Crimson_tide's Top 10 (but actually 15) 2020 Games Of The Year

[argyle]

Of course, I ignored Horizon. Hard. As I am doing Tsushima. I was wrong. So, so, so wrong. Holy schnikeys, I was not ready for this story. Like even a little bit. Aloy is my GURL, character of the forever, why does nobody big up Aloy?!?!? The end of the game when she calls out the people who need to hear it and does the thing because it needs to be done...it was like the second coming of my boy Ramza from Final Fantasy Tactics. I was so there for it! The actual mystery was intriguing, the reveals were well paced, and the sequel bait...was there. It was fine. I mean, I will play part two...

Horizon is great, no doubt. Tsushima is better. Just sayin'.

[canedaddy]

Horizon is great, no doubt. Tsushima is better. Just sayin'.

[crimson_tide]

I KNOW, geez, I said I'd get to Tsushima and I'm sure I'll eat my crow when I get to it

Game Argyle Is Probably Right About But I Was Too Cowardly To Give An Honest Go And Ruin My Rose Tinted Memories:

Transformers Devestation



LOOK AT IT!!! I mean c'mon man...it's shallow. It's dumb. It ends on a bizarre, needless cliffhanger. But Megatron has a move wherein he grabs an Autobot by the head, drags their body along the ground, goes up with a windmill like he's going to dunk them and then proceed to unleash with his arm mounted cannon to the face! You take on flipping DEVESTATOR 1 on 1 and are expected to win. IN THE FIRST STAGE. It's just the best...but I also recall having every problem Argyle had with it and I can't bear to have this game not be as great as I remember. I had a blast, want the sequel I will never get and started this game dozens of times before I just had to let it go. I want so badly to play it but I know I won't enjoy it nearly as much as I did that first time. I might get the guts to do it one day but 2020 was not the time to test its greatness...in its stead I played my seventh favorite game of the year (my wife was perplexed as to why I would not shut up about this game, I was obsessed)...

7: Armored Warriors

In the year of just needing some comfort, I turned to the tried and true beat em up. Toward the beginning of the lockdown, I went through the whatever I was working through (Vesperia), finished it and then meandered much like I have been doing lately. Nothing was hitting right. I was in a weird place where not being in the building at work meant I was working anytime because I just couldn't turn it off (grading, helping kids via Zoom at all hours, planning, etc), my wife was working in her office nearly 24/7 trying to run a political campaign in a pandemic (which is like, hard), the bros had been here barely a month and trying to juggle them and work was a lot, and of course the rona was just having a field day with my family back in Jersey. I had a good work/home balance before and it was way off now. I got to feel real guilty real quick about everything. This lasted for a while. At some point, I just regressed all the back to things that were comfortable but I had no real attachment to, name fighters and beat em ups. They were fairly disposable and wholly interchangeable to me. I loved arcades as a kid and beat em ups and fighters were my jam. Colorful, big and loud characters, over the top and most importantly, quick to get through. So I went through all the ones once a day during the boys' nap time which I had set aside as my lunchtime. I played all the Streets of Rage, dabbled in some Dragon's Crown, whatever I could get my hand on. I found the Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle and went through those one week.

And that is when I found what was actually my game of the year until I sat down and actually though about it . Armored Warriors would have been my JAM had it existed in America when I was a kid. If you have not played this beast, next time this bundle goes on sale you NEED to buy it exclusively for this game. I always wanted a good Transformers game. And Devestation was that. This is a GREAT Transformers game. The gimmick of a standard brawler but you are in giant mechs doesn't stop there. You stomp around and crush soldiers dumb enough to shoot at you in your 30 foot mech with their pea shooters. Then come the bad mechs. And you don't just beat them, you RIP PARTS OFF OF THEM and graft them onto your mech which changes your moveset. There is a wide variety of attachments and moves available to your standard 4 brawler types (all around dude, heavy dude, fast/agile dude, and girl). Then there's guns which you can rip off enemies and attach to yourself as well. Missiles, beams, throwers...so much going on. It's a fascinating 45-60 minute play through. It's just flipping delightful! I played the hell out of this when I discovered it. I couldn't believe it existed, it made me so happy. I have played it on and off since and haven't hit those same highs as it did the first few runs, but man did this thing help get me through a funk. Here's a play through from Youtube, trust me the game is worth your time (I found a co op play through, I imagine it must be more fun with others ) :

[isthatallyougot]

I love P* so much, and I had a good time with Transformers, despite knowing next to nothing about the universe. I always thought it seemed stupid. (Don't @ me. ) Anyway. Platinum made me enjoy something that didn't resonate with me at all. All hail P*!

