Alright so now 2019 is coming to a close, and there were a shit ton of games that came out. I played a bunch of games this year, a lot of old ones as usual, but I've also been playing the Switch a lot, at the moment, it's probably my main system that I play on for now. It can be played in both handheld mode and TV mode so for me and with my job, it's extremely convenient for me, I can play games at work lmao. After over half a year of working in my profession, I finally got a goddamn permanent spot, so now I can just sit on my ass and chill during overnight shifts.
Oh right, this year I'd say was pretty huge for me, as I went to Japan for a month during the summer. Not only that but in Japan I visited a bunch of arcades and played a lot of shooting games and some fighting games. I visited Osaka, Tokyo and Kyoto and it was fun the entire time! Oh shit AND I EVEN PLAYED F-ZERO AX!! I actually found it, and it was fucking awesome! If you ever visit Japan, Tokyo specifically, go to Shinjuku and VISIT MIKADO GAME CENTER! It has Daytona USA/F-Zero GX/Space Harrier/Street Fighter III 3rd Strike/Virtua Fighter 2 etc. And while I was in Japan, I managed to find a pretty good amount of JP switch games, as well as some stuff for the Wii (unfortunately I couldn't find Rena, the cat game...) A bunch of stuff happened while in Japan, so I should probably make a full post about it soon. (Probably should've done that like 4-5 months ago...can you believe it's already been half a year since I went to Japan, shits crazy man...)
Anyways it's probably a good idea to get started and present the highlights the year, there's a lot this year, so that means I need to write a bunch.
Psyvariar Delta / サイヴァリア デルタ
(PS4/Switch/PC. Developer/ Publisher: CITY CONNECTION. 2018-2019)
First game I need to talk about is Psyvariar Delta, this game really surprised me. There was a review I watched, and the guy had similar first impressions, where it felt kinda like an underwhelming shooter that does look a bit bland. Yeah it's a pretty old legacy STG but I couldn't see the appeal. But in the video I ended up feeling pretty convinced because of the "buzzing" or grazing mechanic. You basically gotta stop trying to play this game as a typical STG. Normally you would try to just shoot everything that appears on screen and wipe it all away. You can do that and play normally, but you're pretty much playing the game wrong if you only focus on shooting/dodging as confusing as that sounds. You gotta leave tons of bullets on screen so you can "buzz" aka graze the bullets by being extremely close to them. When you're near bullets it'll make a CHH CHHH CHHH type of sound. You'll see these lines either at the sides of the screen, or the top/bottom (depending if you're playing in TATE or just horizontal) and these 2 lines are sorta like EXP. Basically as you graze bullets, if you graze enough, each time your ship will actually level up, a voice will actually say LEVEL UP and unlike most shooters where getting powered up only increases your firepower, every time you level up in this game, you actually become invincible for a few seconds. Depending on how much you level up and how you get through the stages, it can change what stages you can select after clearing. And you can choose either an easy/medium/hard stage, but eventually you need to visit the other ones, I believe. So basically, the game plan is the have bullets on screen, constantly level up, abuse the invincibility frames, then bob and weave your way around bullets. Leveling up and becoming invincible can really get you outta tight spots, and makes it way easier to hold onto your precious screen clearing bombs. I can't tell you how fun it is to just constantly power up and get pass complex patterns.
Delta is technically a brand new game in the series, but the interesting thing is it's both an old and new mashup of this new "Delta" game and the previous Japan only Psyvariar Medium Unit and Revision games. So technically you get 3 games, although extremely similar in look and feel. But the cool thing is the level layouts/patterns and other things change based on what settings you pick. Like you can choose the Medium Unit stages but use the music from either Delta or Revision. And vice versa. The game offers a lot of customization and can be pretty flexible. You only get 2 ships from Delta tho, but you can also select the BLANCHE ship if you have the DLC, this gives you access to the music from Cybattler, but you can only use the music if you choose Blanche. Kinda stupid but okay.
So my main issues with the game are kinda minor, with only one thing being a "big" problem. But trust me, the positives of this game greatly outweigh the negatives. Only real issue is the hitbox on your ship. Most shooting games have like a little circle/dot to indicate where your hitbox actually is, which is usually a lot smaller than the ship itself, to make it easier to dodge bullets, and to allow the games to have these beautiful and complex patterns. If your hitbox was as big as the ship, well you'd be totally fucked to be honest. Yeah so this game doesn't have a clear indication of where the hitbox is exactly on your ship, so it sometimes feels like I wasn't supposed to die during certain segments. I dunno, it just feels a bit wonky. Not a deal breaker, but it just means, I have to be more cautious when avoiding shit, but the wonky hit detection can be a bit of a hindrance considering the game's main mechanic is staying right next to bullets, not getting hit and leveling up to become more powerful. Another issue I heard about was that you can kinda cheese the leaderboards, as I think the online scores doesn't take into account using credits, so you can probably cheat and use multiple continues and reach the top or something. I'm not really a score chaser, I prefer to try and see how far I can get in 1CC. But for anyone that's into score chasing, maybe consider that.
Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest / 動物番長
(Gamecube. Developer: Saru Brunei/Intelligent Systems. Publisher: Nintendo/ATLUS. 2002)
This game's entire gameplay loop can be described in 3 words. EAT, FIGHT, FUCK. Literally that's the easiest way to explain it. Man. Cubivore is such a strange game, and it has some history as well. Like a lot of Nintendo's weird Gamecube games, like Doshin the Giant, it was originally meant to be a Nintendo 64DD game for the add-on. but like 90% of anything for the DD, they either got cancelled or became a standard cartridge game for N64 like Paper Mario/Pokemon Stadium, stayed on DD like Doshin. Or they got moved to a newer console. Cubivore being one of those. Cubivore is more than a game in my opinion. It's a game about the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. All of the world has basically gone to shit, because the alpha males, specifically the Killer Cubivore and his group of elite animal high up on the food chain have risen to the top and sapped the world of all its color, and it's doomed. One day you're randomly born as a little cube shaped piggy and you set out to save the world, kill the Killer Cubivore and restore the color and beauty back to the land. In Cubivore, you gotta eat, and eat, and EAT AND EAT. You must eat your enemies to survive, restore health, evolve and grow stronger. Every type of enemy in this game has different colors, and depending on the type of colored meat you consume, it can effect your mutation. Like you can change if you have 2 yellow/blue/red etc limbs. As you grow more limbs, wither more legs, a tail or even wings, you gain more HP and defense. However, each type of species kinda has pros and cons. Like some of the snake forms you can take have amazing movement, but fucking suck at attacking. And the primary way to do anything is by attacking lol. To attack you lock onto enemies and then leap at them, and you gotta whittle the enemies HP and guard enough to be able to gnaw at them and rip their limbs off. As you gain more and more mutations, you can eventually shapeshift into specific forms, you can also just change forms by changing eating a variety of colors, but be careful about what kinda colors you consume because there were a few times where I got a mutation I didn't want. You can avoid this by taking a Doo, aka taking a shit, to get rid of colors on your limbs, to avoid unwanted mutations. It's amazing that taking a shit is actually a useful game mechanic huh. Like I mentioned you can shapeshift, but I'll get into that later.
