An update: in my rush to finish this list I completely neglected a title that I absolutely adored and feel horrible about its omission. Final Fantasy XV has been bumped off the list completely, and the new title has been added as the number two spot. I feel awful about forgetting it, but I'd rather not let the mistake slide.
Honorable Mentions
This might be a bit contrived, but I'd love to make my list longer than simply ten. I played a ton of games this year and many of them were stellar, but the following games I simply can't find a place for in my top ten. In no following order, here are a few of the honorable mentions for the year:
Ratchet and Clank
The new Ratchet and Clank is a breath of fresh air for a series that's gotten lost in a mire of spinoffs, but I liked the new game enough to make a rambling, incoherent mess of an impressions video. Warning: it's not safe for human consumption.
That said, I have more than a few issues with the game. While it is a complete remake of the original game, there's very little to set it apart compared to some of the earlier entries in the series. The framerate is laughable, the plot is barebones, the budding friendship between the titular characters is completely ripped from the story, and the game is pitifully easy even on harder difficulties. I'm glad to see a new Ratchet and Clank, but it's a shame it has to be so by-the-numbers.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
Good lord did I want to hate this Wii U exclusive. I absolutely despise the tone and characters, but the overall style and game mechanics are typical top-tier Shin Megami Tensei. That aside, the gameplay itself is a simplified version of the gameplay system seen in the much-superior Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, and I lost interest in the plot after the second chapter. The main story is so unengaging and groan-worthy that I can't see how anybody alive could see it through to the end. Oh, and let's not forget the mountainous pile of removed or altered content Atlus was forced to implement under Nintendo's watchful gaze. I'd love to have seen this game under a different set of circumstances, but the game that was delivered is contentious at best.
Fire Emblem: Fates
Much like Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Fire Emblem Fates is a game that I simply could not stay interested in, despite buying the unbelievably rare collector's edition. The changed mechanics are fairly interesting; if you'd told me Intsys had managed to completely balance a Fire Emblem game without weapon degradation I'd be extremely skeptical. I started up Fates with that skepticism and was blown away by the depth of the game. Regardless, Fates suffers from a nonsensical story with completely uninteresting characters; I'm no longer interested in mounting an offensive against a clearly evil villain with zero twists along the way. And don't get me started on the lame dating elements added in to hook lonely weebs; like Tokyo Mirage Sessions, I balked at the massive amounts of apparent censorship Nintendo forced the developers to make but approaching the altered mechanics caused me to have a different reaction. The face-petting minigame was stupid at best and the clumsy removal of this mechanic doesn't help at all. If Intsys continues the series, I seriously hope they throw out the lame dating system and actually focus on an engaging campaign.
Ace Attorney 6: Spirit of Justice
Boy oh boy am I kind of sick of Phoenix Wright at this point. While there are some interesting new shake-ups to the series, at the end of the day it does little to differentiate itself from the standard Ace Attorney game. Handing off half of the entire game to two characters I outright despise doesn't help things either. I didn't really consider this when making the list, but it just dawned on me that three of the games on this list share a common trait: I became so uninterested in this game as well that I couldn't find it in me to keep playing. Not that I finished all the games in my top ten list, but those were more an issue of time and I'll definitely go back to the other games I didn't finish. Ace Attorney 6 marks the third time in the series--in a row--that I've lost interest in the story, and each time that switch happens earlier into each game. I only completed Dual Destinies to catch up before the release of this game, and part of me wishes I hadn't. For a series I love so dearly, every new game loses me more. Maybe Ace Attorney 7.
Final Fantasy XV
I don't know if I'm more angry at myself or Square-Enix for having such a low opinion of the latest entry in the venerated Final Fantasy series. Another Japanese game in a long line of needless open world sequels, Final Fantasy XV trades the series's typical intricate story for a massive, though massively empty, open world. Despite a grand-scale story the entirety of Final Fantasy XV follows Noctis and his merry band of bodyguards as he has the worst bachelor's party in history--until the story takes a turn near the early stages of the plot to focus on Noctis's rebellion against an evil empire whose motives are never made clear because with the exception of two cutscenes, the story is told entirely through Noctis's perspective. The party then has to find a series of super-weapons until they decide it's not important and they'd rather hunt for a very small slice of the main Final Fantasy series summoned monsters. Eventually they get bored of this too and decide to just end the game.