[crimson_tide]

See, that was like the perfect Platinum game for me! I tend to suck at them (I have never been the best a combos and twitch combat like that). Man, I really should give it another go...

But I digress! I will forgo a superfluous award for this one because #6 is a three way tie

6: TIE - Judgment, Yakuza 2 Kiwami, FOTN: Lost Paradise

So Ryu Go Gotoku is like my straight up favorite studio. They have their issues (I really need them to treat women like full people for one...but they get better every time!) but man, I will sit and go through whatever these people pump out. Let's get started:

Judgment



I had little hope for this one. I really thought I had been burnt out on Yakuza (HA!) and more Kamarucho with someone that wasn't Kazuma and not even the promise he would show up as the protagonist at some point (DOUBLE HA!) made me mad apathetic. I didn't even buy it, borrowed it from an old teacher friend.

I was a fool. From that opening, I was super bought in. I still think the protag was fine. He was fine. However, I got him and was invested in his story from jump street. If he never showed up again, whatever. But he did really great in this story. He's no Kiriyu, but that's a good thing. I loved his bromance with his bro (who I liked WAY more) and the central mystery was never not intriguing. Speaking of mystery, the trailing missions, drone surveillance, and search/interrogation bits were fun but definitely should have been more of a focus. Homeboy fought A LOT. It was kinda ridiculous. Kazuma kinda made sense but ex lawyer turned PI having to throw down this much and the in universe explanation for his Akiyama style kung fu skills was too much. I wish they had done something like the protag did the detective stuff and his boy did the fighting but again, RGG does the thing they do and don't really push too far outside that. Good stuff, worth your time if you like Kamarucho as a setting and don't want more of Kazuma.

Yakuza Kiwami 2



Ok. Let me level with you: this continues to be low tier Yakuza for me (as in it's A tier with Kiwami 1 and Yakuza 3 and the others are S...the only B tier Yakuza is Dead Souls. We don't talk about Dead Souls). It has THE Yakuza substory that put Yakuza on the map, there's the tiger fight, the pagoda, the Jingweon...there's a lot to love. There's a whole lot to love. I should like it more but even in the remake it still feels...off. Like they went too big and didn't know how to finish it. The revised bits are ok, I like adding the hostess club from 0 into this one when you are in Sotenbori. Probably could have added more Pocket Racer dude and that whole thing as well, it would have made sense (it was in Kiwami 1). It looks amazing, that soundtrack still slaps and the upgrade system is solid (especially now that I am playing 3 again where the upgrade system...sure does exist in that game...it's right there...). They swung for the fences and got an infield home run. It's good, very good, still lands with me and I could play through it again. It just could have still been better. Wish I could put my finger on what the issue is, I have never been able to verbalize it. I played this less than a month after Judgment mostly because I still couldn't get enough of Kamarucho.

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise



YATA YATA YATA!!!! Fist of the North Star. But it's Yakuza. Like...man, come on how did everyone just give this a hard pass? This was the best of the straight up action/adventure/RPG RGG games I played this year. This was right after Origins where I was Kazuma except Egyptian and now I was Kazuma except Kenshiro. I had no idea that Kenshiro and his general demeanor maps so well on to Kazuma. The reason this is the best one I played is they kinda just lost their minds. They made a fan game and released it as an actual product. The story is all over the place, people who were dead aren't with little to no explanation but nobody cared (or they shouldn't have) because it worked for the game and presented some cool things you could never get away with in Yakuza proper. I loved the jeep and dicking around with that. The fact that Kenshiro approaches helping people with their any and every problem without question and it just works. Out of left field substories are everywhere. The minigames are just amazing (the girder baseball using motorcycle punks as the balls is almost as good as Hulk UD's soldier homerun derby...almost). Being a bartender to get substories as Kenshiro, ridiculous. The story is whatever but they do some fun stuff and RGG deserve some credit for pulling this off at all. This should have been a disaster but they buy into it. There's so much...you beat people with words you rip out of the air as they die and use it like a girder. There's crazy Kenshiro 'You're Already Dead' pressure point stuff you can pull off almost on demand. There's a hostess minigame!...it's fine. Not my favorite. Weird tweaks from 0 that make it less fun. But this whole ass game demands your attention. I will cop to it probably going on a couple chapters too long and having a weird opening where you don't get to the Yakuza style substory stuff until chapter 5 but still give this game a chance. Oh did I mention you can just BE KAZUMA if you need to just have him murder fools for once (Kenshiro and Kazuma have the same voice actor, it's odd)?