Now for Fighting. Not gonna lie but the fighting in this game is extremely simple. All you gotta do is be near the enemy and lock on, then leap at them. That doesn't give you the meat right away though, you need to earn it! You keep attacking them until their health eventually hits zero, but even if you gnaw at the enemy, they can still resist and fight back, once you gnaw at them, you gotta hold A I believe and hold the control stick backwards, so whatever direction that's the opposite. If you do it right, you'll consume the meat, most of the time. The enemy can still escape your grasp and then you gotta knock them down again. You can also growl/bark/etc at the enemy and try to scare them for a bit, and it can leave them blocking, not wanting to move. You can then use that chance to either run away or go in for an attack from behind. When you make animal sounds the text literally say "Eep" and that's just so funny. The little things this game does. This same basic fighting structure applies to bosses too, but bosses can be really tough, growling doesn't work I think, but enemies can growl back at you. They have multiple limbs so basically multiple HP bars. At the beginning you can only rip apart one limb at a time, but as you upgrade yourself at the various training spots throughout the game, you'll gain teeth, a tongue and even horns to make yourself a bigger threat. And you need to power up and beat these bosses. They have the Symbol Meats or whatever it's called lol. And these bosses all have interesting and weird names. Like the goddamn Scoutmaster Beast. Well your various species names are strange too, like the Binder. There's at least 5 symbols you get in a single cycle and they give you upgrades. Like being able to block, letting you run faster, as well as other things. They actually serve a higher purpose but that'll be mentioned later.
Now for the fuck. Literally. When you obtain the Symbol Meats from bosses throughout the game, they give you upgrades, but they allow you to Mate. Your character mentions this every time you obtain a symbol. "Now that I have the meat, I can mate! I can mate!" In order to increase the amount of limbs you can grow, you must fuck, and you literally must fuck a female in order to pass down your life onto your offspring. You have to collect the various heart points scattered around the map in order to increase your appeal, the higher the appeal (100 points is enough, but always try to get more) the more females you can mate with. If you mate with a ton of females, you'll have way more options for what you can upgrade into next, and that's one of the various forms you can freely shapeshift into in case you ever get a bad mutation. When you Mate, you fucking die and you continue as your offspring, man what a way to go out... And when i mention Life/Death/Rebirth, I mean it. At the end of a cycle, you mean the huge Cubivore queen i guess, I dunno. And she says you're like the sexiest thing ever hubba hubba, and she literally eats you whole. You end up dying and you see yourself contemplating life wondering where it all went wrong and how did it end up like this. You ended up dying because you weren't strong enough. So you start again anew with 1 limb again, but with all the stat changes. the hump/horn/teeth/scar/tongue upgrades. You must pick yourself back up again and strive to become the strongest. Although you change from a pig to a bear lol. if you managed to die in the 2nd loop, you become a chicken.
Cubivore is a beautiful dinky little mess of a game. I dunno how it works or why it exists. But it's a Nintendo game that allows you to literally fuck. The music is very minimal and it repeats a lot, but the game is extremely calming and immersive. I was honestly just playing the game just because I felt so sucked in. I know you can look at the game and think it's some dumb cube animal survival thingy (sorta like Tokyo Jungle but this came out WAY before that) but I love this game. This game is an extremely unique experience and I feel, happy that I managed to eventually find a Japanese copy because fuck paying the price for a US copy. That's over $120 or whatever since ATLUS USA usually did low print runs, so the Japanese version is extremely cheap, like $25. This game has so much charm and quirkiness that I feel fits perfectly. It's a very simple game, but I feel it's something that sticks with you, and you''ll look back fondly of it, or at at least I do. It became more than just a game for me, once you notice everything your animal goes through, his thoughts and how he feels about his life as he mates, defeats bosses and has to reincarnate each time. It really makes you think honestly. Cubivore is a work of art, as strange as that sounds, then again this game is very strange. (How did anyone at Nintendo remember the game enough to put the Pig as a spirit in Smash...?)
DOOM (2016)
(PC//PS4/Xbone/Switch. Developer: id Software. Publisher Bethesda Softworks. 2016-2017)
And now for something completely different. And FPS as a matter of fact. Going from something calm, peaceful and relaxing, to ripping and tearing through the skulls and limbs of demons. Bashing heads in, and endlessly murdering all the hell-spawn. Even tho it's just called DOOM (I'll be calling it NuDoom so it's less confusing because Bethesda is bad with names), it's technically the 4th game, and seems to be a reboot of the series. I guess you're not Doomguy anymore but the way more edgy title of DOOM SLAYER. NuDoom is all about movement, and going around killing anything that gets in the way. You're apparently on Mars at first, and then you gotta travel through hell and back, literally to get home. There's a lot of cool sci-fi areas and some hellish imagery, although some of it feels a little try hard. This game is extremely good, but honestly the game us just good. Not exactly "holy shit amazing" but still extremely good. Okay so the main issues, I'll get them outta the way right now honestly: the cutscenes getting in the way. Doom doesn't need fancy cutscenes or whatever to explain shit, and the original Doom wasn't about story, having it here and preventing you from skipping it is so annoying because it does the the opposite of the intended effect; keeping the player immersed in the game. The fact you can't skip it makes like one level in particular annoying to wanna replay. You can bypass it by doing the "arcade"/score attack mode but even then, there's a lot of annoying pop-ups and notifications whenever you get kills and powerups. The other negative is pretty minor, but it honestly should be bigger than it is. Pretty much all the music in NuDoom sucks ass minus the Rip & Tear theme. The entire time I played, I was just listening to the classic Doom soundtrack because the new music is not that good. It sounds like a lot of newer music, where's just noise but with no melody. No offense to Mick Gordon, he's amazing at what he does, but not allowing him to make some real heavy metal songs or remixes ruins the soundtrack.
Now back to positives. The game is pretty huge, the maps are giant and have multiple ways of getting around. And like the old Doom, the new game heavily encourages exploration, finding secrets and discovering stuff. Either getting lost or just wanting to see ever part of the map can reward you with a bunch of things; such as upgrades, early access to weapons, or the little Doomguy toys. The little Doomguys are really cool because you earn a bunch of bonus content in the art gallery, like being able to see the character models, or even the gun models. But the probably the best thing you can find when looking for secrets are the levers. You pull the levers and you hear a little jingle from Doom, if you know where to look, you can find a secret room in almost every level, styled like classic Doom 1 and 2. Then after that, you can actually play the classic maps that the small rooms come from, and it's the old school levels, they even have the music. That's honestly my favorite part of the game, and one of the best unlockables ever.
Oh yeah I mentioned view models of the guns, well, yeah the game has a lot of guns. but that doesn't matter because you probably only need one gun in your life; the Super Shotgun. It can just destroy enemies and gets rid of the common fodder usually in one hit, and multiple enemies can be hit at once. I guess the only downside is it needs to me closer for it to do max damage, but you can still be a bit off with your aim Some other weapons worth mentioning are the chainsaw, which can slice through and murder even the huge demons, cutting their fucking limbs off and shredding through their skulls. All the kills and even the new finishing moves you can do, really feel badass. You stomp on heads, rip out hearts and jamming their horns into their faces. Or ripping their arms off and beating them with it. Just makes you wanna go around make sure everything is dead.. Moving around, jumping and going from killing one demon to another back to back is so fun honestly, the raw gameplay of moving around, shooting/dodging etc is what makes this game so fun.
