Board 8 > Para's top 100 games of the decade, 2010-2019

Topic List	Page List: 1 ... 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Paratroopa1 01/20/20 8:14:56 PM #301:	KamikazePotato posted... When I was making my 'Favorite Stories in Fiction' topic, someone asked me if I'd played Night in the Woods. I said no, but that I'd heard good things, but was also hesitant to try it because of the effect it might have on my mental state. They then told me 'yeah don't play NitW'. I don't think I've ever seen a game where its most ardent supporters warn people not to play it. Yeah, I don't really know what more to add. It isn't for everyone, and i think that anyone who really loved the game and absorbed its messages and themes would intuitively get that. It's a little bit of a shame, because honestly a lot of the game is really silly and feel-good, but yeah the heavy stuff is weighty. I don't know - all I can say is that not every game is everyone's cup of tea just because I loved it, but it is my personal list <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933244928] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>KamikazePotato posted... </cite> <quote>When I was making my 'Favorite Stories in Fiction' topic, someone asked me if I'd played Night in the Woods. I said no, but that I'd heard good things, but was also hesitant to try it because of the effect it might have on my mental state. They then told me 'yeah don't play NitW'. I don't think I've ever seen a game where its most ardent supporters warn people not to play it.</quote>Yeah, I don't really know what more to add. It isn't for everyone, and i think that anyone who really loved the game and absorbed its messages and themes would intuitively get that. It's a little bit of a shame, because honestly a lot of the game is really silly and feel-good, but yeah the heavy stuff is weighty. I don't know - all I can say is that not every game is everyone's cup of tea just because I loved it, but it is my personal list </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 5:05:05 AM #302:	Top ten time! Finally getting to the end of this list. This is really getting into the good shit now, these are all like all-time favorites from here on out. #10 Years of release: 2016 (3DS), 2017 (Mobile) Beaten?: Yes It's staggering to think that, as the previous decade closed out, I thought that the Ace Attorney series might really be done for. AA4 was a really disappointing follow-up to the trilogy of games I loved so much, and AAI1 - well it came out in 2010 but never mind that - didn't exactly recapture the glory days. AA5 got us back to respectability, but it still never really quite hit the highs that the first three games did. After it came out, I was like "oh, Ace Attorney is pretty good again," but it hadn't quite hit that level of, oh we're BACK, yet. So my expectations for the next Ace Attorney were... let's say subdued. I wanted to play it, but I wasn't waiting on pins and needles for it. My anticipation level was moderate. I wasn't really expecting a whole lot. Maybe it's just because my expectations were low, but holy crap, it delivered. I feel like there isn't much for me to go into detail about here. You guys all know Ace Attorney. I don't need to describe Ace Attorney to you. And I feel like getting into the nitty gritty here of why this game ranks so highly for me would be better saved for like, a ranking all the cases in Ace Attorney topic or something (which I wanted to do but then I waited too long and now I don't remember the cases well enough to do it lol). A few things I can say - first, this game takes a risk and it delivers. Lacking for new challenges for Phoenix to face, it takes him to a new land with new laws, and this worked out really well, putting him back in an underdog role that would have been hard for him to find otherwise. The setting and the new characters it brings are all great. Second, the divination seance mechanic was a major game changer for me - it was such a new and unique way to present mysteries in this game, and every case that featured them was way better off for it. The way each one of them manages to trick you and reveal surprising new details was just ingeniously constructed. They're a small part of the game, but really added something when they were used. And third, the final case of this game just really hit that peak again - the high points of the original trilogy that the series had yet to reach again after that point, it hit them here. I didn't think it was possible; I didn't think they could pull it off or that there would be any story they could tell that would do it justice. But holy shit, they did it. I think that's all I need to say about AA6. To be honest, it was good enough that if they never make another Ace Attorney game after this, I think I could be at peace with that. I THINK that we will get an Ace Attorney 7 one of these days, maybe somewhat soon, but it's hard to know for sure - it's a bit hard for me to imagine where the series goes from here, but I've thought that before, and they found a way to make it work, so they can pull it off again, I'm sure. AA6's DLC case does evoke a bit of a feeling of a victory lap - there's a sense of the idea that they know they can't keep doing this forever. With any luck we'll get some more Ace Attorney adventures, though. But if we don't, I'll be glad that they went out on a high note, climbing back to the peak that they reached in the first three games. I couldn't ask for more. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933261571] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Top ten time! Finally getting to the end of this list. This is really getting into the good shit now, these are all like all-time favorites from here on out. #10 Years of release: 2016 (3DS), 2017 (Mobile) Beaten?: Yes It's staggering to think that, as the previous decade closed out, I thought that the Ace Attorney series might really be done for. AA4 was a really disappointing follow-up to the trilogy of games I loved so much, and AAI1 - well it came out in 2010 but never mind that - didn't exactly recapture the glory days. AA5 got us back to respectability, but it still never really quite hit the highs that the first three games did. After it came out, I was like "oh, Ace Attorney is pretty good again," but it hadn't quite hit that level of, oh we're BACK, yet. So my expectations for the next Ace Attorney were... let's say subdued. I wanted to play it, but I wasn't waiting on pins and needles for it. My anticipation level was moderate. I wasn't really expecting a whole lot. Maybe it's just because my expectations were low, but holy crap, it delivered. I feel like there isn't much for me to go into detail about here. You guys all know Ace Attorney. I don't need to describe Ace Attorney to you. And I feel like getting into the nitty gritty here of why this game ranks so highly for me would be better saved for like, a ranking all the cases in Ace Attorney topic or something (which I wanted to do but then I waited too long and now I don't remember the cases well enough to do it lol). A few things I can say - first, this game takes a risk and it delivers. Lacking for new challenges for Phoenix to face, it takes him to a new land with new laws, and this worked out really well, putting him back in an underdog role that would have been hard for him to find otherwise. The setting and the new characters it brings are all great. Second, the divination seance mechanic was a major game changer for me - it was such a new and unique way to present mysteries in this game, and every case that featured them was way better off for it. The way each one of them manages to trick you and reveal surprising new details was just ingeniously constructed. They're a small part of the game, but really added something when they were used. And third, the final case of this game just really hit that peak again - the high points of the original trilogy that the series had yet to reach again after that point, it hit them here. I didn't think it was possible; I didn't think they could pull it off or that there would be any story they could tell that would do it justice. But holy shit, they did it. I think that's all I need to say about AA6. To be honest, it was good enough that if they never make another Ace Attorney game after this, I think I could be at peace with that. I THINK that we will get an Ace Attorney 7 one of these days, maybe somewhat soon, but it's hard to know for sure - it's a bit hard for me to imagine where the series goes from here, but I've thought that before, and they found a way to make it work, so they can pull it off again, I'm sure. AA6's DLC case does evoke a bit of a feeling of a victory lap - there's a sense of the idea that they know they can't keep doing this forever. With any luck we'll get some more Ace Attorney adventures, though. But if we don't, I'll be glad that they went out on a high note, climbing back to the peak that they reached in the first three games. I couldn't ask for more. