Now that I have time to write. Let's go.
The Last Guardian -- Along with Shadow of the Colossus and ICO, this game cements that Fumito Ueda truly is the Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata of gaming rolled into one. I know that some had issues with it, but I adored every minute spent with it. They really did a good job making Trico feel like a living breathing creature. From his vast array of animations to his somewhat free will nature. He feels real and it's kind of amazing. That game does a wonderful job of having you build a bond and come to the end, I didn't want to say goodbye to Trico. A wonderful game through and through and was totally worth the wait for me. I look forward to whatever Ueda is doing next-gen.
Shenmue III -- I love it. Warts and all. Yeah, the fighting is far from the strongest of the series. The budget is hamstrung and it shows. But the feeling of Shenmue is still there. Playing it gave me pretty much everything I wanted from Shenmue and that's all I could ask for. I've even come around on the story woes. Yeah, it sucks that we didn't get the answers we were looking for, but much like The Last Guardian, I felt the game did a good job furthering that bond between Shenhua and Ryo through their nightly conversations. This game served as the "Getting to know you" chapter and further set up the conflict that is to come.
I know it's divisive among the fans, but I love the game. I loved just hanging out in Bailu. Be it picking herbs, or fishing for hours on end, or gambling, or practicing my horse stance every day and living out the WUDE. I love the fact that it finally exists. I love the fact that it gave the franchise a fresh new hope.
I love what this game stands for. Don't give up on your dreams! Because even the most impossible-seeming dream may happen. If Shenmue III could happen after a 20-year absence, then anything is possible!
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life -- I know the consensus will be in favor of Yakuza 0 as it was the game that gave the franchise new life in the West and was genuinely a great entry in the franchise. But for this long time Yakuza fan, Yakuza 6 was an amazing experience through and through. The final chapter of Kiryu was quite moving. That and the production value was top-notch throughout. Yeah, it sacrificed a lot of mainstay elements and such in the move to the Dragon Engine, but what content was there was fun. And the trade-off for full voice-acted substories was more than worth it for me. If this is Kiryu's last chapter then why not go all hands in with it? I loved it. It was a satisfying send-off for Kiryu (for me at least; maybe not for everyone else; looking at you Salty Yen). Also. Beat Takeshi man! Beat Takeshi!
Side note: Yakuza 0 is a great entry in the franchise, but Y6 was the Yakuza game of the generation for me personally.
Resident Evil VII -- I'm right there with you, Vivi-Gamer. It would be very easy to put RE2: Remake here over it, but RE7 really did refresh the series in an interesting way. I expected to hate it because of the first-person perspective. I thought it was going to lose everything I liked about Resident Evil. But color me shocked! It really was a Resident Evil game in first-person. And not only that, but it did a really good job bringing the franchise back to genuine horror. After RE6 essentially went full-on Michael Bay, REVII brought it back to its roots and for the better. It clearly informed the direction of the RE2 Remake to some degree making the RE2 Remake more focused on horror over action. Yeah, REVII impressed me a whole bunch. It's a really good game through and through. It was a good way to bring the franchise back to its roots while simultaneously refreshing it and giving it somewhere new to go.
Persona 5 -- You all knew this one was gonna be mentioned! At least by me. Persona 5 is a full-on assault of style the likes of which I haven't really seen since Jet Set Radio. Every inch of this game is so incredibly well designed. The striking black and red color theme of the game, the incredibly stylish UI, the wonderfully designed in-battle hud, the acid-jazz soundtrack accompanying it all. It's just incredibly stylish in a way that most games aren't. It's like the most stylish manga/anime in-game form you've ever seen and it's truly wonderful. The story is also really good too and feels like a critique/commentary of Japan in the Abe-era. Also, it's essentially the closest we're gonna get to a really good Death Note game as there is a big part of it that feels heavily inspired by Death Note. Yeah, I loved this game. I loved the 130 hours I spent with its first run. Easily one of my favorite games of the generation.
Until Dawn -- This game did for me what David Cage games try to do and mostly fail at. And the reason it works is that it knows what it is and is proud of it. Unlike David Cage, who so desperately wants to be making Oscar bait, this game is straight-up slasher B-movie material and proud of it. And for one of these types-of-games, it's actually really fun. The choices made were kind of interesting as they did have some cause and effect. My only fault with it was that I wish it went further with the options, but hey, maybe that's just a limitation of these types-of-games? But for one of these choose your own adventure cinematic type games? I think this is the best example so far. It's really well done and nails that slasher B-movie vibe really well.
Cuphead -- Based on the hand-drawn 1930's art style of the game, I would say it's one of the most beautiful games of the generation to simply look at in motion. But the game is so blisteringly hard...and all the better for it as far as I'm concerned. One of the most challenging and addicting games I played this generation. I loved the "kick-you-in-the-balls-NES-hard it provided. I LOVED the 1930's rubber hose art style. I LOVED the soundtrack. It really does deserve the praise it gets. Hell of a game!