Metal Gear Rising Revengence / メタルギア ライジング リベンジェンス
(PC/360/PS3/Shield TV. Developer: PlatinumGames. Publisher: Konami. 2013-2016)
And now for some real big dick shit. This game is fucking awesome. Funny thing tho is that this is basically the real only Metal Gear game that I've both played and beaten, and Kojima didn't really write the story at all. Anyways in Revengence, you play as Raiden who became a badass robot man in high heels. The story is set after the main MGS series, so they can go wild and be their own master, when it comes to what the hell happens. Okay so the best things about this game, I have to mention, the combat, writing and the fucking music. As expected from Platinum, this is a top notch action game with a ton of depth and complex shit that you can do. But unlike something such as Bayonetta, there's no traditional dodging gimmick, this time primary form of defense is the Parry. You parry by pressing the attack button in the direction the attack is coming from, Raiden will hit the enemy and it usually gives you a free opening to counterattack. Most enemies will be sitting ducks after you can combo them after the parry but god you really need to master this thing, or be decent, otherwise it will be nothing but endless game overs. So most of the time you can just go in and fight the enemies and slice them up, but you gotta make sure you use the game's other mechanic, the ZANDATSU. Zandatsu is fucking cool. When the enemies are weakened enough, you can enter blade mode, and accurately slice enemies bodies and turn them into goddamn swish cheese. But you really need to aim for the middle to expose the spines. Doing that lets you ZANDATSU, so you can heal. So the loop in combat is usually fight a bunch, parry, blade mode, zandatsu. Besides items, it's pretty much the only way to heal, so you need to do it. And if you're good enough at blade mode, you can even zandatsu multiple enemies in a chain, one after another and it's even cooler. As you get further in the game, you can buy new moves for Raiden, upgrade your HP and even power up weapons, You do get subweapons like the bow staff made of robot arms, but the primary thing you're gonna use is Raiden's standard sword. The levels are pretty linear as expected but there are some areas where you can find collectibles and bonuses. Some of these include the VR missions which have a bunch of weird challenges, like stealth, killing enemies and even platforming, but they're totally worth doing.
Raiden is really badass in this game. The first fucking boss is a Metal Gear Ray, and that's a fucking huge ass robot. Normally in Metal Gear that would probably be a final boss, but it's basically the first guy you fight. You can cut its tail in half and get an achievement for it lol. And slicing this giant thing into pieces is so satisfying because you're just normal sized and this giant robot can't do shit against you with its missiles and laser.You run down a goddamn clock tower, cutting up all the rocks and shit in the way, and then you cut Ray in half with one huge slash. Goddamn it Raiden is so cool. I've been blasting the soundtrack as I write this part, and easily the music is the best part about the game. The music is like some techno high energy rock combo and the composer, Jamie Christopherson did an amazing job. The music is exciting, memorable and explosive. And it all sounds unique. The best songs in the game in my opinion are Rules of Nature, It Has to Be This Way, I'm My Own Master Now, and The Stains of Time. All of the memorable tracks are basically the boss battle themes, but that's because the characters as well as the themes are extremely memorable. Sundowner is fucking invincible, Monsoon has memes and Amstrong is the best character in the game.
People meme the hell and joke about how absurd the story and characters are but the memes end here. The game is ridiculously over the top, but deep down there's a message behind it. Like Monsoon talking about the old definition of Memes and how memories/references and thoughts are passed down from person to person, and how we're all influenced by the things we experience. Or how Jetstream Sam is literally just a dude with badass swordsman skills, and unlike Raiden, he chose not to have tons of crazy robotic enhancements besides his body being upgraded. In the end he's just a dude. And how Blade Wolf goes from a mindless killing AI dog, and eventually grows to help Raiden in the final battle. And of course Armstrong. Armstrong is a guy who despite being a villain, he ultimately wanted to save the world. he wanted to wipe the slate clean and rebuild society, and the final battle between him and Raiden really show how their ideals conflict with one another.
Even the lyrics in his boss battle even reflects this as well. About how maybe they're both the same.
It really shows both sides of the conflict, from the perspective of both characters. This shit is freaking amazing honestly. Play this fucking game, it's so damn good.
Metal Wolf Chaos / メタルウルフカオス
(Xbox/PS4/XB1/PC. Developer/Publisher: FromSoftware. 2004-2019)
Okay, let's PAAAAARRTTTTTTTTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. Welcome, to the White House. Now going from a crazy game to a batshit crazy game. Metal Wolf Chaos' story can be summed up in a few sentences. The Vice President has taken over the Great United States of America, and it's up to the 47th US President Michael Wilson to take back America and save the world! And he's gonna do it, by using his giant fucking robot. This is the most American game ever made... that was made by crazy Japanese people, and was originally Xbox exclusive in Japan for over a decade. And now all of a sudden by the end of this decade, the world finally gets to experience this insane game, including me. And it's great they kept all the over the top, insane voice acting too. Sadly I didn't play the original Xbox version, which looks amazing with fancy lighting, shadows and really great reflections on the mech armor and environments. It's the kinda beauty you could only get from that time period. It really fucking sucks that Metal Wolf Chaos XD (the remastered port) is pretty bare bones in terms of touching up the game. It really makes the graphics looks kinda shit, and so much of the lighting is just gone or is completely fucked. But I guess the upside is the game has become readily available to everyone, and it was just a straight up release, no bullshit, bought it at fucking Gamestop. So the transition to modern hardware wasn't pretty but what managed to survive, is still amazing. I really hope one day some dedicated modders or something can restore as much of the game's graphics back to its original glory.
Metal Wolf Chaos is similar to FromSoft's other mech series Armored Core, but to be honest, the game is its own beast. The only real similarities is that the game its a mech game, has a ton of weapons to get, and it's jank as fuck. It doesn't have the extremely deep mech customization and slightly more simulation feel of Armored Core, where you feel like a dude in a giant anime robot. Nah you're the president going around taking people down. Plus the Metal Wolf is smaller. The levels are mostly linear but you can kinda do things outta order, but it depends. You have a bunch of guns. Assault Rifles, shotguns, flamethrowers, machine guns, rocket launchers, etc. and you can freely switch between them in quick rotation. You gotta take down all the enemy fortresses/forts, save the POWs and destroy power plants or basically anything that's a threat. The destructible environments in the levels are a great hightlight, you can see so much shit get destroyed, you don't even need to shoot them down, you can jump in the air and do a Footdive, or just ram through them taking like no damage. Killing enemies and saving hostages can give you metal and resources to craft better weapons, and yeah you really need to fucking do this. As, well it's not a difficulty spike exactly. but goddamn it if you don't upgrade your weapons to get the best ones, you're gonna do literally no damage to the later bosses, and oh my god the final boss was so fucking ridiculous. To stand a chance against the final boss you need the damn rocket launcher upgrades, you need the ultimate ones you can craft, so the only thing that really sucks in this game besides a lot of the wonky jank elements that cause some potential bullshit, is the need to grind for like the final boss.