Was any of that coherent? Neither is Final Fantasy XV. While I love the banter between characters, if I'd never watched the Brotherhood anime I'd have no clue what these characters' motivations were, where they came from, or what their role is in the party. The gameplay is very similar to Kingdom Hearts, which should come as no surprise as it was originally created on the Kingdom Hearts game engine. That is to say, I loved playing the game and never got tired of experimenting with new weaponry. I also like the expanded version of the hunt system seen in Final Fantasy XII, but I now have more open world games than I can stand. It's no Xenoblade X, and at times it doesn't seem like it even wants to try. Another point in Xenoblade X's favor: Final Fantasy XV doesn't allow players to accept more than one quest at a time, wasting more playtime than is ever necessary. For a game with a decade of development time (unless you don't include the middle of said decade where the game was almost cancelled) it's shockingly bipolar and feels like a totally wasted effort. When I saw the title of Chapter XIV I nearly leapt out of my chair thinking of the new opportunities in the game, but like much of Final Fantasy XV the game lands flat on its face and disappoints.
I wish I could say the game was better because I genuinely enjoyed most of the 40 hours spent with the game, but if Square-Enix hadn't promised extensive improvements to the story flow and gameplay it wouldn't even be in my honorable mentions. As a side note, will the fully-patched game eventually be retitled Final Fantasy XV: International Edition, or Final Fantasy XV: Final Mix?
Was any of that coherent? Neither is Final Fantasy XV. While I love the banter between characters, if I'd never watched the Brotherhood anime I'd have no clue what these characters' motivations were, where they came from, or what their role is in the party. The gameplay is very similar to Kingdom Hearts, which should come as no surprise as it was originally created on the Kingdom Hearts game engine. That is to say, I loved playing the game and never got tired of experimenting with new weaponry. I also like the expanded version of the hunt system seen in Final Fantasy XII, but I now have more open world games than I can stand. It's no Xenoblade X, and at times it doesn't seem like it even wants to try. Another point in Xenoblade X's favor: Final Fantasy XV doesn't allow players to accept more than one quest at a time, wasting more playtime than is ever necessary. For a game with a decade of development time (unless you don't include the middle of said decade where the game was almost cancelled) it's shockingly bipolar and feels like a totally wasted effort. When I saw the title of Chapter XIV I nearly leapt out of my chair thinking of the new opportunities in the game, but like much of Final Fantasy XV the game lands flat on its face and disappoints.
I wish I could say the game was better because I genuinely enjoyed most of the 40 hours spent with the game, but if Square-Enix hadn't promised extensive improvements to the story flow and gameplay it wouldn't even be in my honorable mentions. As a side note, will the fully-patched game eventually be retitled Final Fantasy XV: International Edition, or Final Fantasy XV: Final Mix?
Now that those are out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks.
The Top Ten Games of 2016
Number Ten - Street Fighter V
It's a shame that Street Fighter V released in the state that it did, because the game as it is now is fairly competent. Survival Mode is still not a decent replacement for Arcade Mode, but the various challenges and story modes are decent enough going into the 2017 season. I also appreciate the implementation of the shop in-game; merely playing through the short story modes allowed me to buy characters and stages I'd gladly spend money on otherwise. This is to say nothing of the reworked game mechanics, which are some of the most fluid and responsive in the entire genre. After merely playing Akuma for a few minutes I was able to complete his trial challenges after only a bit of time playing:
I appreciate how newcomer-friendly the game is, going so far as to reward players for merely watching demonstrations for each character. That said, the general lack of gameplay features--especially compared to its contemporaries or even past games in the series--makes Street Fighter V a difficult game to break too far into this list. I'd love to see Capcom take this as a challenge and shove more modes into the game, because I'll definitely keep playing Street Fighter V far into the future.