Red Dead Redemption 2 -- I say this as someone who wasn't even that big a fan of the first Redemption, but RDR2 really won me over. I genuinely liked Arthur Morgan. I liked the more chilled laid back pace the game has. I liked getting lost in that world. I liked the fact that I could say greet every NPC as I passed them on my horse. I liked the random and strange things you could find in the world if you were in the right place at the right time. I liked spending days just hunting or playing poker at the tavern. In some ways, I feel it's the closest Rockstar has come to almost emulating some of the things Shenmue did long before. It made me smile and further realize just how ahead of the game Yu Suzuki really was. But yeah, that aside, I just loved everything about RDR 2. It got me.
Tekken 7 -- Well, considering I spent close to 1000 hours with it in total across PS4 and PC, I guess I have to say Tekken 7. I actually really got into Tekken 7 more than I ever expected to. And most of that time was mainly spent learning Ling Xiaoyu. Xiaoyu is a total badass in this game. Granted, I am a somewhat mediocre Xiaoyu player, but watching guys like Sodam rip it up with her is awe-inspiring. It's not even that it's the greatest net code of the gen or anything. The net code is, at times, super laggy and awful. But I just really enjoyed playing this game online for whatever reason. I really enjoyed learning Xiaoyu in this game. She has easily gone on to become my main. It might as well be the Ling Xiaoyu game for me at this point with how much I like her in this game. That and the game itself is pretty damn awesome. Sure, it's more Tekken. But it's really good and addicting Tekken.
P.T. -- This one is kind of strange. Can we call it a game? I mean it is technically just a teaser for a game that will never exist (maybe? -- pending on rumors). But it kind of is a self-contained thing in its own right so can it be called a game? None-the-less, playing this friggin demo in the dark with headphones was fucking intense! I don't get scared easy in games, but there were many points in this teaser where I had to take the headphones off, get up, and walk around the room. It was that intense. The atmosphere in that teaser was just heavy and it didn't let up. Also, it did some really interesting things. Having you have to use a microphone to unlock the final reveal was kind of an interesting puzzle to decipher. It showed promise for something great. Shame it never happened. But at least we have the memories of PT to remind us. For that reason, I give it a nod. It really was something special in its own right and if you classify it as a complete experience, then it really holds up and is one of the most memorable things of the generation.
Also, the end promise of Hideo Kojima, Guillermo Del Toro, Norman Reedus, and Jun Ji-Ito working on Silent Hill was something that could have been fucking awesome. Damn you, Konami!
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice -- Speaking of heavy. Play Hellblade with headphones and be prepared for one of the most claustrophobic experiences of the gen as you are subjected to voices in your head. It does an amazing job of portraying a struggle with psychosis. Much like P.T, it was wholly unique and something that should be played with headphones on to be fully immersed in. Hell of an experience! One of the gens best and sometimes overlooked.
Ghost of Tsushima -- Man, what a game! What a game! Just riding your horse through those long blades of grass while the opening title plays out was truly a moment to behold. And the game didn't let up. Again, I loved getting lost in this world. I loved the design of the guiding winds and what it stands for. I really enjoyed the swordplay as well. Sure, it wasn't the most challenging thing in the world. But it was fun and still could kick my ass more often than not. I loved the little touches like chasing down foxes or composing haikus as you look out across the scenery. It's a really great game that just oozes mood and setting. Loved it. Was one of my favorite games of not only this year but the generation as a whole.
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So what about the rest?
Cyberpunk 2077? I struggle to know what gen this game actually is? Is it this gen or is it considered next-gen? It's almost like generations aren't even a thing anymore. That game could be amazing. It could also be completely overhyped. Time will tell. We'll find out next month.
The Last of Us Part II? I maintain that this is everything that is wrong with gaming right now and should be held up as a shining example of how not to. But I won't get into that again. So no love from me. One of the most miserable, dour, filled-with-both-self-hate-and-hate-for-its-own-audience games I've ever played. So miserable that when I was done with it, I found myself booting up Crazy Taxi just to experience the word "fun" again. I needed to be reminded that "fun" is not a dirty word in gaming. Because TLOU 2 really wants to punish you for having fun. I mean I'm all for games that want to challenge their audience. Shadow of the Colossus is one of my favorite games of all time for that very reason. It challenges your perception of right and wrong without preaching at you.