The soundtrack of this game is great, It's a mix of jazzy tunes, some really rough gritty guitar, and even some weird shit with lyrics and all that. The main composer, Kota Hoshino really knocked it outta the park and it compliments the story and environments. It's just a shame that the XD version of the game has a ton of sound mixing issues, so all the music is really imbalanced, or sounds or too quiet, voices too loud etc. The story for this game is batshit insane because of the characters and the insane scenarios.Vice President Richard Hawk goes fucking rogue, and he is a lunatic, kidnapping, even imprisoning fellow Americans. He even pimped out the White House with a ton of armor and weaponry. During the story, the DNN reporter dude literally goes around spreading fake news and calling the president a psychopath and a terrorist who's ruining America and destroying people's homes. The reporter eventually realizes the truth of what's going on and how Richard Hawk was basically controlling everything, and the reports he writes in between levels, seem to be him thinking about the story either years later, or just looking back on it.This game as originally released in 2004, but it's so fucking insane how on-point it is with a lot of the currently climate in American news and media lol. I wonder what people in 2004 thought about it, especially the extremely small amount of Japanese fans that actually had an Xbox. I dunno, you fight a fucking battle tank on a bridge, have a 1 on 1 mech battle with Richard at the casino, fight that god awful robo spider attacking New York I think, And just when you think it can't get any more insane, Richard goes into fucking outer space and you fight him in the space station and then the final boss is an Ultimate Weapon created to wipe out the whatever billion fucking ugly people who are probably trying to rebel against him, as Michael Wilson fights to not only take back these GREAT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA but save the fucking world. Because Michael Wilson is the MOTHERFUCKING PRESIDENT OF THESE GREAT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Buy this goddamn game.
DAEMON X MACHINA / デモンエクスマキナ
(Switch. Developer: Marvelous First Studio. Publisher Marvelous (JP)/Nintendo. 2019)
Armored Core has been dead for a long while since ACV/ACV Verdict Day kinda just happened and then FromSoftware became huge and mainstream thanks to Dark Souls. Luckily someone managed to hear the outcry from mech fans, clamoring for a brand new high speed giant robot action game. Marvelous heard the people, and they got an old Armored Core director Kenichiro Tsukuda in charge. The game is essentially a spiritual successor to the classic mech series. It even has mech customization and tons of stat changes. Giving you the ability to customize the look, feel and even the weapons. So you can play exactly how you want. I feel that's one of the game's strengths, having a lot of freedom to really make the experience unique to you. The combat in this game is rad as hell. You can easily fly around, shoot down enemy robots and the little weaker enemies when you have the right gear. You cause use swords and just go all melee if you want. or be kinda scummy and spam the electric stun gun and just cheese enemies. I mainly used machine guns to take out smaller enemies, and had either flamethrowers, acid guns or even bazookas as heavy firepower against bigger guys. The game does have multiplayer, but you can only do specific online/local wireless missions. However that doesn't mean it doesn't take away from the fun factor of the overall gameplay. Some of the things I really enjoy in this game, is how you can pick up and play. I didn't play for a while, but I still had my control layout the same, so I was able to just have fun. Doing missions can be a bit repetitive however the mission variety can be really cool. Like one boss fight is chasing a fucking fast ass train, and it's a huge rush of adrenaline. Goddamn, I love the fluidity of the combat and movement, the way you can just jump and fly around, slowly land on ground while still sliding, it's all about just staying in motion and just going from enemy to enemy, you feel like a master of the game at times. I got into a trance, I was in the fucking zone seriously. Flying around, dashing all over the place, shooting them, activating the femto powers and oh man, this game.
The mechanics are so cool, You have like 2 different meters, your standard energy meter, for boosting, you can fly and dash without wasting energy, but if you wanna go FASTER, you can boost, and your boost recharges so the key is to have it constantly refill so you can just go crazy and move everywhere, And then there's femto. Femto is a special fuel that gives your mech some buffs in combat, you can switch between like 3 different ones, One for offense/Defense/Speed. My favorites are the speed and attack ones. For example, I have one of the slow heavy club melee weapons, and changing to attack Femto makes that shit hit like a truck, and even then the enemies you smack down just fucking crash into the ground. Speed Femto only really makes you move extremely fast but you take more damage. Defense Femto gives you a barrier and saves you from taking damage and even prevents bombs and shit from pushing you back. The fake clone thing is very useful, but it drains femto, however, it has its own ammo whatnot, so you can kinda use it as like a second robot to help you out. It feels more useful for 1 on 1 fights because the clone can take hits for you, attack enemies and just distract them. You can actually upgrade your pilot to gain upgrades either when you're in/out of your mech. The upgrades so really minor tho, like having more melee range, faster speed and shit. But honestly the best upgrade you need is the teleport. It allows you to zip around and get outta tough spots, Even some bosses have this fucking skill and it can be scary. Man some of the bosses range from either being pushovers, or being a nightmare. The huge airship is so fucking easy, he can be cheesed with flamethrowers and acid guns/bazookas lol. Once you get the laser beam shoulder weapon from grinding online missions, so many of the offline bosses just get murdered by that thing, to the point where you can beat them in less than a minute.
Thee giant robots look cool, the customization is really deep, there's a bunch of weapons, and while some of the environments can be a bit samey, the cell-shaded stylized graphics really set it apart.However the story for the game honestly makes no fucking sense. Well for this type of game, where it's just mission after mission, and you just play. But if you're gonna introduce so many characters, we should probably something that makes sense. All I know is humanity got fucked because part of the moon crashing to the earth. And then the AI's that we all use on earth have gone like rogue? And there's the Denominator, and Grief the main bad guy, who reminds me a ton of Albert Wesker from Resident Evil. Dude wants to fucking reach a higher plane of being. He wants to ascend and go beyond all shitty mortals. It really makes no sense and by the end, you're still just the Rookie even tho you fucking saved everyone. But even then you're still considered a noob goddamn.
ESP. Ra. De. Psi / エスプレイド サイ
(Arcade/Switch/PS4. Developer: CAVE/M2 (Psi). Publisher: ATLUS/M2(Psi) 1998-2019)
Of course a Cave game was gonna make it on here, what did you expect. It's okay tho, it's just this game. I've already had my list last year with 2 older ones. But the really cool thing about the ESPrade port is surprisingly this is the first ever home version of the game. M2 collaborated with the creator/character artist Junya Inoue to not only port the original arcade release of the game, but as expected, M2 always goes above and beyond the expectations because they added extra challenge modes, like fighting bosses under certain conditions, and even created Arcade Plus Mode which is basically a whole new arranged version of the game. It features brand new artwork from Inoue and even a 4th playable character, they even got new voice actors, and you have the option to listen to the new remixes made just for this home port. And like some of Cave's later shooters, like Espgaluda, you're not using spaceships, instead as these 3 psychic kids, and their strange powers is what's causing all this to happen. Some of the things that really set this game apart from Cave's other vertical shooting games is that its approach to bombs and power shots. So your basic spread shot can get powered up and get more powerful and even cover the screen, but instead of the usually huge ass laser like in Dodonpachi or Mushihimesama, you shoot like a small burst of concentrated energy, that you can actually steer left or right, but it shoots alongside the regular shot. and it constantly refills too. and instead of the typical screen clearing bomb, you get a energy shield that lasts as long as you hold the button, and then after it ends, it shoots out a huge laser blast that can kill enemies. So I feel this doesn't necessarily feel as tho you're being cheap and spamming bombs as you have more control over how you wanna approach the level and bosses. The other interesting is while all the characters enter the same stages, their first stage is different from one another. So for me, it helps if i don't like a certain stage, and I swear it feels like if whatever level is the first one, it feels easier? Don't quote me on that.