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 5:30:23 AM #303:	#9 Years of release: 2012 (PC), 2014 (Advanced Edition) Beaten?: With almost every ship on hard mode You know, it's funny - it's been so long with this one, I don't even remember the origin story. I feel like, this deep on the list, I should have some sort of personal details to relate about my experiences with the game. But for FTL, I can't even tell you when I first learned about it, why I decided to buy it, what my first playthrough was like. All those details are just missing, and I don't know why. FTL just feels like it's always been there for me, somehow. I have a measly 592 hours on this one compared to Slay The Spire's 1,144, which feels paltry by comparison, but I think I spent roughly the same amount of quality time with FTL as I did Slay The Spire, and it's my 4th most played game on Steam. (#2 is Team Fortress 2. #3 is... later.) FTL wins out by a hair for me, I guess, because something about the gameplay just feels a bit more satisfying. Having a spaceship with all these little crew members I can direct around, upgrading my systems and buying new weapons, being excited to see if I get any nice rewards on the next jump. Even though, after playing a game for hundreds of hours, you tend to exhaust all the possible things that can happen, FTL doles out its most interesting rewards rarely enough that it can be really exciting to go on another run and see if you'll get a really cool setup. At the same time, it gives you rewards that are good enough often enough that you never feel like any of your runs are totally screwed because of it. (I know that I've seen people complain about not getting enough weapons before, but you really need to be aggressive about routing to shops and looking for them in stores - it helps a lot.) I think I remember why I don't remember my origin story with this game now - I think that originally I didn't actually like it that much. I think that before Advanced Edition came out, and before hard mode came out, the final boss was a little too simple to figure out and the total possibilities for your ship loadouts not quite interesting enough. Advanced Edition didn't add THAT much, but what it added was just enough to completely open up this game anew to me, somehow, with its new subsystems (Hacking is totally broken but hey) and its new ship layouts and its new weapons and events and all that, as well as hard mode. You know how I said that roguelikes live two lives, one in the first 50 hours of the game and one after the first 50 hours? The first 50 hours of FTL for me were surprisingly mediocre, but what I wasn't expecting was how this game would blossom for me after the first 50 hours. I don't really know what happened - I just got hooked on this game even I'd been at it for a while. I really wanted to master hard mode and complete it with every ship. I really wanted to do everything this game had to offer. This game does still have some flaws. For one, I think some of the ship designs are super cumbersome and require a great deal of luck to get off the ground, and sometimes winning fights with them can take an excessive amount of time as you need to wait ages for certain systems to recharge or for health to recover as you painfully micromanage fights. There's some waiting in this game that feels unnecessary at times, but I give it a pass - it's all part of this game's surprisingly emergent gameplay, where fires and ship breaches can hit you from multiple angles when you're also fighting a ship at the same time, and there starts to get to be a lot of stuff to manage, and even after a fight's over you still have to spend time repairing the ship. It's one of the most well-tuned roguelikes I've ever played - there's just so many different ways to win, so many different tools that will get the job done, and every run has an interesting story to tell, which is the biggest thing that I think sets this one apart. Every run has the potential for some funny situation or some kind of war story that I've never seen before, and that keeps me coming back. I'm sort of done with this game now but I still keep coming back to it every once in a while when I want something relatively easy to play - Into The Breach by the same dev has filled this role a little bit lately but it can't touch FTL. This game has some really good mods for it too - I really enjoyed FTL: Captain's Edition, which changes just about everything in the game, events, weapons, whatever, but also adds some surprising new mechanics that take the game in some neat directions. That mod alone added a whole bunch more value to this game for me, and it was worth pointing out though I wouldn't rank it separately or anything. I don't have any big points to end on. FTL is just really good and one of the definitive play-this-over-and-over again experiences of the decade. I'll keep coming back to it for a long time, probably. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933261901] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>#9 Years of release: 2012 (PC), 2014 (Advanced Edition) Beaten?: With almost every ship on hard mode You know, it's funny - it's been so long with this one, I don't even remember the origin story. I feel like, this deep on the list, I should have some sort of personal details to relate about my experiences with the game. But for FTL, I can't even tell you when I first learned about it, why I decided to buy it, what my first playthrough was like. All those details are just missing, and I don't know why. FTL just feels like it's always been there for me, somehow. I have a measly 592 hours on this one compared to Slay The Spire's 1,144, which feels paltry by comparison, but I think I spent roughly the same amount of quality time with FTL as I did Slay The Spire, and it's my 4th most played game on Steam. (#2 is Team Fortress 2. #3 is... later.) FTL wins out by a hair for me, I guess, because something about the gameplay just feels a bit more satisfying. Having a spaceship with all these little crew members I can direct around, upgrading my systems and buying new weapons, being excited to see if I get any nice rewards on the next jump. Even though, after playing a game for hundreds of hours, you tend to exhaust all the possible things that can happen, FTL doles out its most interesting rewards rarely enough that it can be really exciting to go on another run and see if you'll get a really cool setup. At the same time, it gives you rewards that are good enough often enough that you never feel like any of your runs are totally screwed because of it. (I know that I've seen people complain about not getting enough weapons before, but you really need to be aggressive about routing to shops and looking for them in stores - it helps a lot.) I think I remember why I don't remember my origin story with this game now - I think that originally I didn't actually like it that much. I think that before Advanced Edition came out, and before hard mode came out, the final boss was a little too simple to figure out and the total possibilities for your ship loadouts not quite interesting enough. Advanced Edition didn't add THAT much, but what it added was just enough to completely open up this game anew to me, somehow, with its new subsystems (Hacking is totally broken but hey) and its new ship layouts and its new weapons and events and all that, as well as hard mode. You know how I said that roguelikes live two lives, one in the first 50 hours of the game and one after the first 50 hours? The first 50 hours of FTL for me were surprisingly mediocre, but what I wasn't expecting was how this game would blossom for me after the first 50 hours. I don't really know what happened - I just got hooked on this game even I'd been at it for a while. I really wanted to master hard mode and complete it with every ship. I really wanted to do everything this game had to offer. This game does still have some flaws. For one, I think some of the ship designs are super cumbersome and require a great deal of luck to get off the ground, and sometimes winning fights with them can take an excessive amount of time as you need to wait ages for certain systems to recharge or for health to recover as you painfully micromanage fights. There's some waiting in this game that feels unnecessary at times, but I give it a pass - it's all part of this game's surprisingly emergent gameplay, where fires and ship breaches can hit you from multiple angles when you're also fighting a ship at the same time, and there starts to get to be a lot of stuff to manage, and even after a fight's over you still have to spend time repairing the ship. It's one of the most well-tuned roguelikes I've ever played - there's just so many different ways to win, so many different tools that will get the job done, and every run has an interesting story to tell, which is the biggest thing that I think sets this one apart. Every run has the potential for some funny situation or some kind of war story that I've never seen before, and that keeps me coming back. I'm sort of done with this game now but I still keep coming back to it every once in a while when I want something relatively easy to play - Into The Breach by the same dev has filled this role a little bit lately but it can't touch FTL. This game has some really good mods for it too - I really enjoyed FTL: Captain's Edition, which changes just about everything in the game, events, weapons, whatever, but also adds some surprising new mechanics that take the game in some neat directions. That mod alone added a whole bunch more value to this game for me, and it was worth pointing out though I wouldn't rank it separately or anything. I don't have any big points to end on. FTL is just really good and one of the definitive play-this-over-and-over again experiences of the decade. I'll keep coming back to it for a long time, probably. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 6:22:22 AM #304:	Finished Bug Fables and I think my ranking for it is just about right. As a Paper Mario pastiche it's quite good and gets a lot of things right, especially in the gameplay and character designs, but it doesn't quite go all the way on some things. The plot is very bog standard even by Paper Mario's standards which is a bit disappointing and while it's very wholesome and cute I think it could have done a bit more to be unpredictable or bizarre like Paper Mario is, introducing more weird scenarios and situations and all that. It has its moments but some stretches of the game are a little too unremarkable and run of the mill and the final chapter wasn't as interesting as I was hoping it would be. But, the battle system's great, the characters are a sheer delight (this is an aspect where it outdoes PM), and the game does a really nice job in most regards. That's my final word on it I think. Remains a pretty strong recommend from me but with tempered expectations - it's more of a 'personal pick' than a 'I think everyone needs to play this game' kind of pick. If you're a big Paper Mario fan then it's probably a must play. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933262712] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Finished Bug Fables and I think my ranking for it is just about right. As a Paper Mario pastiche it's quite good and gets a lot of things right, especially in the gameplay and character designs, but it doesn't quite go all the way on some things. The plot is very bog standard even by Paper Mario's standards which is a bit disappointing and while it's very wholesome and cute I think it could have done a bit more to be unpredictable or bizarre like Paper Mario is, introducing more weird scenarios and situations and all that. It has its moments but some stretches of the game are a little too unremarkable and run of the mill and the final chapter wasn't as interesting as I was hoping it would be. But, the battle system's great, the characters are a sheer delight (this is an aspect where it outdoes PM), and the game does a really nice job in most regards. That's my final word on it I think. Remains a pretty strong recommend from me but with tempered expectations - it's more of a 'personal pick' than a 'I think everyone needs to play this game' kind of pick. If you're a big Paper Mario fan then it's probably a must play. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
SeabassDebeste 01/21/20 11:16:24 AM #305:	big ups to AA6. to me, it's literally all about ~~6-3 (to some extent) and 6-5~~. AA5 is much more consistent and has arguably higher average quality, but AA6 hits at a stronger level. i loved the N64 paper mario and was content with the gamecube one. dunno that i have time for bug fables - how many hours would you say it is? --- yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness <cite>SeabassDebeste posted [p:933270349] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>big ups to AA6. to me, it's literally all about 6-3 (to some extent) and 6-5. AA5 is much more consistent and has arguably higher average quality, but AA6 hits at a stronger level. i loved the N64 paper mario and was content with the gamecube one. dunno that i have time for bug fables - how many hours would you say it is?</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Nelson_Mandela 01/21/20 3:38:10 PM #306:	FTL is probably the consensus best digital-only game ever at this point, right? --- "A more mature answer than I expected."~ Jakyl25 "Sephy's point is right."~ Inviso <cite>Nelson_Mandela posted [p:933281593] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>FTL is probably the consensus best digital-only game ever at this point, right? </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
ChaosTonyV4 01/21/20 3:57:32 PM #307:	FTL is definitely one of my favorite games of all time. I screwed up big time and deleted my save trying to get a mod to work, losing my stats and leaderboards, which really bummed me out. --- Phantom Dust. "I'll just wait for time to prove me right again." - Vlado <cite>ChaosTonyV4 posted [p:933282461] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>FTL is definitely one of my favorite games of all time. I screwed up big time and deleted my save trying to get a mod to work, losing my stats and leaderboards, which really bummed me out. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Nelson_Mandela 01/21/20 4:03:02 PM #308:	ChaosTonyV4 posted... I screwed up big time and deleted my save trying to get a mod to work, losing my stats and leaderboards, which really bummed me out. I have nightmares about this. Happened to me once with a 100+ SO2 file and I've never been able to restart it --- "A more mature answer than I expected."~ Jakyl25 "Sephy's point is right."~ Inviso <cite>Nelson_Mandela posted [p:933282720] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>ChaosTonyV4 posted... </cite> <quote>I screwed up big time and deleted my save trying to get a mod to work, losing my stats and leaderboards, which really bummed me out.</quote>I have nightmares about this. Happened to me once with a 100+ SO2 file and I've never been able to restart it </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Mac Arrowny 01/21/20 5:22:17 PM #309:	I own FTL. Have thought about playing it a couple times. --- All the stars in the sky are waiting for you. <cite>Mac Arrowny posted [p:933286572] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>I own FTL. Have thought about playing it a couple times.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
LeonhartFour 01/21/20 5:23:13 PM #310:	Spirit of Justice is really good. I prefer DD just because it's more consistently high quality, but 6-5 is excellent. --- http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/080/145/638.png https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq <cite>LeonhartFour posted [p:933286617] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Spirit of Justice is really good. I prefer DD just because it's more consistently high quality, but 6-5 is excellent. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
ChaosTonyV4 01/21/20 5:33:46 PM #311:	Mac Arrowny posted... I own FTL. Have thought about playing it a couple times. Clear your schedule and do it. Disable the extended content until you beat it at least once. --- Phantom Dust. "I'll just wait for time to prove me right again." - Vlado <cite>ChaosTonyV4 posted [p:933287147] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Mac Arrowny posted... </cite> <quote>I own FTL. Have thought about playing it a couple times.</quote> Clear your schedule and do it. Disable the extended content until you beat it at least once. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 8:05:52 PM #312:	Bug Fables is probably 25-40 hours depending on your level of quest completionism and how much time you spend stopping to smell the roses by reading extra dialog and stuff; my playthrough is at 40 hours with only a little bit of postgame content left to do (there isn't a lot of postgame stuff but there are a couple of very notable things) and I don't imagine you would take much longer than that. It's a reasonably meaty game but not excessively long. I don't know if it's appointment gaming, so your call, but I do recommend it. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933294168] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Bug Fables is probably 25-40 hours depending on your level of quest completionism and how much time you spend stopping to smell the roses by reading extra dialog and stuff; my playthrough is at 40 hours with only a little bit of postgame content left to do (there isn't a lot of postgame stuff but there are a couple of very notable things) and I don't imagine you would take much longer than that. It's a reasonably meaty game but not excessively long. I don't know if it's appointment gaming, so your call, but I do recommend it. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 8:06:28 PM #313:	LeonhartFour posted... Spirit of Justice is really good. I prefer DD just because it's more consistently high quality, but 6-5 is excellent. Spoilers for my future case ranking: I really liked 6-4. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933294202] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>LeonhartFour posted... </cite> <quote>Spirit of Justice is really good. I prefer DD just because it's more consistently high quality, but 6-5 is excellent.</quote>Spoilers for my future case ranking: I really liked 6-4. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