Number Nine - Monster Hunter Generations
I didn't play Monster Hunter Generations as long as I did many of the other games in the series, but don't take that as me disliking the game. Generations is another standard Monster Hunter, so most of my praise for last year's game applies here. The new hunter styles, however, completely change the way the game is played. Every single weapon now has four styles, with an additional style allowing the player to control the series mascot felyne pets. I love this series, and every year a new game comes out it'll always have a spot on my game of the year list. I sincerely hope XX (Generations Ultimate? Generations X?) releases alongside the Switch, as that would cause the new system to instantly jump up to a must-buy.
Number Eight - Dragon Quest VII
A game that basically everyone interested in the series had given up on, Dragon Quest VII finally released in the West to lukewarm sales. And god am I glad it at least came out at all. While the gameplay systems are fairly stock-standard, the presentation and style of the main story is so charming and simple that I can't think of a single person who couldn't pick up and enjoy the game.
Rather than a grandiose story typified of the Dragon Quest series, VII instead focuses on the story of individual islands broken up across time as the hero and his group of friends set off on an adventure to reclaim the titular forgotten past. It's not a short game; the original was notorious for its hundred-hour-plus game time and cryptic puzzles. Square-Enix poured massive amounts of love into this full remake by addressing complaints while expanding on what made the game a cult hit, creating a simple RPG full of heart. This is the one game on my top ten list I didn't finish (Monster Hunter doesn't count), but only because I want to enjoy it as long as I can. At least, until Dragon Quest VIII comes out in 2017.
Number Seven - Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Before I begin, please divert your attention here:
Mankind Divided is the first game I put a lot of time into editing a video review for, not because I particularly want to make a habit of it on Youtube but simply because I enjoyed it so much. I played through the game twice after it released and loved all the improvements made to the gameplay of Human Revolution, but the abrupt ending was extremely disappointing. It's nice that Prague is so dense with detail, but even if the game was intended to be the beginning of a trilogy I think it could have ended a bit smoother. Rather than being outraged at the end, I took this as a preview of the episodic nature of games Square-Enix appears to be experimenting with; if the Final Fantasy VII remake is something like this, I don't think I'll be too disappointed.
That is to say I'm pinning my hopes on this sub-series of Deus Ex to release very closely to each other; if the next game doesn't release at the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018, my opinion on this episodic style is going to sour extremely quickly. If another five years pass between Mankind Divided and its sequel, I'll be devastated. A great experience, if not fleeting.
Number Six - Doom
I don't think anybody really expected this game to be good, so when we all took time to clear through the excellent campaign it was extremely refreshing to see that it smashed everyone's expectations. Taking snappy controls and crunchy weapons, then mashing it into labyrinthine level design and sprinkling in a ton of enemy variety has created one of the most flawless shooters in years.
It's not perfect, though--I felt the game had just started wearing out its welcome as it wrapped up, and it's not until the last few levels that Doom even introduces its three boss fights. I do greatly appreciate the negligible story and the way it's presented via System Shock 2-style ghosts and data logs, but there's very little to comment on other than "Doom Guy wants to kill a lot of demons. Luckily there are a lot of demons, so have fun." Ending the game on a cliffhanger seems unnecessary, especially given how abruptly the game ends for having such a surprisingly long run time.
I think I might have put the game higher on the list if either the multiplayer wasn't such a carbon copy of Halo--or if, like Wolfenstein: The New Order, id had simply poured all their effort into the single player campaign. The multiplayer is a black stain on a great game, but even without it I don't think I want to go through the campaign again any time soon. The running time is just a bit long and hunting for the collectibles took a lot out of me, but that's not to say it wasn't well worth the time. If id is already working on the expansion, or god help us a sequel, I'll be in line day one to continue Doom Guy's rampage.
Number Five - Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse
Hoo boy was I not prepared for this. Before this year I'd been chipping away at the original release of Shin Megami Tensei IV, but the looming release of its sidequel prompted me to finally set aside the time to complete it. I literally was not prepared to begin Apocalypse, but against all odds I managed to smoothly transition from the original game.