There's quite a lot of customization in the this. Various screen and filter settings, scanlines, smoothing and all that. They even have the usual Shot trigger features, like if you play with the standard horizontal display, you can have it so a bunch of info is on the sides of the screens. What character you're using, the current score, how far you are in the stage, even enemy info etc. it can be a bit distracting, so I usually have it off when playing in TATE mode, but it's always appreciated. There's a ton of other tweaks and options but since the options aren't translated, I'm gonna have to take it upon myself and figure that out. That makes it more fun. Arcade Plus seems a bit different from the original 1998 arcade mode, but I honestly haven't spent too much time playing that version, I really should tho. but I'm having too much fun trying to get as far as I can in regular Arcade mode in 1CC. But I should do the extra stuff. There's a sorta playroom/dress up side mode you can do. It's actually pretty cool because it's meant to help out beginners and get new players more accustomed to shooting games. It has a variety of challenges, and even has a bunch of tips of how to do better at the game. I really like this, since the subgenre of shooting games can be pretty hardcore, so helping people appreciate it more is a huge plus.
This brand new port of ESPrade is such a huge love letter to Cave and just the classic era of Danmaku games. Never thought a 20+ year old classic would all of a sudden come back, and even on the Switch. This is huge as M2 has a lot of experience on the system and hopefully can release more of Cave's library on Switch eventually. The other thing I wanna talk about is the awesome limited edition of the game. It includes 2 different art books, the CD soundtrack for the original arcade game, some small posters and even some cool stickers (but I don't wanna waste them.) It's in a huge box and the game even has a reverse cover, which I always love. M2 really went above and beyond, and I'm glad that I've been able to come and support their newest release directly. Oh and with the Flip Grip accessory on the Switch, you can play vertical shooting games (as well as other vertical arcade games like Donkey Kong or Pac-Man) with the true arcade screen size AND play them portable, shit is amazing. The grip isn't perfect but it serves it's purpose very well and I always bring it with me to work. Man that vertical display with the clean scanline filter really is something else, the game looks beautiful.
Crimzon Clover: World Ignition / クリムゾンクローバー：ワールドイグニッション
(PC/Arcade. Developer/Publisher: Yotsubane/Degica (Steam/GOG) 2011-2014)
I think this game might hold the distinction of being the first Doujin soft game on one of my end of the year lists. Guess it was about time too huh. Probably not gonna be the only one, and probably not the only one that's a shooting game either. Apparently this game has been on Steam for years, and it completely fucking flew under my radar, and I'd say I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to this genre. I discovered this game at one of the various Namco arcades in Japan, and it was in the NESiCAxLive arcade machine. It's sorta like a dedicated computer made for arcades that already has a few games on it. Crimzon Clover being one of them. I had no idea it even was a small doujin game, which I feel is pretty insane given the quality the game has. When I saw this in the arcade, I swear I thought I was playing an actual Cave game, yeah the bullets weren't all purple but damn this game's graphics and overall feel are way more than you'd expect from a game made by a super small group. The game takes a lot of inspired by games such as Dodonpachi DaiOuJou and even some other unrelated games but i can't quite put my finger on it. What I mean is, the game has the usual screen clearing bombs but it also has the mechanic from DaiOuJou where you can build up the meter that normally has your bomb, and once it reaches max, you get a hyper mode instead of a bomb. Making you super powerful, just murdering enemy ships that move. There's this really cool lock-on feature that reminds me of a shooting game that came out after this one, Astebreed. you could still shoot normally, but the lock-on could hit whatever it was targeting and they cleverly designed the levels around this. As sometimes the bosses will have bullets, where you might wanna stay on the side, and avoid but you can also use the lock-on to keep dealing damage. And if I remember right, it helps you build up the meter to help you get into hyper mode, so the game's mechanics and systems all kinda work together. So that you can always feel in control.
There's a few difficulty modes but I usually just pick the standard one. It's hard to describe but Crimzon Clover really is like a Cave game. It's the little things. Like how boss patterns need you to move left and right, which is sorta a stable in their games (I'm sure other companies do it, but Cave is the most notable.) And I'd say even on standard the game has a pretty fair level of difficulty. It gradually gets tougher without ever feeling cheap. I've been able to No Miss Stage 1 and sometimes Stage 2. I honestly forget how many levels this game has, but that honestly doesn't matter. The amazing music, the spectacle, the graphics and overall gameplay feel set this apart from other shooting games. It's amazing but a bit sad that mainly small groups such as Yotsubane are the only ones keeping the hardcore danmaku genre alive. Bigger companies have either stopped making shooting games all together and just release their old shit, unfortunately like Cave and Treasure. Honestly it's a fucking crime that this game is stuck on PC I want this game on consoles, and yes the switch specifically lol. You gotta play this game. Me talking about the game, can't really do it justice, it's the type if thing you need to just experience yourself.
Rolling Gunner / ローリングガンナー
(PC/Switch. Developer: Project Rolling Gunner. Publisher Mebius 2018-2019)
Another amazing doujin shooter, and surprisingly released on the Switch not too long after. This was originally sold at Comiket and then later released on the Switch eshop in Japan and the west. a physical version for the Switch was meant to come this year but I guess it couldn't happen in time. Well 2020 is right around the corner! Rolling Gunner is a horizontal shooting game instead of the vertical ones I always talk about. This game also has that Cave vibe, it even has purple bullets lol. The the main gimmick the game is actual Rolling Gun itself, whenever you move, the little gun that's in front of you rotates around I believe in the opposite direction you move the ship., when you use your standard shot, the rotating gun assists and shoots in wherever it's aiming, so if you want more firepower, it's better to have it facing front. So when you need better control over what's being shot at, you use the power shot, so the rolling gun stays locked into the position that it's currently at. So especially during bosses, it's likely a good idea to keep it in front. But having it only face the front isn't the best idea during levels. The interesting thing is that they make enemies come from all sorts of direction above the screen, behind you, in front etc. So you can actually take advantage of the rolling gun, you gotta know when to rotate around, when to keep it locked into a single direction etc. There's a few difficulty modes in the game, novice mode being the easiest, casual having a more simple score system, original mode, and expert mode, where tons more bonuses and things appear. Both this game and Crimzon Clover have the little star collectible things that drop from enemies you kill, that in these 2 games specifically power up your meter that's usually meant for bombs, but just like Crimzon Clover, it allows you to enter a hyper mode when you max the bar out, it's indicated by a circular bar that surrounds your ship. and it becomes green. But the thing is in this game, is you have a super hyper mode, which you can charge the bar even longer, and power up the red bar, and then use that for a bigger bonus, and you can use both, so as one runs out, you can activate the other one, so you can either keep the huge score bonuses or the massive firepower for a short time. It's really cool and clever how they implemented this mechanic.
They actually went outta their way to make an elaborate backstory and setup for the game world, it's pretty cool. With it talking about energy sources, the world is in ruins and you gotta stop the main force. Everything about this game feels so professionally done. The super cool story intro, the animation of your ship setting off to start the level, and even end screen animation when you clear a level and beat the boss, it's like you actually see the game transition from level to level. The soundtrack as well. It was done by COSIO who's part of ZUNTATA, so they somehow even managed to get Taito composers on board with this game, It's amazing how much everything in this game just works. It's a real showpiece of what these kinda developers can achieve. There's replays as well as a Training move, which is similar to other games, where you can select various options like how many lives you have, what stage you wanna practice, where in the stage you wanna start (beginning, midboss, end boss), whether or not you're powered up etc. It has so many options that if you choose to take the game seriously, it can pay off well, just gotta keep practicing. That's the magic of the genre, it just has that "just one more time" kinda mentality where you wanna just keep retrying until you get just a little bit further.