LeonhartFour 01/21/20 8:15:22 PM #314:	DD has 4 top 15 worthy cases to me. I also tend to like 5-4 more than most. I like the unique nature of it. --- http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/080/145/638.png https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq <cite>LeonhartFour posted [p:933294572] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>DD has 4 top 15 worthy cases to me. I also tend to like 5-4 more than most. I like the unique nature of it. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 8:17:01 PM #315:	I just don't rank AA5's finale very highly, so while I think VERY highly of 5-6 the game kind of feels like less than the sum of its parts because I don't think it sticks the landing. That's why it ends up in "this was quite good" territory instead of "holy shit that was awesome" territory. AA6 nailed the landing (but fucked up the DLC case, oh well) <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933294653] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>I just don't rank AA5's finale very highly, so while I think VERY highly of 5-6 the game kind of feels like less than the sum of its parts because I don't think it sticks the landing. That's why it ends up in "this was quite good" territory instead of "holy shit that was awesome" territory. AA6 nailed the landing (but fucked up the DLC case, oh well) </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
LeonhartFour 01/21/20 8:20:16 PM #316:	I really like 5-5. I think 6-5 is better, but 5-5 is really good, too. I think it might have overstayed its welcome a bit, but it has a lot of really strong moments interspersed throughout. --- http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/080/145/638.png https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq <cite>LeonhartFour posted [p:933294788] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>I really like 5-5. I think 6-5 is better, but 5-5 is really good, too. I think it might have overstayed its welcome a bit, but it has a lot of really strong moments interspersed throughout. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
KamikazePotato 01/21/20 8:23:35 PM #317:	5-5 underutilized its villain, the concept of which was really cool and should have been a much bigger part of the game as a whole. Other than that I thought it was really good. --- Black Turtle did a pretty good job. <cite>KamikazePotato posted [p:933294950] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>5-5 underutilized its villain, the concept of which was really cool and should have been a much bigger part of the game as a whole. Other than that I thought it was really good. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
LeonhartFour 01/21/20 8:24:09 PM #318:	Plus, I think Blackquill as an opponent (especially for Apollo) is just such a massive advantage over Nahyuta. Spirit of Justice is a game that succeeds in spite of itself sometimes because it has some noticeable shortcomings. --- http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/080/145/638.png https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq <cite>LeonhartFour posted [p:933294976] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Plus, I think Blackquill as an opponent (especially for Apollo) is just such a massive advantage over Nahyuta. Spirit of Justice is a game that succeeds in spite of itself sometimes because it has some noticeable shortcomings. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 8:25:26 PM #319:	Blackquill is my favorite character in the series so AA5 does have that going <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933295054] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Blackquill is my favorite character in the series so AA5 does have that going </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
LeonhartFour 01/21/20 8:27:01 PM #320:	He's so good. I can see you really liking 6-4 if he's your favorite character because he carries that case. He even makes Nahyuta look good at times, and that's no small task! --- http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/080/145/638.png https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq <cite>LeonhartFour posted [p:933295125] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>He's so good. I can see you really liking 6-4 if he's your favorite character because he carries that case. He even makes Nahyuta look good at times, and that's no small task! </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
KamikazePotato 01/21/20 8:27:46 PM #321:	Blackquill is okay. Honestly every prosecutor is living in the shadows of Edgeworth and Von Karma. First game really knocked that out of the park. --- Black Turtle did a pretty good job. <cite>KamikazePotato posted [p:933295165] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Blackquill is okay. Honestly every prosecutor is living in the shadows of Edgeworth and Von Karma. First game really knocked that out of the park. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
MrSmartGuy 01/21/20 8:28:08 PM #322:	I had forgotten what topic I was in; thought I was in Anagram's topic and I was like UHHHHH GUYS????? --- Xbox GT/PSN name/Nintendo ID: TatteredUniform http://www.scuffletown.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/tRBE1.gif <cite>MrSmartGuy posted [p:933295180] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>I had forgotten what topic I was in; thought I was in Anagram's topic and I was like UHHHHH GUYS????? </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 8:28:44 PM #323:	Fortunately there are no more AA games on my list so no chance for this topic to derail again <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933295215] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Fortunately there are no more AA games on my list so no chance for this topic to derail again </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
LeonhartFour 01/21/20 8:31:16 PM #324:	well I doubt I'll be able to talk about many of the games that are left so I have to go for it! --- http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/080/145/638.png https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq <cite>LeonhartFour posted [p:933295321] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>well I doubt I'll be able to talk about many of the games that are left so I have to go for it! </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 8:31:50 PM #325:	I actually don't mind I just think it's funny that this topic could briefly be confused for the anagram topic <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933295351] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>I actually don't mind I just think it's funny that this topic could briefly be confused for the anagram topic </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
TsunamiXXVIII 01/21/20 9:15:29 PM #326:	Won't be quoting everything for obvious reasons. Paratroopa1 posted... Zelda 1 Randomizer, Zelda 2 Randomizer, Pokemon Randomizer, Super Mario Bros 3 Randomizer, etc. Realistically speaking, Zelda 1 Randomizer might well be my favorite gaming experience of the decade, or at least really close. The 10's have been the decade of the randomizer, starting with Pokemon Randomizer somewhere around 2011 I think? The whole concept of taking these old games and shuffling all of the data in them to generate new levels and to put every enemy and item in a brand new location has completely breathed new life into a ton of games that I have loved for years, turning each game into its own little roguelike of sorts - having to learn each seed as you go, exploring and experimenting, testing your abilities on the fly in brand new situations that never existed in the original game. I'm someone who doesn't really enjoy speedrunning games where it becomes about really rote memorization and super-precise optimization of every little thing, so randomizers have been big for me, as I specialize in general knowledge, on-the-fly planning, and figuring out what to do in new situations. Zelda 1 Randomizer has in particular really been an addiction for me though, as the levels lend themselves so well to being rearranged and feeling like a new experience every game, and I've made a little bit of a name for myself speedrunning it. I think the randomizer communities will only continue to grow as the randomizers themselves get more robust and awesome, and I look forward to playing them into the 2020's. I kept them off the list because, well, they aren't really entirely new games, and there's something depressing about listing Zelda 1 Randomizer as one of my favorite games of the decade when it's a thing that generates romhacks for a game from 1987. I have enough actually new games that I liked. Yeah, thanks again for introducing me to rando, and by extension, speedrunning. Hopefully I'll be on stage at a GDQ before long. Leonhart4 posted... ZTD was great, but it didn't quite deliver on what VLR built it up to do. Yeah, agreed. The ending was especially stupid, because it didn't even use the Schrodinger's Cat mechanics that the series had been using so frequently. I didn't realize VVVVVV was this decade. I thought it was older! Also, heck yeah, four birdfeeders here too. Three Houses does not have any animal-people, but it's still probably the best Fire Emblem game to have been released outside of Japan (still no Genealogy of the Holy War, though). Paratroopa1 posted... Before I continue, I just wanted to give a few quick hits for all of the games that I had seriously considered on this list but eventually cut. It's not a completely exhaustive list - if I sat here talking about every game I played this decade that I liked we'd be here all day. These are just the most notable ones. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver Nice, nice. I never played the original Devil Survivor, either. And HGSS was so good! FRLG was basically just RBY with the improved mechanics of Gen III and a little bit of bonus content in the postgame, but HGSS really improved upon GSC in the story department. Also, Voltorb Flip was my go-to time waster for years. Paratroopa1 posted... Where do I even start with it. Do I talk about the annoying characters that are impossible to take seriously or care about, who frequently have no impact on the plot? Do I talk about the writing that is more frequently cringe-worthy than it is funny, with awful anime cliches galore? Do I talk about the completely nonsense plot where nothing anyone does makes sense and barely wraps up competently? Do I talk about the frustrating minigames that do more to break up the action in a bad way than they do to provide variety? Do I talk about how disappointing most of the murder plots are compared to Ace Attorney? Do I talk about how much I hate Monokuma? Or... do I talk about the good? Do I talk about the great premise of people trapped in a place where they have to kill each other to escape, which hooked me immediately? Do I talk about the bright, almost psychadelic visuals and energetic soundtrack, which provide this game an undeniable sense of style? Do I talk about the wonderfully-delivered voice acting performances, which make said annoying characters tolerable and almost funny at times? Do I talk about the few times some of the characters really break through and make me interested in them, or the few times that the plot really had me hooked on finding out what the mystery was? Do I talk about how undeniably clever some of the murder plots are, occasionally even rivaling Ace Attorney in ingenuity? Do I talk about how, despite all of this game's bizarre flaws and frustrations, how I was hooked from beginning to end and wanted to see the story through no matter what, and how fun it is to play with a friend, laughing at all the game's funny shit and stupid shit alike, discussing the murder plots and coming up with crackpot theories for what's going to happen? You don't talk about it at all, of course. Yes I'm still salty about being ostracized on this board for allegedly giving spoilers to a pair of games I've never played. --- Also known as Cyberchao X. <cite>TsunamiXXVIII posted [p:933297346] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Won't be quoting everything for obvious reasons. Paratroopa1 posted... </cite> <quote>Zelda 1 Randomizer, Zelda 2 Randomizer, Pokemon Randomizer, Super Mario Bros 3 Randomizer, etc. Realistically speaking, Zelda 1 Randomizer might well be my favorite gaming experience of the decade, or at least really close. The 10's have been the decade of the randomizer, starting with Pokemon Randomizer somewhere around 2011 I think? The whole concept of taking these old games and shuffling all of the data in them to generate new levels and to put every enemy and item in a brand new location has completely breathed new life into a ton of games that I have loved for years, turning each game into its own little roguelike of sorts - having to learn each seed as you go, exploring and experimenting, testing your abilities on the fly in brand new situations that never existed in the original game. I'm someone who doesn't really enjoy speedrunning games where it becomes about really rote memorization and super-precise optimization of every little thing, so randomizers have been big for me, as I specialize in general knowledge, on-the-fly planning, and figuring out what to do in new situations. Zelda 1 Randomizer has in particular really been an addiction for me though, as the levels lend themselves so well to being rearranged and feeling like a new experience every game, and I've made a little bit of a name for myself speedrunning it. I think the randomizer communities will only continue to grow as the randomizers themselves get more robust and awesome, and I look forward to playing them into the 2020's. I kept them off the list because, well, they aren't really entirely new games, and there's something depressing about listing Zelda 1 Randomizer as one of my favorite games of the decade when it's a thing that generates romhacks for a game from 1987. I have enough actually new games that I liked.</quote> Yeah, thanks again for introducing me to rando, and by extension, speedrunning. Hopefully I'll be on stage at a GDQ before long. Leonhart4 posted... </cite> <quote>ZTD was great, but it didn't quite deliver on what VLR built it up to do.</quote> Yeah, agreed. The ending was especially stupid, because it didn't even use the Schrodinger's Cat mechanics that the series had been using so frequently. I didn't realize VVVVVV was this decade. I thought it was older! Also, heck yeah, four birdfeeders here too. Three Houses does not have any animal-people, but it's still probably the best Fire Emblem game to have been released outside of Japan (still no Genealogy of the Holy War, though). Paratroopa1 posted... </cite> <quote>Before I continue, I just wanted to give a few quick hits for all of the games that I had seriously considered on this list but eventually cut. It's not a completely exhaustive list - if I sat here talking about every game I played this decade that I liked we'd be here all day. These are just the most notable ones. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver</quote> Nice, nice. I never played the original Devil Survivor, either. And HGSS was so good! FRLG was basically just RBY with the improved mechanics of Gen III and a little bit of bonus content in the postgame, but HGSS really improved upon GSC in the story department. Also, Voltorb Flip was my go-to time waster for years. Paratroopa1 posted... </cite> <quote>Where do I even start with it. Do I talk about the annoying characters that are impossible to take seriously or care about, who frequently have no impact on the plot? Do I talk about the writing that is more frequently cringe-worthy than it is funny, with awful anime cliches galore? Do I talk about the completely nonsense plot where nothing anyone does makes sense and barely wraps up competently? Do I talk about the frustrating minigames that do more to break up the action in a bad way than they do to provide variety? Do I talk about how disappointing most of the murder plots are compared to Ace Attorney? Do I talk about how much I hate Monokuma? Or... do I talk about the good? Do I talk about the great premise of people trapped in a place where they have to kill each other to escape, which hooked me immediately? Do I talk about the bright, almost psychadelic visuals and energetic soundtrack, which provide this game an undeniable sense of style? Do I talk about the wonderfully-delivered voice acting performances, which make said annoying characters tolerable and almost funny at times? Do I talk about the few times some of the characters really break through and make me interested in them, or the few times that the plot really had me hooked on finding out what the mystery was? Do I talk about how undeniably clever some of the murder plots are, occasionally even rivaling Ace Attorney in ingenuity? Do I talk about how, despite all of this game's bizarre flaws and frustrations, how I was hooked from beginning to end and wanted to see the story through no matter what, and how fun it is to play with a friend, laughing at all the game's funny shit and stupid shit alike, discussing the murder plots and coming up with crackpot theories for what's going to happen?</quote> You don't talk about it at all, of course. Yes I'm still salty about being ostracized on this board for allegedly giving spoilers to a pair of games I've never played. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
TsunamiXXVIII 01/21/20 9:30:29 PM #327:	LeonhartFour posted... Virtue's Last Reward is so good. It's easily my favorite of the trilogy. I can't even talk much about it here because of spoilers, but yeah, it's like a less absurd Danganronpa. and heck yeah Zero Jr. was great He really was. I'm still partial to 999 over VLR, though. It's just so much crisper; VLR was where they started really expanding it and making it a crazy mindf**. 999 was insane, but it was a manageable* insane. --- Also known as Cyberchao X. <cite>TsunamiXXVIII posted [p:933298050] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>LeonhartFour posted... </cite> <quote>Virtue's Last Reward is so good. It's easily my favorite of the trilogy. I can't even talk much about it here because of spoilers, but yeah, it's like a less absurd Danganronpa. and heck yeah Zero Jr. was great</quote> He really was. I'm still partial to 999 over VLR, though. It's just so much crisper; VLR was where they started really expanding it and making it a crazy mindf***. 999 was insane, but it was a manageable insane. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
