Lets start things off with an ineligible list of the 10 best old games from this year, because whether theyre official digital releases or fancy remasters, theres nothing better than old games. Also, shout out to
Mega Man Legacy Collection for getting curation right (even though silence on the needed patch is inexcusable) and
Rare Replay for an alternate model (even as someone who actively dislikes Rare games, the package is astounding).
TEN:
Twinkle Star Sprites (PC, Humble)
NINE:
The Last Blade (PC, Humble)
EIGHT:
Megaman Legends (PSN)
SEVEN:
System Shock (PC, GOG)
SIX:
RE Make HD (PSN)
FIVE:
Majoras Mask 3D (3DS)
FOUR:
Gunstar Heroes 3D (3DS)
THREE:
Grim Fandango Remastered (PSN)
TWO:
EarthBound Beginnings; (Wii U) God it hurts to type that title, which is so 2015-sounding its painful. Mother became one of my favorite Famicom RPGs by not only impressively setting up the template for Earthbound, but also achieving its own beautiful somber atmosphere, with certain story beats that I found to be legitimately moving.
This song is absolutely incredible.
ONE:
Outrun 3D; (3DS) When you read a post or thinkpiece about Outrun, the prose will often become downright theatrical. What is it about this game that drives people to lyrical excess? I had to stop myself from typing out the sentence Outrun teaches us what it means to be human seriously wtf? The truth is that all it takes to inspire such emotion is Blue Skies, the charm of a carefree couple on the road, a picaresque journey across the globe in five minutes, and three of the best songs that have ever been composed for a videogame (Im a Splash Wave man myself). Im not even going to bother making the case from a score-chasing perspective since todays content tourists dont care, aesthetics and that nebulous gamefeel make this a DRIVING game that even non-racing fans should adore. If you want to dig deep you can drown yourself in this wonderful exhaustingly detailed four part interview on
Sega Blog wherein you will see photographic proof of M2 taking the time to painstakingly record pedal and environmental sounds from real cabinets in order to improve the simulation for 3DS. The highest class of videogame developer in both technique and artistry mastering a 30 year old classic for you, this is the kind of game that will fill you with the urge to give Yu Suzuki money, Outrun is videogame perfection.
And now heres another list of ten good games, the longer write-ups re-use content and pics I posted throughout the year, please enjoy. (also shouts to a buncha ports I didnt get to, namely:
D4, Divinity Original Sin: Enhanced Edition, 80 Days, Trails in the Sky 2, Little Battlers Experience, Fantavision, Tearaway Unfolded, and also
Yarn Yoshi).
10.
Boxboy; this probably doesnt even belong on the list but this game compelled me to finish everything, including post-game content, so it must have been doing something right. If the music wasnt awful and the final exam had come earlier this could have been great!
9.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse; the gated level design and slower Kirby speed was a real disappointment and learning how to play without looking at the Gamepad is a steeper learning curve than needed. But it might be the best looking videogame ever made so
8.
Kings Quest: Episode 1; kind of a frictionless babygame when it comes to puzzles, didnt really remind me much of the particular older games in the series Id played, but fantastic warm comedic writing, nice looking forests and some A+ vocal performances.
7.
Yo-Kai Watch: Ive always loved yokai (spoilers for my number 1 pick!), I love monster fusion, and Ive been a Level-5 handheld game apologist for years. This game would have had to really shit the bed to not end up on my list. The dialogue and the main dudes portrait art is understated and great!
6.
A-Train 3D: City Simulator; Does Cities: Skyline have an optional eight hour tutorial that will lead you down straight up insane paths of micromanagement? No? I didnt think so. (note, I dont actually know anything about Cities: Skyline)
5.
Oh, Deer!; If you managed to get through that earlier over the top paean to Outrun, this games placement will make sense, since
Oh, Deer! is Brandon Sheffield from Insert Credits loving tribute to Outrun (particularly, the drifting of Outrun 2). Released for 49 cents for a 4 week period on the Playstation Mobile store before it was shut down this year, you probably cant even buy this game any more (although maybe
this link still works if you use your Vita browser?) and since it doesnt seem like publishers are interested in making a complete version you will probably never get to play it. But this is a game that deserves to be remembered. It feels great to play, it features gorgeous authentic sprite scaling, and the hook of a morality system where either avoiding or running over deer changes the scoring and the music (and in the planned future version, the environment) is a compelling contribution. The music is the first lead soundtrack by Streets of Rage 3 composer Motohiro Kawashima in 20 years and its one of the best soundtracks of the year, you can listen to him performing a live mix of it
here.
4.
Bloodborne; I like the way the bosses look.
3.
Undertale; There are so many ways it could have gone wrong but ignore the obnoxious fans (see also the game above), this game was great. Some things I didnt like were the designed to be ambiguous but nevertheless atrocious main character sprite, occasional ugly programmer-art environments, characters that varied wildly in design and animation quality (although I was generally very fond of the black and white monster visuals), and some of the reference-based jokes that relied on intimate familiarity and respect for modern day anime. But any misfires pass so quickly you barely even recall them amidst a steady series of absolutely excellently constructed jokes. There are punchlines, premises, and scenarios here that are designed to actually make you laugh out loud and not just nod in recognition like so many other videogames, this kind of thing is CRAZY tough to nail and deserves to be recognized.
