I've been rolling around this list for a while, not out of laziness but in all honesty I wasn't too impressed with 2018. I was busy for most of it and found myself drifting back to games available through the Xbone's back compat offerings.
Sony: I bought games I already own just so I can play them comfortably on my nice television with nominally improved framerates. Please take note of this for your future consoles, thanks.
Truth be told, I wasn't even sure how many games I would actually rank; this list has jumped from top five to top nine and everything in between, but after careful consideration I decided to just bite the bullet and list what I played and why I didn't finish the games I wanted to. Spider-Man was my last holdout, but with all the incredible games coming out this year I just didn't feel like putting them off to finish stuff on this list.
Games Not Finished
Mega Man 11
I like Mega Man 11. The Gear system is a great way to introduce an element of accessibility to the game that never once feels mandatory. Series veterans will feel right at home with the level design while newcomers will find that the Gear system is lenient enough that you can safely fall back on it. The game has a plethora of difficulty options and never shies away from series tradition, despite the fact that it takes great strides toward updating the series. The new 3D graphics are decent, nothing too terrible but it doesn't take away from the charm of the game.
Why I didn't complete it: Short answer: too hard. I like to go back to MM11 every now and then to take a crack at a level or two, but I'm old and my crinkled gorilla hands and armadillo brain just can't keep up with Rock like it used to. I'll probably finish it one day. Probably.
Octopath Traveler
I really wanted to love Octopath Traveler. There's a ton of stuff to do and it feels endless, which doesn't help my waning interest. The story is dark and I appreciate the regional accents characters have, and the world feels nice and lived-in. Allowing the player to unlock secondary jobs over time gives the game a massive degree of customization, and having entire story arcs left as optional content is a great way to give players a sense of freedom. That said, not accounting for the player recruiting everybody means the cast never interacts much and it doesn't feel like building a team, more like controlling a function of a character who occasionally gets their own story arc at different points. Leveling up takes way too long as well, and a few of the characters are pretty boring. It's a well-made game and I look forward to finishing it, just not any time soon.
Why I didn't complete it: Recently I decided to go back and give it another shot, and the game does open up in the second chapter, but unlike JRPGs I truly enjoy the story of Octopath simply cannot keep my attention for more than an hour or two. All the flaws I found also drag the entire package down, and the idea that I have to find each secondary job separately makes me just not want to bother. As a spiritual successor to Bravely Default, it takes too many steps back from the modern conveniences of that game. I see the appeal of making a very classic JRPG, my favorite genre is probably the PS1 era of JRPGs, but obfuscation for the sake of it just leads to frustration. You can evolve the genre while not forcing it, which this game feels like it tries too hard to do.
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise
This one hurts. Lost Paradise is a winning formula, a quality product in every way. Take the familiar gameplay and feel of Sega's incredible Yakuza games, drop it in the world-famous Fist of the North Star setting, and let the Ryu Ga Gotoku staff go nuts. The game feels like it's a story arc ripped straight out of the manga, with new characters alongside familiar faces and just enough backstory for any newcomer to jump right in. Play this game, it would have easily been top three on this list otherwise.
Why I didn't complete it: Yakuza 6 came out last year. These games are long and can take a hefty time investment; even those that are high quality like Lost Paradise needs some breathing room. And with Judgment coming later this year, I just don't know how I'll have the time.
The List
7b: Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
I said before that so long as we get a Monster Hunter, it'll always be welcome on my game of the year list. Generations Ultimate improves upon its 3DS counterpart with new styles, new monsters, more abilities, and just more stuff to do in general. Plus, it's on the Switch, so now you can play a classic-style Monster Hunter like a human being rather than a buster scrub picking away at the stupid camera nub on a screen for a phone from two decades ago. Of course, since it's a re-release it can't take the official number seven spot, but it's so good that I had to give it some props. If you want the most pure taste of classic Monster Hunter, this game is as good as you're ever going to get.
7: Yakuza 6
Yakuza 6 is a very conflicted game, and were it not for all the unfinished games it would be much lower on this list. Yakuza 6 picks up directly from the end of Yakuza 5, placing Kiryu in a desperate situation with his adopted daughter Haruka by his side. Kiryu spends several years in prison, and when he gets out all hell has broken loose. The Tojo clan is on its last legs, the big figures of the Tokyo yakuza are nowhere to be seen, and the Chinese mafia has begun its slow takeover of Kamurocho. In the center of it all is Haruka, left heavily injured and comatose from a hit and run. To Kiryu's surprise, Haruka is the mother to a boy named Haruto, and the mystery of his parentage takes center stage. At the heart of it all, Yakuza 6 is about passing on the torch to a new generation and the sacrifices a parent must make for their child. The story is very touching and moves along at a brisk pace, and as a huge fan of the series I cannot be happier by their sendoff for series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. That said, the new combat system takes some getting used to, and leveling the player's skills can be tedious and frustrating at times. The twists can be pretty stupid, and I intensely dislike that most of the new characters from Yakuza 4 and 5 are largely forgotten. It's worth playing for series vets and for that I respect it, but it is absolutely not a game for newcomers to the series.