TsunamiXXVIII 01/21/20 9:32:44 PM #328:	Paratroopa1 posted... And one last honorable mention before I get to the top 10, one "game" that I had meant to mention somewhere, probably in the same post that I talked about randomizers, but I forgot, so I'll pay it tribute now: Honorable Mention Not really a game so much as an event; not really an event so much as a bizarre hallucination we all had for a couple of weeks back in 2014, but maybe one of the most important things to happen on the gaming part of the internet, ever. If you missed it, it's really one of those you-had-to-be-there things. Never seen anything like it, probably will never see anything like it again, but for the two weeks that this happened it was pretty much all I thought about. The idea of everyone controlling a game of Pokemon all at once is brilliant. Put into practice, it is beautiful, maddening chaos, so much that the rules had to be changed halfway through to allow for people to vote on which input to use to get through the more harrowing parts of the game. I got more suspense, more excitement out of watching this play out than I've ever gotten watching any TV show. And this did feel something like a TV show, waiting to find out what would happen in each new episode; would we beat the next gym, or would we get stuck on a narrow ledge for 12 hours? Would we catch a new Pokemon, or release all of the ones currently in our party? The constant thrill of not knowing what was going to happen next despite it in theory all being in our control was fascinating, and the fact that all you had to do was type inputs into a window to help participate made it all the more fascinating. I was there! I was there at sometime around Pewter City, all the way through the end. What a fascinating journey that gave us so many great stories and a wealth of memes so pervasive that even Jeopardy's twitter account invoked them when talking about its Pokemon category. You just had to be there. Some of the future TPP playthroughs were also great, but they've lost their edge since, since sadly the newer games are far too easy to control via the twitch plays method. But the original playthrough of TPP is legendary. It's not the best game released this decade, but it might be the most interesting game-related thing to happen. Yeah TPP is fun but everyone's gotten lazy with it now and I think most of the people want to just get the games over with so they can get back to playing PBR. --- Also known as Cyberchao X. <cite>TsunamiXXVIII posted [p:933298151] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Paratroopa1 posted... </cite> <quote>And one last honorable mention before I get to the top 10, one "game" that I had meant to mention somewhere, probably in the same post that I talked about randomizers, but I forgot, so I'll pay it tribute now: Honorable Mention Not really a game so much as an event; not really an event so much as a bizarre hallucination we all had for a couple of weeks back in 2014, but maybe one of the most important things to happen on the gaming part of the internet, ever. If you missed it, it's really one of those you-had-to-be-there things. Never seen anything like it, probably will never see anything like it again, but for the two weeks that this happened it was pretty much all I thought about. The idea of everyone controlling a game of Pokemon all at once is brilliant. Put into practice, it is beautiful, maddening chaos, so much that the rules had to be changed halfway through to allow for people to vote on which input to use to get through the more harrowing parts of the game. I got more suspense, more excitement out of watching this play out than I've ever gotten watching any TV show. And this did feel something like a TV show, waiting to find out what would happen in each new episode; would we beat the next gym, or would we get stuck on a narrow ledge for 12 hours? Would we catch a new Pokemon, or release all of the ones currently in our party? The constant thrill of not knowing what was going to happen next despite it in theory all being in our control was fascinating, and the fact that all you had to do was type inputs into a window to help participate made it all the more fascinating. I was there! I was there at sometime around Pewter City, all the way through the end. What a fascinating journey that gave us so many great stories and a wealth of memes so pervasive that even Jeopardy's twitter account invoked them when talking about its Pokemon category. You just had to be there. Some of the future TPP playthroughs were also great, but they've lost their edge since, since sadly the newer games are far too easy to control via the twitch plays method. But the original playthrough of TPP is legendary. It's not the best game released this decade, but it might be the most interesting game-related thing to happen.</quote> Yeah TPP is fun but everyone's gotten lazy with it now and I think most of the people want to just get the games over with so they can get back to playing PBR. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
LordoftheMorons 01/21/20 9:48:43 PM #329:	AA6: 6-4 is very underrated and 6-3 is somewhat overrated --- Congrats to Advokaiser for winning the CBX Guru Challenge! <cite>LordoftheMorons posted [p:933298926] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>AA6: 6-4 is very underrated and 6-3 is somewhat overrated </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Naye745 01/21/20 11:11:09 PM #330:	yeah while i still hold original pokemon crystal as my favorite pokemon game, heart gold/soul silver are (i think) legitimately the best pokemon games ever made. surprised they aren't on the list! --- it's an underwater adventure ride <cite>Naye745 posted [p:933302576] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>yeah while i still hold original pokemon crystal as my favorite pokemon game, heart gold/soul silver are (i think) legitimately the best pokemon games ever made. surprised they aren't on the list! </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 11:17:26 PM #331:	#8 Years of release: 2015-2016 (PC early access), 2016 (PC/PS4/Vita? there's a Vita port of this game? the fuck?), 2017 (iOS), 2018 (XB1/Switch), 2017-2018 (DLC) Beaten?: Completed a 100% run on Bloodmoon mode One of the things I've had a problem with in a lot of games, but especially RPGs, is a lack of the feeling of danger. I get a thrill out of knowing that death or failure would be a serious setback, if not an outright true game over like in the arcade days, and it heightens the feeling of adventure to me knowing that there is real risk into venturing forth. I remember getting this feeling first out of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, in which you have to make a rather long trek to get to new places, and venturing into a new cave brings with it the possibility that you might die and need to start over, which really brings an urgency to the gameplay that you don't find in games that don't have lives or continues. This is a big reason that I've gotten into the Roguelike genre so hard - death always matters at least a little bit, while you can always start up a new run pretty quick you never want to lose your old one, especially if you've gotten quite far into the game, and to me, that makes the games feel exciting. I say RPGs have a particular problem though for a few reasons. One, you can usually always save just before any dangerous boss fight, so there's no penalty for failure. This is NOT a bad thing, to be clear, it's probably the best way to design most games for most people, but it does come with a cost. Two, in most RPGs, if you're having trouble with a fight, you have the option to just go level up a bit more. Doesn't work in every game, but it works in most. Three, in most RPGs, you can either just spam healing items to win if you really need to, or you can find some sort of broken combo that will solve the fight if you look hard enough. This all isn't a bad thing, either, since it allows for an interesting, adjustable difficulty curve and puts a focus on hunting for the best strategies over working them out on the fly, but there is something missing, I think. Darkest Dungeon is not a game for everyone. I daresay it's barely a game for anyone - I'm genuinely surprised at how many people have played and enjoyed this game to any degree, because it's difficult, intense, unforgiving, and from my experiences most people are sort of lacking in the tactical acumen I think this game demands. It is so precisely up MY alley in its game mechanics, however, that I am willing to forgive, and eventually even indulge in and enjoy, the dark and brooding atmosphere and Lovecraftian aesthetics that I would normally shy far away from. It provides me all of the risk and danger and on-the-fly tactics that I desire so greatly and executes them with ~~impunity~~ precision. Darkest Dungeon is a bit of a roguelike-adjacent, in that the game is procedurally generated, the dungeons you enter having random encounters, the heroes you recruit having somewhat-random abilities and traits, and any of your characters dying is permanent. It is not a roguelike because instead of playing run after run of expendable heroes, this is a long and grueling campaign of at least 30 hours, in which you recruit many heroes over time, and while they may permanently die, the general state of affairs in the game