Thematically the game touches very closely on Moon Remix RPG Adventure as I understand it (this is based on hazy recollections of that giant rambly years old GAF thread), with some very neat conceptual gimmicks that are extended logically to well-considered conclusions. The games developer has also said his goal was to build upon the Megami Tensei negotiation system, and by limiting battles to a series of almost bespoke game encounters, he succeeded. Instead of traditional SMT binary questioning, the negotiation options in Undertale most closely resemble the (superior) system from Revelations: Persona, where you select repeatedly from multiple seemingly random actions to influence the monsters mood, puzzling out the choices you think will best fit the monsters personality, and learn through reactions and background knowledge what works best before reaching a success state that allows you to end the encounter without fighting. I never got tired of this. Abstracting enemy emotional states mid-negotiation into clever Cave-like bullet patterns on top of that is basically just the game dev styling on everyone. I cant believe this game all came from mostly one dude.
Anyways, here are two out of context jokes I remembered to capture, I laughed a lot
(Spoilerz???)
2.
Legend of Legacy; As far as I can tell, basically the only people who stuck with this game and loved it all the way through are me, 1 other poster in the OT, and Christian Nutt. Normally I'm good at recognizing the flaws in games I like but everyone kept on talking about how miserably repetitive the game loop was and I honestly don't know what to say. I dont think its just my peculiarities this time either, I actually think Unlimited SaGa is one of the worst games there is. Is it possible that I just somehow lucked into an unusually addictive and natural-feeling skill unlock progression scheme, unlike the ton of folks who complained about a tedious grind? Yeah, there is certainly a stretch in the game where everything looks the same, there was no budget for enemy variety, and yes all you do in the game is fill out maps and return to town. But most of the maps are dense with environmental variation: small gimmicks like spikes, poison trees, freezing ice, mirages, burning torches, F.O.E.s to avoid or engage, and even some late game endurance trials that reminded me of SMT dungeons when it comes to resource depletion (those spikes!). And with each map sold, the changing townsfolk dialogue was something I looked forward to, with all these neat little details on warring kingdoms, trade federations, churches, elementals and god-people to fill your imagination and expand the world scope.
I loved the game resonance of randomly but steadily unlocking not only skills and equipment, but also maps and story. I loved the lack of yammering dialogue portraits. I loved the pop up aesthetics, the gorgeous music, the impeccable localization, and the challenge. I loved the frog. It's too bad everyone hated this game, and maybe I was helped by rock bottom expectations, but this is a great little RPG and it's nice that I've been able to find so many nostalgic but fresh RPGs to play in 2015. If you give it a shot, just remember to play as the frog, this is not optional.
1.
Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines; If theres another game that was played less than Legend of Legacy, its this one, which Sony dumped in a manner best described as contractual obligation in March. No one really knows what this game is, and the few reviewers who played it found the need to constantly try to compare Oreshika to other games, because weve all forgotten the time period when experimental marquis RPGs were the norm. The experience of the game is so fresh and one of a kind for those of us who never played the original PSX version that we dont know how to talk about it without contextualizing in some way others will find familiar. So you get a lot of things like:
This game is Okami! With its unbelievable ukiyo-e visuals, shamisen, taiko and bamboo flute filled music, oni enemies and folkloric story references. Or, this game is Persona 3! With its time and calendar management, tendency to guide party members rather than directly control them, the same kind of roguelike-like fatigue elements that prevent you from grinding endlessly in dungeons, and a traditional Megaten fusion system with mythologically inspired gods and goddesses. Or, this game is SaGa! With its secret arts learned suddenly in battle from under the hood stat gains, an HP/LP analogue with Stamina and Vigor, and a less awful version of Unlimiteds reels.
The truth is this game has a lot of games in it but its very much its own thing, with its uniqueness in the current RPG landscape mirrored funnily enough by efforts to ensure a good deal of uniqueness and special one-time content in each playthrough. Theres a lot of attention to detail in places you expect and places you dont, from death quotes that are never repeated, to hidden pre-dungeon cutscenes for those that return to dungeons in odd order, to unique in-game heirloom weapon appearances, to dialogue from onigami that changes each time you beat them, to the weasel-girl familiar humming flower related songs in the spring when you leave the screen idle.
The main plot and virtually all of the games very repetitive pre-boss cutscenes unfortunately never really rise beyond the level of an anime TV show, but the background story elements of gods and demons traveling between the heavens and earth was pitched exactly at my sensibilities. Its basically impossible for me to avoid being engrossed in any game with such a loving focus on yokai, japanese festivals, Megaten-ish god fusion and demon parades, which Ive been fascinated by ever since I saw Pom Pokos famous parade sequence on VHS as a teenager.
Reading through the few reviews and threads that exist for this game really made me appreciate the almost staggering number of special activities that can occur. Ive heard of people who never competed in festivals or tournaments or betrothed/adopted outsiders or visited unique online player dungeons and lands (which all change each season!), but you can also run into restless spirits of former clan members in dungeons, have weapons cursed by specific demons who you need to seek out and destroy, have Nueko offer to sacrifice herself to give your younger dying clan members some extra months of life, and have parts of your city demolished by plagues, famines and hurricanes, none of which happened in my playthrough.
What it comes down to is that despite the games flaws (occasional repetitiveness, the potential for very bad luck in feast of all demons or key placement, overblown but still valid Nueko complaints, a Strange Journey-ish jerk of a last boss) theres something kind of wonderful about a PSX-era game like this being revived with substantial production values and released into the current RPG market. Its a game too many people will forget or overlook because it doesnt check the right boxes for todays RPG fan, but its something Im really happy to have played and will hopefully be remembered by the dozen or so folks who experienced it.
ALSO THIS GAME IS ON SALE UNTIL TUESDAY FOR FIVE OR TEN FREAKING DOLLARS, JUST GET IT ALREADY -> https://store.playstation.com/#!/en...ines/cid=UP9000-PCSA00155_00-ORESHIKA2EUUS000
Thats it, The End.
