, I agree with you that the Tinkerer was justified not to listen, I was more annoyed by Miles going "but" and "hey" and "wait up I have to tell you something" every time instead of just saying the thing itself. I thought that was pretty tropey, but at the same time it's a superhero story, so it's par for the course.

Capsigrany · Feb 28, 2021

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - It has probably been said a million times, but this game did release at the most appropriate time. I also had not played an AC game since the first one for the GameCube, so it was like rediscovering an old favorite.
2. Crusader Kings III - Crusader Kings are very unique games. The mix of strategy and role playing, and the way history unfolds under the control of the AI make for a really fun and interesting kind of game unlike any other.
3. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX - I had always wanted to try the Mystery Dungeon series, but never did, until this game. I absolutely loved it, and will keep the series on my mind.
4. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - A great game and an interesting take on the world of Breath of the Wild, a must for its fans.
5. Streets of Rage 4 - A worthy successor to the series and an instant classic beat 'em up.
6. Fall Guys - Really fun game, the idea of a multiplayer competitive platformer is great. Maybe a bit more content would have helped to keep it fresh, but still it's a game that I will replay from time to time.

[Switch] [Simulation] [Nintendo] Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[PC] [Grand strategy] [Paradox Interactive] Crusader Kings III
[Switch] [Roguelike] [Spike Chunsoft] Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX
[Switch] [Hack and slash] [Omega Force] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
[Switch] [Beat 'em up] [DotEmu] Streets of Rage 4
[PC] [Party] [Mediatonic] Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

Game of the Year 2020 Voting Thread (Voting Concluded, Results Coming Soon!)

One Winged Slayer

Prophet of Truth

One Winged Slayer

▲ Legend ▲

Prophet of Truth

One Winged Slayer

Prophet of Truth

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

Enlightened

Fight Sephiroth or end video games

One Winged Slayer