Yeah, they are all three of the same basic game but I sure did enjoy playing them...if only RGG would try something different for once ...

[isthatallyougot]

I always thought Fist of the North Star looked like a blast and that I would enjoy it. I have Ken's Rage in my PS3 backlog. One day I'll have to dive in.

[argyle]

I always thought Fist of the North Star looked like a blast and that I would enjoy it. I have Ken's Rage in my PS3 backlog. One day I'll have to dive in.

Ken's Rage is a Warriors-style game, and as a fan of those games I can tell you...it's not good. It was even made by Omega Force, but it still feels like a knock-off of their good games. I'd say after this game, all of their "side project" games (One Piece, Dragon Quest, Hyrule Warriors, etc.) just knocked it out of the park. And bizarrely the main series Dynasty Warriors games started taking a turn for the worse.

Anyway, I digress. Bottom line, don't take crim's praise for Lost Paradise as a reason to play Ken's Rage - completely different studios & different style games.

[isthatallyougot]

I always thought Fist of the North Star looked like a blast and that I would enjoy it. I have Ken's Rage in my PS3 backlog. One day I'll have to dive in.

Ken's Rage is a Warriors-style game, and as a fan of those games I can tell you...it's not good. It was even made by Omega Force, but it still feels like a knock-off of their good games. I'd say after this game, all of their "side project" games (One Piece, Dragon Quest, Hyrule Warriors, etc.) just knocked it out of the park. And bizarrely the main series Dynasty Warriors games started taking a turn for the worse.

Anyway, I digress. Bottom line, don't take crim's praise for Lost Paradise as a reason to play Ken's Rage - completely different studios & different style games.

Ok, thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind. That stinks.

[crimson_tide]

Oh yes izzy, Ken's Rage and its sequel are not...good. Definitely not good Musou style representations. Fist of the North Star as a whole is still baller and I love it but to be perfectly honest, the only game I ever loved from the license is Lost Paradise. They really nailed the tone and tenor of the license and paired it with the Yakuza model in a solid fashion. The special moves are just so well implemented. It really is a special game. It's a greatest hits title (somehow) so if you don't mind a digital version, it goes on sale for $10 every so often.

Now onward with The Games I Gave the Most Chances I Finally Had To Admit Just Are Never Going to Jive With Me:

FF9

I really want to love this one. I really, truly do. The music is so good, it looks amazing. I actually really dig Kuja and the theatrics. And then I just bounce off every time. I don't like getting the abilities from equipment I have to keep wearing to master, feel restrictive. I don't like the mingames. I just needed to realize it's not for me and move on.

FF12

This was apparently not a good year to be an FF that I haven't finished but tried to given the pandemic and having the time. I love so much about FF12. I hate the combat. I now can see what it is that I don't like about it because (oh my God Argyle, I am so sorry) I played Xenoblade. I would have hated The Last Story too but they gave me the option to have direct control or just position with auto attack. I HATE AUTO ATTACK! It is a mechanic I cannot get behind. This whole waiting for cool downs and being in position (I don't even think you have to worry about position in FF12), it's just not engaging for me. I just zone out and become immediately bored. The other thing that FF12 had going for it was the Gambit and Licenses but having to buy everything is a drag. I don't mind setting the gambits but it got to be time consuming even looking at a few guides. I made it about 30 hours in and unlocked the second job class thinking that would rekindle my interest by mixing and matching but it just meant more babysitting. Ugh...shame, I remember liking this a bunch more back in the day.

Star Ocean 4

I don't know why I bought this. The battle system is too complex for how actively stupid this game is. Feyt Leingod is a lot for a name so now they went with Edge Maverick? Geez...I really don't like this game but I keep buying it...

ALL SAO GAMES

...like these games. I have never even seen SAO. But every time these games go on sale for like $10-15, I buy it. And every single time, I bounce off. They aren't well made and apparently devolve eventually into super softcore waifu dating sims (there's literally a mechanic called pillow talk where you lie in bed with the girls. That's it.) and there are so many visual novel scenes. Fatal Bullet has like over an hour of these before you have to meet the ENTIRE SAO CAST in one character's room and they introduce themselves and their backstory one by one. I never know where to go or what to do since I don't play MMOs and they sim MMOs but have terrible tutorials given how much they talk. I'm not buying these anymore. I swear...seriously, God as my witness..

