Back from vacation, so it's time to finally do my write up for my games beaten in 2019! It was a bit of a huge year outside of games for me, with getting a teaching job in Japan and moving out here in March, but even with that I manged to beat more games than I have in any year since I've been tallying them up here on Racketboy (the previous high was 70). I guess I have a lot more free time as a teacher who barely leaves the house than I did as a full time student who would go and hang out with friends from time to time
I played a lot more retro games this year than I have the past couple years (certainly compared to last year). Also a lot more repeats than previous years, that's for sure. I guess that's likely a combo of getting addicted to playing through games I know well in English but now in Japanese, and those games being easy/cheap to find between the resale stores in my city and my access to the Wii U Virtual Console. Then all the repeats are also due in at least part to just wanting some comfort food gaming because moving was a bit stressful ^^;. Regardless, the comparisons of Japanese and English versions (at least in regards to my memory) was something I really enjoyed and I hope I can do at least a few more in this new year ^w^
Anyway, now down onto my highlights. I didn't really play many games that actually came out in 2019, so these are just gonna be my favorite/least favorite games I played this year, regardless of their release date.
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Favorite Games (in no particular order)~
Shin Gundam Musou: Flake talks about this game a lot (the English version anyhow) in the Slack chat, and I really enjoyed the first Dynasty Warriors Gundam so I've been meaning to try this out for ages, and what a great use of 800 yen it was. One of the very few PS3 games I've ever put the time into to earn the platinum trophy on, this one absolutely devoured my attention with a combination of how mindless and fun the giant robot bashing is. I didn't really pay attention to much of the "What If" stories, as this was definitely a comfort food kind of game that I got pretty close to when I moved out here and I wasn't really in the mood to look up tons of words to understand a story I couldn't really appreciate, but I still really enjoyed my time with this game. Not quite Hyrule Warriors, but easily one of the best Musou games ever made (and it even got me to watch Turn-A Gundam, which I also really enjoyed ^w^).
Final Fantasy VI: It'd been a while since I played this game, and playing it in Japanese was really neat at first, but then I realized just how long it's been since I played this and just how much better than I remembered it actually was to play. Getting a deeper than ever understanding and respect for the story and characters, particularly the villain (although I think that's down to being an adult who's better at analyzing the media they consume, more than it has anything to do with playing the original text of the game) made this one of my favorite experiences of the year for sure. This is also the winner of "favorite repeat" out of the games I replayed this year, I suppose.
Paper Mario: Color Splash: A game I'd had for ages and even brought to Japan with me because I meant to play it, on a streamer's recommendation I finally got to playing this game and I'm so glad I did. A welcome improvement on Sticker Star's combat and some of the funniest writing I've seen in a game, I was grinning ear to ear the whole time playing this thing (well, except for all the swearing during the rock-paper-scissors tournaments I suppose :b). I really hope this gets a Switch port someday, because this was really chained down by the stigma of its predecessor (and being released in the twilight years of an unpopular console), and I think it really deserves a second chance ^w^
The Outer Worlds: I got my Xbone at the perfect time to pick up Game Pass and play this really close to launch, and I devoured it. Bringing back tons of memories of an old favorite, Fallout: New Vegas, but with suuuuch welcome modern quality of life improvements. I know very well that some folks didn't care for it, but I adored the story, especially the character writing. To have an asexual major character in a AAA released game, especially one written so well, was just so awesome to see on top of everything else. Not my favorite game I played this year, but it came damn close.
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Honorable Mentions: Blazing Chrome, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga & Bowser's Minions, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Recore: Definitive Edition, Steamworld Dig 2
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Game of the Year: God of War (2018). Leave it to Sony to have made the best OoT-style game ever. Great combat, beautiful world, engaging and well-paced story. This game just has it all and it keeps coming. This lived up to and leaped clear over the hype for me. A new entry for my all-time favorites list, god damn I have no idea how they're gonna follow this up, but if it's even close to this good I'll be happy.
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Least Liked Games~
Final Fantasy IV: This will take the top spot for "least liked repeat game" (edging out Mario Party 3). Several friends of mine talk up 4 as one of the better ones but I absolutely do not see it. Granted I was playing the much clumsier Super Famicom original rather than the streamlined SNES port, this game was still such a let down it's easily on this list. I'm not gonna go into it again, as I already did on the actual review, but just how shallow the story is still gets to me on top of just how much of a mechanical step down it is compared to FF3 (even just on QoI features, totally ignoring the differences between the job systems).
Tiny Barbarian DX: This game is close to fun, but falls deeeeep into a "far too aggravating to be fun" trap that it never escapes from. Especially in the more recently released 3rd and 4th chapters, there are SO many pixel-perfect jumps, annoying enemy placements, and grueling combat gauntlets combined with not quite precise enough controls that this game is a miserable time. It may have some nice animation, but god damn is it not worth it once you really get into the gameplay parts.
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon: Another game I know has its defenders, especially on this site, but I just cannot see the appeal like they can. Clunky controls, a too big and too barren castle, underwhelming or just outright cheap boss fights (that final Dracula fight is one of the worst in the series I swear). I would say that the card system is fun, but the cards are so well hidden that I barely even got to use them because I wasn't lucky enough to find them. I'm really glad that Castlevania moved away from this idea of what their Metroid-like games could be, because this is far at the bottom of the barrel of Metroidvanias in my book.
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Honorable Mentions: Snake Pass, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story & Bowser Jr.'s Journey, Shantae: Risky's Revenge
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Least Liked Game of the Year: Corpse Party. Anyone who read the review I wrote for this very likely saw this one coming (the longest one of these reviews I've ever written, coming in at just over 3000 words). A decent horror story buried under a mountain of clunky controls, perverse serialization, and crude localization choices, I don't think Corpse Party will be a game I will ever forget for just how much I disliked playing it. I certainly realize that there are games who do the things this one does but worse, and I don't care because I see those as nothing but garbage for the same reasons. Sexualization of minors is a horrifically commonplace problem in the anime industry, and while I'm certainly not going to conquer that issue myself, I very much hope that Corpse Party is the last of that I ever have to be exposed to personally.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me