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride / ドラゴンクエストV：天空の花嫁
(SNES/PS2/DS/iOS/Android. Developer: Chunsoft/ArtePiazza (ports) Publisher: Enix (SNES)/Square Enix (PS2/DS/iOS/Android))
Now we can finally take a break from spaceships, bullets covering the screen and talk about some RPGs. Dragon Quest V is literally a masterpiece, and is one of the greatest experiences ever made. The story is emotional from beginning to end, it's a pretty tough game, and it doesn't try to baby you. It's like one the peaks of old school JRPGs. Dragon Quest V is about Abel, a young kid who's living with his father Pankraz in a small remote town. there's a lot the kid doesn't know about the world around him, and what sorta things his father is hiding. So for the first act of the game, you're just a kid, traveling around with your dad, and in at least 2 parts of the first act, Bianca a girl you meet in a different town, teams up with you when you visit the ghost tower which is full of ghosts and all sorts of monsters. But ultimately it was to help these restless spirits and get one of the colored orbs. By the end of the first act, you're friends with Prince Harry, and Bianca, you saved the little Sabrecat and everything is fine, is what I wish I could say. But goddamn this game is really tragic. Spoiler It really fucking makes you tear up and shed tears. Even just listening to the music that takes place at the end of act one triggers the emotions. Spoiler Alert for this extremely old RPG: but trust me, you need to play this game: Well at the end of act one, you go to save Prince Harry who was kidnapped by monster and are in some dungeon. You go with your father to go rescue him. And what the game establishes is that, your dad is extremely tough, he's even like level 20+ so he easily kills enemies around your level. But anyways, when you get towards the end of the dungeon, you bump into the main villain Ladja, and I fucking hate this guy. I don't think there's very many games where I feel nothing but hate for a villain, usually I enjoy the villains, but Ladja can fuck off. Your dad goes to save Harry, but you get kidnapped by Ladja and his 2 main henchmen. Pankraz tries to fight them, but Ladja threatens to kill you, so he has no choice but to drop his weapons. The game then goes to a battle, and the only thing you can do is watch him get his ass kicked. Then after all that, with his final breath, Pankraz tells you that your mother is still alive, and you need to live for his sake, and find your mother, and find the truth. And then Ladja fucking throws a massive fireball at him, and he's nothing but ashes...
I was playing the DS version and yeah it's just a bunch of sprites and some 3d graphics, but even with the simple presentation, the game managed to move me, and because in games like Dragon Quest, you put yourself in the role of the main character, and because it was your father, it feels more personal. After the first act, years pass and you and Prince Harry are enslaved with the other humans, you eventually escape. And then the real journey begins. It's a old school turn based RPG, and just like the other games, you and your party members learn a bunch of magic, you gotta buy equipment etc. But the main appeal of Dragon Quest V is the monster taming. You get a wagon once you get to the first town in Act 2, and you can defeat monsters, and there's a chance it can actually join you in battle. As someone who's a Megami Tensei fan, I think this is pretty cool. The monsters all have their strengths and weaknesses. They can even level up, but they each have a level cap that varies between them all. You can even give them equipment and weapons, but it's pretty specific on what they can use. There's the usual Slimes and Drackys, then you can get Golems, Killing Machines and even Great Dragons, it's so cool that you can just have enemies join. So the difficulty of the game can vary based on what kinda monsters you managed to get throughout the journey. The world is huge, the dungeons are real huge labyrinths and the whole game feels like this massive adventure. It really puts you to the test as you get through, there's some puzzles and they were kinda annoying but eh you can figure it out. The game is luckily not as obtuse as older RPGs or even older Dragon Quest games so even tho it doesn't tell you exactly what to do, if you just remember shit, it'll go by pretty well. The game really is immersive, you actually remember most of the locations, and the people you meet there. Besides the end of act one, I refuse the spoil the rest of the story because it's just that good. Please do yourself a favor and play Dragon Quest V. Side note: you get to choose a wife and then later in the game, you literally have kids, so that means Abel, the purple turban man, the protagonist has canonically fucked.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age / ドラゴンクエストXI：過ぎ去りし時を求めて
(PS4/3DS/PC/Switch. Developer/Publisher: Square Enix/Nintendo (US/PAL) 2017-2019)
This was actually the first Dragon Quest game I managed to finish, and I did it originally on the PS4. I have like over 120 hours, but then they announced the XI S version, I bought it as soon as I could. Yeah the Switch version is an enhanced port, but I'm gonna be talking about the game in general. As the newest game in the series, this game was a lot more streamlined and accessible compared to previous games. Compared to Dragon Quest V, XI is way easier, but that doesn't mean the game sucks ass. The game is extremely fun and the story and characters are memorable. This game is long as hell. It's over 100 hours long. You play as the Luminary, a hero destined to save the world and bring peace to Erdrea. You do the coming of age ceremony, set off to meet the king.... and he calls you the Darkspawn, claiming you're basically the second coming of Satan lol. After getting thrown in jail, you eventually escape with your buddy Erik, you go on your real journey to discover what the hell is going on in Heliodor Castle, and why you've been outcast. It's a bit hard to explain what makes the game so fucking good. Because it really is just an extremely fine tuned and refined Dragon Quest game. And everything it does right, is the result of years of Yuji Horii and his team learning from each game and just improving (although I heard Dragon Quest 6 is ehh alright.). The world is huge as hell, and similar to DQ8, the world has all these nooks and crannies full of treasure and useful weapons and items. It's a bit weird to say but the huge open environment reminds me a lot of Xenoblade, where for the most part, you can go wherever you want. And maybe since I played DQ5 after this game. I actually missed the random encounters. the PC/PS4 versions of this game are only in 3D, and enemies are just on the map, you can pretty much avoid them with zero issues. And given how easy the game can feel in the first 2 acts, it feels kinda stupid that it's so easy. It can feel at times that you're just going through the motions, leveling up when you need to. And in the original game, ugh battles could really drag on since you needed to watch all the animations. So battles felt longer that they probably should.
Luckily the Switch version added options to increase the battle speed, in addition it carries over a feature that was originally on the Japan-only 3DS version. It's the 2D mode. Since I beat the original vanilla game in 3D, i was really itching to play all the way through in 2D to see just how different the game would be, And it's really damn cool. A gripe I had with the original was that there wasn't any orchestrated music, and I do love the music, the orchestrated versions were so much better lol. So thankfully you have the option to choose between the 2 styles. The music is really good, there's a real sense of adventure, and most areas have their own themes. The new songs are really good. I really enjoyed the main battle theme, some of the town music, the Mermaid town theme and Sylvando's theme. But it's a bit lazy that Sugiyama reused a lot of his old tracks for this game, but doesn't mean it's bad. It just means there isn't as much original music as it should. Some tracks from DQ3/4/8 even made it in. Actually in the S version, music from each main game actually did return but I'll mention it when I get more into 2D mode.