Nier Automata

I don't get it. I am never not lost in this game. I LOVE the combat (more Platinum izzy!) but the getting around is ugh. I find it awkward. Like PS2 awkward with the invisible walls. I also hate the when you die, you have to get back to your body thing. Dark Souls ain't my jam (I am so sorry izzy!) and I don't like when it shows up elsewhere. I find it frustrating. Easy is more for combat and so it still doesn't solve the knowing where to go thing. Looks great. Sounds great. Great combat. I just don't like it no matter how hard I tried. After 2 years, I gave up and deleted it.

Now we have the number 5 pick...oh my god, it's a tie!!!

5: Tales of Vesperia and South Park The Fractured But Whole

Tales of Vesperia:

SON, BALLER ASS HATS!!! I gave this another go after bouncing off it in summer 2019. I have no idea why I stopped, I ADORED this game. I am teaming this up with South Park because the end goal was inconsequential for both. But I loved getting to those nothing endings. It was nice that this was a series of vignettes, like some kind of series of tales, that meandered and was mostly about a misunderstanding than anything. But that doesn't matter. The dynamic between Yuri and Flynn and Yuri's super straightforward, not at all nuanced but entirely relatable arc was stellar. They went places with that character and I appreciated it. The fact that Yuri and Estelle had an entirely platonic relationship that didn't have unrequited love or have love triangle nonsense was so, so welcome. We need more of that, men and women can coexist without having the need to bone each other and just be friends. The various character beats rang true to what was presented and was consistent. That battle system was stellar and simple (Rita kinda breaks it though...sis was a BIT overpowered). And those costumes. I had so much fun playing dress up. I think early lockdown fever got to me and It was just something silly and fun to do. Who knew I was this much into fashion? I cannot say enough good things about this game. I came out what 13 years ago and still looks, sounds and plays amazingly well. Hell, they had the same basic system as FF9 with taking skills from gear but it didn't feel nearly as restrictive here because grinding wasn't a grind. I really, really loved this game and if you haven't tried it, Vesperia is well worth the time and effort. Not for the payoff, it's not the point. I could barely coherently tell you what the point from a plot standpoint was if I tried (the environment? I think? Maybe?). But the journey is so well done. It really is about the friends you make along the way with this one.

South Park:

Another one I bounced off and came back to. I want to say I bought it, then a week later Kingdom Heart Re:Mind hit, the bros were here so I definitely couldn't play in front of them and then I forgot it existed. I dusted it off as it's one of the few physical PS4 games I own and gave it a go after beating Like a Dragon. I proceeded to laugh my ass off for the next 25 or so hours. I really shouldn't have bounced off this game. Like Vesperia, the capital P Plot is wholly unimportant. It's just a vehicle to get you from ridiculous scenario to ridiculous scenario. The battle system takes a minute to adjust to but is really, really solid. The pacing is great and they dole out new powers fairly regularly and allow you to mix and match (and the vehicle of revising the origin of your character each time is hilarious). You get new party members regularly, side quests are implemented well (except for one...) and there is exactly one battle where they got a little too ambitious. Other than the small quibbles, this one really works, especially as a follow up to Stick of Truth (which it ties into surprisingly well). While the capital P Plot and ending are really stupid, that's the point. Have fun with the game a couple hours at a time, see what nuttiness they throw at you next and then move on. I highly recommend it. Not only is it a more about the journey than destination like Vesperia, there are so many clothing options!

[isthatallyougot]

Oh yes izzy, Ken's Rage and its sequel are not...good. Definitely not good Musou style representations. 0

I don't get it. I am never not lost in this game. I LOVE the combat (more Platinum izzy!) but the getting around is ugh. I find it awkward. Like PS2 awkward with the invisible walls. I also hate the when you die, you have to get back to your body thing. Dark Souls ain't my jam (I am so sorry izzy!) and I don't like when it shows up elsewhere. I find it frustrating. Easy is more for combat and so it still doesn't solve the knowing where to go thing. Looks great. Sounds great. Great combat. I just don't like it no matter how hard I tried. After 2 years, I gave up and deleted it.

Well, I'll throw Ken's Rage out.

And I get it with Dark Souls. You have to be a special kind of masochist to enjoy it.