These might be the most satisfying turn-based games in existence. The protagonist is extremely customizable, boasting multiple playstyles with dozens of skills to choose from. That's not even to touch on the massive amount of choice in the game's list of hundreds of demons, all of which can have their skillset tweaked to perfection. Changes to the Shin Megami Tensei series mechanics give the game a familiar, though different experience from its predecessor. Even though Apocalypse supplants the ending of the neutral ending of Shin Megami Tensei IV, I wouldn't recommend skipping the original--the two games compliment each other perfectly, the apocalyptic scale of the original increasing to cosmic heights in this game.
The characters are well-written and each undergo their own struggles as they flit in and out of your party, making them feel like they have their own business to worry about outside of your character's struggle. If you have a 3DS, you owe it to yourself to play these games. They might seem daunting at first, but mastering the complex Press Turn system creates some of the most varied encounters in JRPG history. I might go so far as to say Apocalypse rivals the current masterpiece of Shin Megami Tensei, the third mainline game Nocturne. With more difficulty options, four endings and a multitude of approaches, I don't think I'd be out of line in saying it even surpasses it.
Number Four - Dark Souls III
I still don't know who the serpents are. But it doesn't matter, because the story has finally reached its excellent conclusion. The game's a bit linear for my liking, especially compared to last year's winding Bloodborne and even more when compared to the original Dark Souls. That aside, the gameplay has been refined to its absolute peak, with each weapon being given its own individual skill. Magic has also been altered, now more closely resembling the magic system seen in Demon's Souls. Even if your character isn't focused on magic, players can still opt to delve into their own weapon arts or completely neglect magic entirely--no Souls game has ever featured this much depth in gameplay.
The linearity of the overall game progression really is disappointing, but each area feels very complex--if these areas were connected similar to the original Dark Souls, the final game would easily rival the original for me. On its own Dark Souls III stands above most games released this year, a stellar action adventure in a doomed world. If Dark Souls presented a world on its death bed, Dark Souls III places players in a world convulsing in its death throes. Long questions are paid off in full while still presenting new world details, though I'm really not happy about some of the lore being locked behind the DLC.
In a year with so many stand-out games, the fifth Souls title still manages to climb above most releases. I wish the world was a bit more interconnected and there wasn't such a ridiculous emphasis on nostalgia, but those are pretty small complaints for such a masterfully-crafted game.
Number Three - Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
Vanillaware makes good games. Some of those games aren't quite as good as others--which is why the venerated developers saw fit to correct one of their first titles, the side-scrolling action RPG Odin Sphere, and recreate it to what I assume can only be their original ambition. And god almighty was the original vision for this game a beautiful work of art.
Taking the original game and turning the level design into a bit more of a level-based Metroidvania, Vanillaware went a step further and implemented a combat system that even surpasses their Wii and Vita masterpiece, Muramasa.
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir contains some of the most frantic, insane combat ever seen in a 2D game and ratchets it up to a ridiculous pitch, allowing players to customize each character so specifically that even fighting game inputs are available for real-time actions. The flow of combat is seriously one of the best in the industry and I never got tired of just sitting down and playing it.
The story is intentionally convoluted, each character going through their own story that eventually intertwines and escalates to one of the most jaw-dropping climaxes in video game history. Luckily, an in-game menu allows players to not only view each story chapter, but to also compare when every chapter takes place concurrently. There's even an option to view every single cutscene in the game, and I'd definitely recommend doing so when the game's dozens of characters begin weaving complex plots against each other all leading to the finale.
In short, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is a work of art, a complex narrative interwoven into some of the most satisfying gameplay in the business. I was enraptured in every single minutiae of the game and would recommend it to anybody.
Number Two - Another Metroid 2 Remake
Please allow me to explain. In my first run of this list I went down the Wikipedia entry for games released this year and deliberated on my top ten like normal. As I've since gotten a new PC and it's somehow not listed on Wikipedia, I had completely forgotten about one of the best games of the year, AM2R or Another Metroid 2 Remake. Metroid 2 is one of the more contentious games in the series, but over the last few years a dedicated individual completely recreated the archaic Game Boy entry in the vein of the superb Game Boy Advance title Metroid Zero Mission.