continues, although on hard mode you can permanently game over, even quite late into the campaign, and have your save wiped. Not for the faint of heart. On normal mode, it's a bit more forgiving, since losing your heroes is a setback that you can endure - it's possible to get things to a state that's so bad and hard to dig out of that it's almost easier to reset the game, though. I did. I didn't mind. I could have played better. I learned from the experience. You form parties of four out of your heroes, who are all generic people from one of 15-17 different classes, on missions into dungeons, which are basically series of rooms and random battles that you must endure on your way to completing your objective. Survival is not easy, there are no healing items to endlessly chug when things get bad, and running from battles comes at a high price. You must manage both your characters' health as well as their sanity as they encounter horrors; this has a very Arkham Horror kind of vibe to it in that sense. It's quite a grind, as you level up your heroes and take on more tasks until eventually you are ready to storm the Darkest Dungeon itself, which absolutely lives up to the hype of how hard and scary it is. Darkest Dungeon is probably the most balanced game I've ever played, which is a high compliment. Every single class in this game is useful, although a couple are more essential than others (the healing Vestal and Occultist are must-haves; classes like Bounty Hunter and Abomination are a bit more niche). Every class has 7 different skills (this includes a basic attack) and you get to take 4 of them - I think there are only one or two skills in the ENTIRE GAME that I never found a meaningful use for, and I think both of them were significantly upgraded in the most recent patch. Everything else has its place. And not only is every skill in this game useable, so is nearly every party formation and every possible strategy. Despite the fact that this game is difficult, you can make almost anything work if you know when to use what. You probably don't want a party of four people of the same class in most cases (though there's a couple you could do it with), you want frontliners at the front and supports in the back (every class has skills they can only use from or against particular positions in the party order), but I've found myself with a fairly uneven bunch of heroes available to me for a given mission and still managed to cobble something together that worked. The breadth of options that this game gives you is really impressive. Yet, nothing is broken. There is no way to break this game wide open; you pretty much have to play by its terms. You can level up your heroes and give them equipment, but there is only so much you can do. Grinding will not save you. You need to be at the maximum level to even stand a chance at the endgame, anyway. Every battle winds up demanding. Enemies can deal huge critical blows at any time and any mistake you make can be very costly. It pays to know when to use what skill, to pay attention to enemy formations and coordinate your tactics accordingly - trying the same strategy against every enemy formation will not work in the long run, adaptability is crucial in a way that I don't see in most RPGs. The game plays out kind of similarly to a pen-and-paper RPG where you see the % odds of hits and <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933302813] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>#8 Years of release: 2015-2016 (PC early access), 2016 (PC/PS4/Vita? there's a Vita port of this game? the fuck?), 2017 (iOS), 2018 (XB1/Switch), 2017-2018 (DLC) Beaten?: Completed a 100% run on Bloodmoon mode One of the things I've had a problem with in a lot of games, but especially RPGs, is a lack of the feeling of danger. I get a thrill out of knowing that death or failure would be a serious setback, if not an outright true game over like in the arcade days, and it heightens the feeling of adventure to me knowing that there is real risk into venturing forth. I remember getting this feeling first out of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, in which you have to make a rather long trek to get to new places, and venturing into a new cave brings with it the possibility that you might die and need to start over, which really brings an urgency to the gameplay that you don't find in games that don't have lives or continues. This is a big reason that I've gotten into the Roguelike genre so hard - death always matters at least a little bit, while you can always start up a new run pretty quick you never want to lose your old one, especially if you've gotten quite far into the game, and to me, that makes the games feel exciting. I say RPGs have a particular problem though for a few reasons. One, you can usually always save just before any dangerous boss fight, so there's no penalty for failure. This is NOT a bad thing, to be clear, it's probably the best way to design most games for most people, but it does come with a cost. Two, in most RPGs, if you're having trouble with a fight, you have the option to just go level up a bit more. Doesn't work in every game, but it works in most. Three, in most RPGs, you can either just spam healing items to win if you really need to, or you can find some sort of broken combo that will solve the fight if you look hard enough. This all isn't a bad thing, either, since it allows for an interesting, adjustable difficulty curve and puts a focus on hunting for the best strategies over working them out on the fly, but there is something missing, I think. Darkest Dungeon is not a game for everyone. I daresay it's barely a game for anyone - I'm genuinely surprised at how many people have played and enjoyed this game to any degree, because it's difficult, intense, unforgiving, and from my experiences most people are sort of lacking in the tactical acumen I think this game demands. It is so precisely up MY alley in its game mechanics, however, that I am willing to forgive, and eventually even indulge in and enjoy, the dark and brooding atmosphere and Lovecraftian aesthetics that I would normally shy far away from. It provides me all of the risk and danger and on-the-fly tactics that I desire so greatly and executes them with ~~impunity~~ precision. Darkest Dungeon is a bit of a roguelike-adjacent, in that the game is procedurally generated, the dungeons you enter having random encounters, the heroes you recruit having somewhat-random abilities and traits, and any of your characters dying is permanent. It is not a roguelike because instead of playing run after run of expendable heroes, this is a long and grueling campaign of at least 30 hours, in which you recruit many heroes over time, and while they may permanently die, the general state of affairs in the game continues, although on hard mode you can permanently game over, even quite late into the campaign, and have your save wiped. Not for the faint of heart. On normal mode, it's a bit more forgiving, since losing your heroes is a setback that you can endure - it's possible to get things to a state that's so bad and hard to dig out of that it's almost easier to reset the game, though. I did. I didn't mind. I could have played better. I learned from the experience. You form parties of four out of your heroes, who are all generic people from one of 15-17 different classes, on missions into dungeons, which are basically series of rooms and random battles that you must endure on your way to completing your objective. Survival is not easy, there are no healing items to endlessly chug when things get bad, and running from battles comes at a high price. You must manage both your characters' health as well as their sanity as they encounter horrors; this has a very Arkham Horror kind of vibe to it in that sense. It's quite a grind, as you level up your heroes and take on more tasks until eventually you are ready to storm the Darkest Dungeon itself, which absolutely lives up to the hype of how hard and scary it is. Darkest Dungeon is probably the most balanced game I've ever played, which is a high compliment. Every single class in this game is useful, although a couple are more essential than others (the healing Vestal and Occultist are must-haves; classes like Bounty Hunter and Abomination are a bit more niche). Every class has 7 different skills (this includes a basic attack) and you get to take 4 of them - I think there are only one or two skills in the ENTIRE GAME that I never found a meaningful use for, and I think both of them were significantly upgraded in the most recent patch. Everything else has its place. And not only is every skill in this game useable, so is nearly every party formation and every possible strategy. Despite the fact that this game is difficult, you can make almost anything work if you know when to use what. You probably don't want a party of four people of the same class in most cases (though there's a couple you could do it with), you want frontliners at the front and supports in the back (every class has skills they can only use from or against particular positions in the party order), but I've found myself with a fairly uneven bunch of heroes available to me for a given mission and still managed to cobble something together that