The game is so fun in 2D. It's so addicting and getting through the game feels a lot faster. Yeah you have random encounters but the game is mostly the same. Although there's still a ton of differences. Like the town layouts are different. And certain areas like the marshland, that are a dedicated area in 3D, is just an extended part of the world map in 2D. Speaking of, I mentioned music from older games, and that's all part of the Tickington town area. It's full of all those little ghost guys called the Tockles. On the 3DS, this was originally part of the Streetpass feature, but they changed it, so it's just part of the game. In Tickington, the whole thing is in the 16-bit mode. The UI and menus all resemble classic Dragon Quest the black boxes and white text. The enemies are all rendered in a mostly 16-bit style, the enemies don't animate, but it honestly doesn't matter. The really cool thing about this area is that you can visit the worlds of the older games, so even worlds that weren't originally in 16-bit, I really enjoyed this part. When you enter the old worlds, you also hear 8-bit versions of the towns and battle/boss themes, which for long time fans, like my best friend, must be a real treat. I already talked about DQV but it was so cool hearing the music from the fairy forest and the old battle theme. My only real gripe with 2D mode is that in battles, if the enemy is doing a stance or is powering up, you can really tell, unless you make sure to read the text before it goes away. So I'd say 3D makes things easier to visualize, but I prefer battling in the classic style. Probably because I've already played the hell out of the original game.
In addition to bringing back 2D mode, the orchestrated music,and general tweaks and quality of life changes. Like being able to forge weapons whenever you want, instead of only at campsites. Besides all that there's also new side stories for main cast, as well as full Japanese voice acting. Originally the Japanese version was only text, as that's just how Yuji Horii does things. However the western version had a full dub, but now you have the option to choose between either voice track. Personally, I feel the dub is superior because of the the different European accents in the game, that help give it a unique identity, and it gives everyone a more identifiable and memorable voice. It's so goofy hearing these accents when American voices are so common. I played in 2D so ironically enough, I didn't get to hear much of the new Japanese voice acting until I was already at the very end, when I decided to switch back to 3D. So you can freely change between the 2 styles, but they fucking lied when they called it "seamless." It's not, because you gotta go to the church first and then change perspective, you save, but you can only start at the beginning of a story chapter. Probably done to prevent messing with key items or whatever. Funny thing tho is you can only go backwards, but you keep your levels and gear, anything that's not obtained from the story basically. You can go all the way back to the beginning if you want at level 99 lol. Dragon Quest XI / XI S is an amazing RPG that will last you a long while if you're willing go get through all this shit, over 100+ hours of content. Horse racing, item forging, and shit tons of side quests. Plenty of callbacks to older games. Highly recommended.
Xenogears / ゼノギアス
(PS1. Developer/Publisher: Squaresoft. 1998)
I don't even know where to begin with Xenogears, this game is a fucking wild ride. Having played Xenoblade on the Wii nearly 8 years ago, and learning about the development and history behind MonolithSoft and Tetsuya Takahashi himself, I had to see where it all began. In some crazy and elaborate way, he's managed to connect all of the Xeno series together as best he can, because copyright sucks. So in a way, Xenogears/Xenosaga 1,2,3/Xenoblade 1 & 2 are all part of the same thing. It's a lot to take in, and that perfectly describes what the story is like with this game. It's all over the place, throwing out words, terminologies and religious references everywhere. It can really feel as if you're being overloaded with information at times, but once you understand this extremely heavy and dense story, you'll never forget it. I'll get it outta the way now but the biggest problem with this game is the pacing and how badly it's Story>gameplay. As a lot of the dungeons and certain gameplay ideas either feel unfinished or some dungeons are boring as fuck. The game had a lot of development issues and even got rushed, and mainly towards disc 2 and just nearly all of disc 2, yeah so many corners were cut. That being said, that good aspects of this game are well done, mostly. This game is a bit of a mess. The story may be a bit of a mess with all the words and everything, but goddamn it, the story is so unforgettable and ambitious. That's probably the best way to describe it. There's a heavy focus on religion, sci-fi, giant robots, some tits, and other crazy shit.Spoiling the story for this game is something I can never do, and I can't even get all the details right It would be disrespectful if I did. Most of what I can do is give a basic setup. and explain combat.
Fei Fong Wong is just a dude living in his village, and one of his childhood friends is having a wedding, some crazy shit happens where these guys in giant robots called Gears show up, and the town is on fire and everything is getting destroyed. Fei takes it upon himself to fight back, he gets into a gear that was lying around, the Weltall. He managed to fight back, but the village was destroyed and the soon to be married couple perished. So Fei and his good buddy Citan aka "Doc" set out to uncover the truth behind why those guys invaded his home, what happened to his father all those years ago, the secrets and the mystery of his past. The story in Xenogears is easily its strongest aspect, but the combat is another highlight. The combat is really cool, instead of just selecting a move in regular turn based battles, you can do combos, and if you know the right set of button presses (or if you grind enough times to eventually unlock them) you can do DeathBlows. These are super moves that do massive damage, way more than your normal attacks. And there's no real penalty for spamming them either, so once you get as many of them as you can, keep doing them whenever you're not defending or healing. The only issue is that the combat can sometimes feel very slow, but I think when in context, the story helps make up for it, mostly. The other super cool thing is that you can can actually use Gears in battle. Not just Weltall but the other party members you meet along the way, eventually all get their own Gears. They use fuel for all the normal attacks and special combos, t you can refuel and upgrade the max amount at specific shops, as well as upgrade the parts and stats on your Gears. These things can easily overpower small enemies, but some enemies also have Gear so they can do it too. You can only use them in huge caves, ships or just outside, smaller areas and most dungeons cant fit them in. I feel that these aspects make the game stand out from Squaresoft's other RPGs especially on the PS1. The fact that this game basically did the opposite of what Final Fantasy did at the time, by giving us 2D sprites in a fully 3D world is amazing. Graphically, the game has aged a lot better than games like Final Fantasy 7/8/9, as those games were all about polygons on shitty jpeg backgrounds to try and give off a cutting edge vibe. It doesn't look good nowadays, and it just kinda shows the types of things Takahashi and his team did to try and stand out from the other games at the time. Focusing heavily on 3D graphics was something he made sure to keep doing with the later Xeno games.
This is where all the themes and tropes began, all the talk about gods, religion, giant robots, tits, cucking and crazy bullshit, all began here in Xenogears. It was the First and Last project that Takahashi directed while working for Squaresoft. Right after that, he left, took key staff members and then went to create MonolithSoft, where he then created the Xenosaga trilogy. And of course, he made Xenoblade, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year with a full remake called Xenoblade Definitive Edition. It's a full remake, with probably the XB2 engine, and it even brings back the Bionis' Left Shoulder that was originally a cut area in the Wii version. Thank you so much Takahashi, for making these crazy games, and going even further and connecting them all in a way. Xenogears has an unforgettable story, great characters, amazing music, and Fei, Elly, Doc and the rest are all memorable. The story has so many layers and Fei's story is some of the most mind-boggling shit I've seen. This game was probably way too ambitious, especially given the time and budget, but fuck it, this game is like a work of art, a diamond with rough edges. Thank you once again. Tetsuya Takahashi, Soraya Saga, and Yasunori Mitsuda.