TLOU2 aims for that but feels so fucking cheap and dirty with the tricks it plays that it almost feels didactic. It constantly chastises you for your actions while entirely removing any agency from the player. Not only that, but it has a complete misunderstanding of what people liked about the original game and instead tries to chastise those people for liking Joel in the first place. I'll just say it bluntly. Fuck that game! It's a game that desperately wants you to believe it has something to say, but in actual fact, it's about as deep as a puddle.
The Witcher III? You know what? I've tried time and time again to get into this game, and I just can't get into it. It just doesn't click for me. I'm sure it's a great game but something about it just never clicked for me.
Batman: Arkham Knight? I stand by what I've always said. I really enjoyed Arkham Asylum, but for some reason, I could never really get into Arkham City or Arkham Knight. Just something about those games that lacked a certain something that Arkham Asylum had going for it. I think it was the contained nature of Arkham Asylum that did it for me. It was the Die Hard of Batman tales. One crazy night in a contained environment. Whereas the sequels were too open and too big and kind of lost that charm for me a little. Weird, right?
Uncharted 4? I enjoyed it but the pacing was kind of too sluggish for me. It felt like they tried to incorporate a little too much from The Last of Us into Uncharted and something about it just felt off to me. It didn't have the quick fire pace that I liked about the first three games. That to me is what Uncharted is. A fun pulpy action-adventure game. Whereas they tried to make Nathan Drake too serious in U4 and it just lost that certain charm that I loved about the franchise. I see what they were going for and it's not TLOU2 levels of terrible, but I don't know, the sluggish pacing just didn't do it for me and it felt like one too many TLOU touches in a game that isn't TLOU.
God of War? I've been pretty harsh on GOW in the past. But I maintain that the game lost too much of its personality in favor of trying to become The Last of Us Lite and it just didn't do anything for me. Call me crazy, but I like my Kratos to be the fury of anger and rage. Not Dad of War which is what it became. It tried so hard to appeal to those who didn't like the previous games and in doing so, it lost me. That and I still feel that previous God of War games did show different sides of Kratos. The PSP games in particular were really good at humanizing him a little. Also, I just didn't like the Dark Souls style combat in this game. I guess I just prefer the hack and slash combat of the old games. But I thought the Dark Souls combat was tedious.
Also, the enemy design was weak in this game. I remember the boss fights of God of War 3. Fighting Hercules was incredible in that game. The boss fight against Poseidon is a masterstroke of visual design. The water effects are stunning in that fight and really stand out. They were epic on another level. Whereas I can't remember one single boss fight from this new God of War game. Everything about this game was bland as bland could be and just felt like the neutering of Kratos.
Metal Gear Solid 5 -- I feel so damn conflicted with this game. On the one hand, I had a great time playing it. But the thing I come to Metal Gear games for -- be it the story -- was so underwhelming. Granted, it's the unfortunate victim of being incomplete and that's what really hurts it the most. But yeah, I feel really conflicted with it. On the one hand, I enjoyed playing it, but I can't overlook the fact that the story is somewhere between weak and ultimately unfinished and that really hurts it. I feel so conflicted with that game. I don't hate it, but I don't love it enough to praise it as one of the gens best.
Shadow of the Colossus Remake -- I loved it bar a few issues I have with its design choices, I do think Bluepoint did an outstanding job remaking it. But it is a remake and at the end of the day, like most remakes, I still have more fondness for the PS2 and PS3 versions. There is just something about the look of the PS2 version that the PS4 version lost. I know, I know, the PS2 version was hamstrung by the tech it was on and most of its visual touches that I like are limitations or camouflage. But there was something about the world that felt decayed on the PS2 version. And I felt that was kind of missing in the PS4 version as they went a bit too lush at times. Still a great remake, but like most remakes, for me, it just never quite reached that same level. Something just felt slightly off to me. Also, between a remake of SOTC and a new game by Ueda? (TLG) The new game wins hands down.
RE2 Remake -- Fantastic remake, but as I said above. I give the nod to RE7 over RE2 Remake just because it did something new with the franchise and actually paid off. But RE2 Remake is a fantastic game none the less and a really damn good remake.
Death Stranding -- Believe it or not but I still haven't played this game. So I still have no opinion on it. All I know is it was very divisive. Some loved it, some hated it. I honestly don't know because I still haven't played it.
Horizon Zero Dawn -- I really liked the world and I like the idea of robotic dinosaurs even though it still makes zero sense. But at the same time, I never actually finished the game. So I can't tell if it actually made sense at the end. I liked what I played but Persona 5 took my attention at the time and I just never got back to it to finish it.
Spider-man -- I enjoyed it while playing it, but quickly forgot about it a year later. So like most things Marvel lately. Good fun while playing through; zipping around New York was a lot of fun, but yeah, once it was done I kind of just moved on and kind of forgot about it. That's not necessarily the games fault, it's just how I feel about most things Marvel these days in general.
Phew...I think that is enough of my ramblings.