6: Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna, the Golden Country
I considered this one for a long time, but as far as I'm concerned, Torna is long enough and distant from the original Xenoblade 2 that it can be considered its own game. Initially pitched as the actual Xenoblade 2, then reworked from a chapter of the main game, Torna is a compelling take on the events of Xenogears Episode 4 with plenty of callbacks to that game, providing a detailed look at an event referenced throughout Xenoblade 2 while fleshing out the backstories of many of its more mysterious characters. The gameplay has been way refined, ditching the random Jojo's Bizarre Adventure-Stand-style Blade system for one that more properly assigns characters to their Blade counterparts. Gone is the tedious grinding for high-level Blades, and with it the need to grind for skills to traverse the world. That's all still there, but it's much easier to explore the world without completely arbitrary roadblocks. A modified version of the beloved Affinity system from the original Xenoblade returns, which I wrote about extensively in my glowing review for that game, which greatly impacts player involvement in some of the more harrowing moments in the story. Torna is a great introduction to the world of Xenoblade 2 and can be played with or without the main game, and even though it's an expansion I consider it one of the finest games of the year. And check out the soundtrack, while you're at it.
5: Monster Hunter World
Following the reveal of Monster Hunter World, I was not one of the millions of people eager to try out the new redesign of the series. After reluctantly giving it a shot during a trial period, I finally saw just how wrong I was. Many of the obfuscated elements of Monster Hunter have been totally streamlined in World, leaving a game that focuses almost exclusively on the brutal fights between the player and the monster targeted for the hunt. Everything about the game flows smoother, the animations are top notch, and after a decade Monster Hunter finally feels like a game that wants to impress rather than be content to pump out iterative releases. Monster Hunter World is brilliant, and is well deserving of its twelve million lifetime sales. I just can't wait to get back to it so I can be prepared for Iceborne later in 2019.
4: Dragon Ball FighterZ
As a lifetime fan of Dragon Ball, I cannot stress enough just how much this game got right. More than that, it's an absolutely stellar fighter, built to be accessible to beginners and complex enough for hardcore fighting players. After the disaster of Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite, all this game had to be was good. Rather, Arcsys has developed one of the best 3v3 fighting games in recent memory, and even as season 2 picks up the pace with more characters the game still feels completely fresh. Arcsys, please, save JoJo's Bizarre Adventure from its endless hell of bad video games and give it the FighterZ treatment.
3: God of War
God of War has been a series that I've both enjoyed and despised. Greek mythology played with edgy cynicism over basic hack-and-slash gameplay gave the series a unique charm, but it never felt particularly deep and the main character, Kratos, had all the charm of a dry sponge. There is no way in any version of hell that the series could continue in its legacy form, but even still, never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate the reboot to come out so fantastic. While the gameplay is still not deep, the RPG mechanics give the player a great feeling of customization with options that open up the further the player gets into the game. Equipment adds a great feeling of progression while gems give the player bonuses to feel like each play style has unique elements. The story of Kratos taking his son on a meaningful journey suffers from cliche moments, but it's told well and has a satisfying conclusion. The fixed camera does not do the game any favors as it often leads to jarring or lazy story cuts, and some of the character turns come out of nowhere, but all in all it's a fine game with fun exploration and a gripping narrative.
2b: Yakuza Kiwami 2
Alright look, this game is just a remake and I normally wouldn't want to put a remake on a year's best list. That said, Yakuza 2 is one of my favorite games ever and this is a pretty faithful remake of that game. Some cuts had to be made, including a short area later on, and a few changes are disappointing. It's still a great, modern way to play a classic game, with new minigames and a brand new story segment to follow up on Yakuza 0's Majima story. The improvements to the Dragon Engine so close to Yakuza 6 make this game feel even better to play, and while that game left me questioning the future of the franchise with how busted and restricted it felt, Kiwami 2 brought back my hope in a big way. A tremendous game all around.
2: Marvel's Spider-Man
I really can't stand this comic book resurgence. I have completely checked out of the Marvel movie thing and I absolutely will not be playing that terrible Avengers game, but Spider-Man was always on my radar. I like the guy, he's a fun super hero and a lot of games in the franchise have been pretty great. Insomniac's involvement in this game is what really sold me on the premise. I like their games, and I seriously wish I had an Xbox the year Sunset Overdrive released so I could have sung its praises more highly. Spider-Man takes concepts from that game and cranks them up to their highest potential, creating a living world that actually feels like a fully fleshed-out Spider-Man adventure. The story is phenomenal and takes a turn darker than I've ever seen from the hero. The biggest downside to the game is the Batman: Arkham-style gameplay. I don't hate it and there are plenty of new twists on the formula, but it's exactly like you would expect. That aside, this is probably the best superhero game I've ever played, nudging out even the exceptional Batman: Arkham Asylum.
1: Red Dead Redemption 2
Every now and then I catch myself humming Willie Nelson's original song for this game, "Cruel Cruel World," and every time it makes me reminisce about what a transcendent experience Red Dead Redemption 2 truly is. It is faultless in every way, brimming with side activities while only expecting the bare minimum out of the player if the story is the main focus. You could spend hundreds of hours without watching a single cutscene, only exploring the world and getting into whatever shenanigans pop up. The story itself is so far beyond anything I've seen this year, easily since Nier: Automata, that I just feel like I wouldn't be doing it justice in trying to describe it. The gameplay is heavy, reflecting the larger-than-life stature of Arthur Morgan and, by extension, Dutch's gang. It'll hook you before you know it, and if you have a single manly tear in your body, it will take it out of you before the credits finally roll. I don't have to tell you to play this game, I just want you to know that it is in a class so far ahead of everything else that it goes beyond words.