A Hat in Time
(PC/PS4/XB1/Switch. Developer: Gears for Breakfast. Publisher: Humble Bundle. 2017-2019)
I really feel this is the best game I played all year. The RPGs and STGs i enjoyed are all amazing, but seriously, this was a game that I was hoping would be good enough. I didn't expect it to be everything I wanted and then some. I love 3D platformers like Super Mario Sunshine and Banjo Kazooie, and Hat in Time hearkens back to that golden age, with this unforgettable game. It cant's really be nostalgia since this isn't based on anything old, just the genre and ideas it borrows from game I grew up with.. It's everything I've wanted in the genre for a long time. I know I said I love Mario Odyssey, but honestly my feelings for that game now are just "eh whatever, not better than Sunshine." Mario can still innovate, but it's still tied down to what Nintendo has already established. And even then, Sunshine and Galaxy remain the best 3D Mario games ever. Luckily Hat in Time doesn't suffer from restrictions like that, so they went balls deep and put what seems like anything they wanted to do. This game is really a labor of love, and a true passion project that pays respect to the genre. For me, it's like how Rolling Gunner and Crimzon Clover feel like classic games in the modern era. Funny thing is that this was originally a Kickstarter project, and planned for Wii U and PC. But due to time and the Wii U already fading out by the time they finished, the Wii U version never happened. Eh it's fine, we have it on all the current systems now. The story is all about the Hat Kid. She's literally a kid with a top hat, that's probably an alien. She travels around in space and carries all these Time Pieces with her that are shaped like hourglasses. Some shit happens and all the time pieces get sucked outta the spaceship and get scattered all around the planet, and you gotta recollect them all. And there's also some dipshit Mustache Girl trying to get all the time Pieces for herself.
What really surprised me is how well designed this game is. You can double jump, do a air dive like Mario Sunshine, and you even get an umbrella to attack enemies. You can jump off of walls just like in the 3D Mario games and do all sorts of things. The dive can even lock onto enemies like in Sonic games, so they really thought of everything. The hat isn't just for show, you can buy and obtain badges that you equip to the hat, and it can help you out. It can reveal where some collectibles are, show you where you need to go if you get lost, slow down time, let you shoot a giant laser from your umbrella and even let you use a grappling hook. There's also multiple hats to collect that all have unique traits and at least 1 badge works with one of these, and it can give you a scooter. The levels are like Mario 64/Sunshine where they each have multiple "episodes" or acts, but it's really more like the latter as the levels have episode specific scenarios and sometimes take place in completely different areas. Like the first area Mafia Town, Is pretty normal at first, but one of the later Time Pieces has the level completely covered in lava, and you gotta stop the drain from pouring it everywhere. There's some really wacky things that happen in this game. You fight Mafia, get your soul stolen by a ghost living in the haunted forest, who forces you into a contract kinda like Ghost Rider actually. And there's a whole world based on a movie studio, completely with some stealth segments. And even a whole yakuza cat underground subway level. They even have secret levels like the Mario Sunshine secret courses in Rico Harbor and others. This game has so much personality and character, that it really makes me wonder why people haven't gushed all over it like other indie games, such as Shovel Knight or Shantae. Eh those games don't even compare anyways.
The music in Hat in Time is especially amazing, and while I can't remember too many tracks, the quality and diversity in the music is really worth talking about. It has some orchestral sounding stuff, jazzy elevator music, a lot of techno stuff and even some rock music. Just like the game itself there's a ton of variety in the levels, characters and music. My favorite characters in the game are Hat Kid, The Conductor, DJ Grooves, the Mafia guys and Snatcher the ghost. They all have really distinct voices that really match their personalities. The Conductor is the goddamn Irish sounding loud bird man that really loves his trains and even yells PECK NECK. Snatcher was a bit of an asshole at first, but he really grew on me, as he's just a dick and really does whatever he wants. But he's still cool. Overall I feel that Hat in Time definitely delivered on what it set to do and then some. It's a really cute and interesting game, full of memorable characters and moments. The music is really good too. It was so goddamn immersive, I only have like 20+ hours in, so it's not exactly a super long game, as the main game only has 40 time pieces, but the Seal the Deal & Nyakuza DLC really make it the full package. This game is definitely one of my all time favorites. I didn't want the game to end, well technically it's not over, as I haven't 100% the entire game, but that's definitely something I'm gonna catch up on in 2020.
This year was so amazing for me. Finally visiting Japan, playing tons of arcade games, including some Cave ones. Becoming the first complete foreigner to visit the Super Sonico museum and more. But I can never forget that I played so many damn games. Sadly not all the games made it to the list, as I need to narrow it down to a reasonable number. And my hands are getting tired. So I'll briefly mention some honorable mentions:
Garou: Mark of the Wolves for the NeoGeo missed the list as I haven't been able to put enough time into it. I don't like half assing my opinions on games, and fighting games need a lot of time for me to understand it enough, so I can explain it well. This is a great fighting game, but I need to play it more. Hopefully next year.
Real Bout: Fatal Fury Special also on NeoGeo missed the list for a similar reason. But I've barely played this too, less than Garou. Hopefully I can get more into NeoGeo in 2020 and just enjoy more arcade games. Also Duck King is the best character.
Dead or Alive 6 for PC/PS4/XB1. While I love DOA6 and all the gameplay/graphics improvements, it really felt likeTeam Ninja sort of dropped the ball when it came to adding extra features people really wanted. A pretty slow trickle of DLC fighters coming out every once in a while and the fact it had a lot negative word of mouth because of them toning down the sex appeal. As well as the overpriced season passed, although DOA5 did too. I still feel the game has a lot of potential to become the best new DOA game, but it needs all the old modes and more stuff to do. It just looks kinda bad, especially compared to games like Tekken 7 and how that handles DLC.
Mario Kart Arcade GP DX for Arcade. I played this a few times in JP arcades, honestly more than I probably should lol. Spent a lot of yen playing this. It's super fun and apparently Dave & Busters has this, so if I ever get time, I should go there. I played it a ton but not enough to add to the list.
Xenosaga Episode 1 for PS2. It was originally meant to be be on this list alongside Xenogears, but I've had to put the game on hold, since the PS3 is being a total bitch right now, and has issues loading PS2 discs, so it really sucks. I'm gonna eventually find a solution so I can finish the damn game and move onto episodes 2 and 3 in due time.
The Messenger for PC/Switch/PS4. This was a game I meant to buy forever ago, and it kept biting me in the ass that I didn't get around to it. It's basically like a Metroidvania style Ninja Gaiden game. And just being like Ninja Gaiden is enough for me. It's even got the thumbs up by the original creators of Ninja Gaiden, they even played themselves and were like "this shit is cool." I'm basically gonna make up for the fact I held off on it for so long.
Extra stuff I wanna mention
Happy first year anniversary to Super Smash Bros Ultimate. My most played game of this year, but it doesn't make the list as it was my favorite game of 2018 already, so no cheating. Also the fighter pass has been great so far. Joker, Hero, Banjo & Kazooie, and Terry Bogard are all unique and dope editions and it was finally time for Dragon Quest, Banjo and SNK to finally get their hats in the ring. Hopefully soon we can get info on Fighter #5 and the upcoming DLC.
Xenoblade Remake in 2020!!!! I already mentioned it when talking about Xenogears, but yeah. My favorite game of this decade aka my favorite game and RPG of all time finally gets a remake after 10 years. What a journey. easily my most anticipated release besides the new Animal Crossing.
M2 is gonna be porting over Toaplan's library of games. Games like Truxton, Batsugun and even Tatsujin 2 (aka Truxton 2) which was only ever ported to the fucking FM Towns Marty, fuck that. Now we can hopefully get them on PS4 and Switch eventually. Toaplan was basically the company that pioneered the Danmaku (bullet hell) subgenre and lead to the creation of Cave. So knowing M2's track record, they're gonna give us some amazing ports.
Deathsmiles which was on the 2018 list, is getting a new port to consoles alongside Deathsmiles II X. So hopefully these all came to Switch and PS4 as well. I'll support all the quality ports M2 or Cave are willing to put out.
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