AM2R, like its original incarnation, places the famed bounty hunter Samus Aran on an alien planet to exterminate the titular Metroid race on Planet SR388. Rather than exploring a maze of tunnels and alien ruins, Samus must instead hunt for each of the dozens of Metroids individually. With the additions to game flow, including new areas and additional features seen in the more recent Metroid games, these changes help create one of the most open games in the series, allowing for both sequence breaking and multiple branching paths.
A lesser developer would have allowed a remake of this scale to fall into indulgent tinkering--in fact, when approaching my first playthrough I had some trepidation that the game would become bogged down in hardcore challenges aimed exclusively for the dedicated Metroid speedrunning community. What I found instead was a meticulously crafted game that I feel not even Nintendo could have produced. The game even includes a detailed log of story events, enemies, items, and whatever else players discover along the way. Forget AM2R simply supplanting Metroid 2 as the ideal version of the game; this might be the finest game in the Metroid franchise.
AM2R is side-scrolling exploration perfection, taking on the likes of Symphony of the Night and Shadow Complex effortlessly. The multiple instances of censorship in other games from Nintendo this year might have irked me, but the widespread DMCA takedown of AM2R is absolutely repugnant behavior. Nintendo should have looked at Sega's example with the upcoming Sonic Mania and reached out to the developers to canonize this remake, if not at least utilize it as a base for a major release. I'd gladly pay whatever price Nintendo would offer, and that's no exaggeration. I adore this game and I demand you go track down the 1.01 release, Nintendo crybabies be damned. If not for the near-religious experience I had with the top game on my list, AM2R would easily have reigned supreme. A masterpiece.
Number One - Titanfall 2
Big year for first-person shooters, huh? Titanfall 2 isn't just that. In fact, I'm not sure what to call Titanfall, other than "eminent." Or perhaps "perfection." I got my first taste of Titanfall 2 during the November free weekend, and within one match I was hooked. Not just casually entertained, but enraptured. I picked up the game as soon as possible and have been pretty much playing the multiplayer nonstop; the game mechanics are completely impeccable, allowing players to run across walls, dash at ridiculous speeds, and pick off targets without batting an eye using some of the crunchiest aiming in the business. And of course, once you hit a certain threshold players can drop their Titan, giant bipedal mechs that completely change the flow of battles. A single Titan can stomp across human players effortlessly, and fights between Titans are full of tension, each player desperate to hold onto their incredibly valuable mech. Even with my pitiful ISP, which can range between a ping of 30 to upwards of 500, the netcode constantly sharp and responsive. I'd go so far as to say this is what Vanquish would feel like in first-person atmosphere, barring the slowdown mechanics. But hey, Vanquish didn't let you stomp around with big robot feet.
Sometimes you go too fast.
I could gush over Titanfall 2's multiplayer forever, but it simply doesn't compare to playing it yourself. If you have a chance to play a free weekend, or if you're looking for a new multiplayer shooter, please do yourself a favor and give this game a shot.
Oh, and I'd be a terribly poor reviewer if I didn't give props to the single player campaign. While maybe not as long or full of as much enemy variety as Doom, the campaign never wears out its welcome, offering a simple buddy story between a guy and his robot. Unlike stinkers like Bioshock Infinite, Cooper rarely opens his mouth, diverting player control to dialogue options in specific moments. And unlike trends in shooters to neglect boss fights, Titanfall 2 instead introduces a Titan-piloting band of mercenaries, all of whom stand in Cooper's path for exhilarating boss battles. The story wraps up in one of the most emotionally draining endings I've seen in a mainstream shooter like this, and I'll definitely be buying Titanfall 3 just for a continuation of the story. Oh who am I kidding, I won't be able to drop the multiplayer.
Both the single player and multiplayer components of Titanfall 2 are transcendent. This is video game gold, lightning in a bottle the likes of which Western AAA games should look up to, even if the sales figures left a lot to be desired. If you have to play a single game this year, make it Titanfall 2. I seriously cannot think of a single complaint toward the game at all, and considering how much I love to complain, that's pretty massive praise.
Thank you all for reading my top ten list, if a game you liked didn't make the cut then shoot me a comment and I may read it. I didn't get to play as many games as I'd like this year, but I feel the ones that made the list, even the honorable mentions I wasn't too crazy about, were pretty special. Enjoy your 2017!