worked. The breadth of options that this game gives you is really impressive. Yet, nothing is broken. There is no way to break this game wide open; you pretty much have to play by its terms. You can level up your heroes and give them equipment, but there is only so much you can do. Grinding will not save you. You need to be at the maximum level to even stand a chance at the endgame, anyway. Every battle winds up demanding. Enemies can deal huge critical blows at any time and any mistake you make can be very costly. It pays to know when to use what skill, to pay attention to enemy formations and coordinate your tactics accordingly - trying the same strategy against every enemy formation will not work in the long run, adaptability is crucial in a way that I don't see in most RPGs. The game plays out kind of similarly to a pen-and-paper RPG where you see the % odds of hits and </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 11:17:30 PM #332:	This game does get a little bit repetitive; there's a lot of grinding missions to get money and experience to be able to build your party high enough to be able to take on the game's harder missions, and dungeons themselves can have a lot more walking around than is really necessary, but I don't mind it too much. This is a prime "play this game while watching youtube videos or whatever" sort of game, pausing the video whenever I need to really think about a choice. As dramatic and unnerving as this game is there is also quite a bit of downtime to manage all your heroes and I do really like that feeling of gradually building up my party and my village with the money and trinkets brought back from missions, and it does appeal to that "numbers going up" sensibility that I have. The game's difficulty means that seeing the numbers go up REALLY matters, and that's what I love. The Crimson Court DLC added even more to this game, and it's hard as hell - this is a DLC I don't recommend to first time players, as all of its content is harder than anything in the base game and it just makes the game more crazy and stressful. But I loved it - I ended up doing a run of this game on Bloodmoon difficulty, the highest Crimson Court difficulty - you have to complete the campaign in 100 in-game weeks and with something like 13 or fewer deaths, or your save file just gets wiped - and completed it 100% before the time limit, which meant completing every quest and upgrading every building in town to the max, including monuments. I got it just in the nick of time, and planning it out and executing it was a huge challenge that I felt totally satisfied by at the end. This was a really rambling writeup, the game mechanics of this game get me more excited than almost any other game I've ever played. Like I said, it's not for everyone. It's dark and it's not fucking around and I feel like some people would just be stressed out by the whole endeavor, but I live for it. I'm probably done with Darkest Dungeon now but the sequel is coming, and I look forward to what they do with it - I'm sure they'll come up with some new interesting tweaks to the whole formula, which they'll need to, because I think Darkest Dungeon is very close to perfect as it is. It's expertly fine-tuned and meaty as hell. The sequel has a lot to live up to, but I look forward to including it on my next game of the decade list. This was my first writeup to go two posts long, oops. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933302814] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>This game does get a little bit repetitive; there's a lot of grinding missions to get money and experience to be able to build your party high enough to be able to take on the game's harder missions, and dungeons themselves can have a lot more walking around than is really necessary, but I don't mind it too much. This is a prime "play this game while watching youtube videos or whatever" sort of game, pausing the video whenever I need to really think about a choice. As dramatic and unnerving as this game is there is also quite a bit of downtime to manage all your heroes and I do really like that feeling of gradually building up my party and my village with the money and trinkets brought back from missions, and it does appeal to that "numbers going up" sensibility that I have. The game's difficulty means that seeing the numbers go up REALLY matters, and that's what I love. The Crimson Court DLC added even more to this game, and it's hard as hell - this is a DLC I don't recommend to first time players, as all of its content is harder than anything in the base game and it just makes the game more crazy and stressful. But I loved it - I ended up doing a run of this game on Bloodmoon difficulty, the highest Crimson Court difficulty - you have to complete the campaign in 100 in-game weeks and with something like 13 or fewer deaths, or your save file just gets wiped - and completed it 100% before the time limit, which meant completing every quest and upgrading every building in town to the max, including monuments. I got it just in the nick of time, and planning it out and executing it was a huge challenge that I felt totally satisfied by at the end. This was a really rambling writeup, the game mechanics of this game get me more excited than almost any other game I've ever played. Like I said, it's not for everyone. It's dark and it's not fucking around and I feel like some people would just be stressed out by the whole endeavor, but I live for it. I'm probably done with Darkest Dungeon now but the sequel is coming, and I look forward to what they do with it - I'm sure they'll come up with some new interesting tweaks to the whole formula, which they'll need to, because I think Darkest Dungeon is very close to perfect as it is. It's expertly fine-tuned and meaty as hell. The sequel has a lot to live up to, but I look forward to including it on my next game of the decade list. This was my first writeup to go two posts long, oops. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 11:20:09 PM #333:	Naye745 posted... yeah while i still hold original pokemon crystal as my favorite pokemon game, heart gold/soul silver are (i think) legitimately the best pokemon games ever made. surprised they aren't on the list! Yeah, I dunno. I already said my piece on it but I think Pokemon's novelty as a video game started to wear thin for me before the 2010's even began. I do agree that HGSS are really great which is why I gave them an honorable mention nod, and I put Sun/Moon on my list because I so adore gen 7's batch of Pokemon and world more than any other Pokemon game to date, plus it might be the most "complete" form of Pokemon that we ever get (although SwSh DLC may address that, it looks like). As much as I still love Pokemon as like, a franchise, or just a general idea, as video games they stopped holding my attention in the late 00's I think. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933302924] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Naye745 posted... </cite> <quote>yeah while i still hold original pokemon crystal as my favorite pokemon game, heart gold/soul silver are (i think) legitimately the best pokemon games ever made. surprised they aren't on the list!</quote>Yeah, I dunno. I already said my piece on it but I think Pokemon's novelty as a video game started to wear thin for me before the 2010's even began. I do agree that HGSS are really great which is why I gave them an honorable mention nod, and I put Sun/Moon on my list because I so adore gen 7's batch of Pokemon and world more than any other Pokemon game to date, plus it might be the most "complete" form of Pokemon that we ever get (although SwSh DLC may address that, it looks like). As much as I still love Pokemon as like, a franchise, or just a general idea, as video games they stopped holding my attention in the late 00's I think. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Naye745 01/21/20 11:29:35 PM #334:	yeah theres a bit of truth for that to me too, which is why i'm arguing for esentially a remastered/updated version of a game from 2000-2001 as the best ever lol --- it's an underwater adventure ride <cite>Naye745 posted [p:933303266] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>yeah theres a bit of truth for that to me too, which is why i'm arguing for esentially a remastered/updated version of a game from 2000-2001 as the best ever lol </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 11:51:37 PM #335:	#7 Years of release: 2010 (Wii/PS3/360), 2017 (PC, in MMLC2), 2018 (Switch, in MMLC2) Beaten?: Many times Mega Man has been, for a very long time now, one of my favorite gaming franchises, if not my favorite, and classic Mega Man in particular is my jam. I've been playing them since I was toddler-age - my mom was a young, hip, video-game playing mom back in the 90's, and she had an NES, and we played video games together all the time. One of our favorites was Mega Man 2. Most kids have a favorite Disney movie or something like that that their parents put on for them. For me, my mom would sit down with me and play Mega Man 2 for me almost every night, from start to finish, and I would follow along, learning every part of the game. By the time I was 4, I could start playing it a little bit myself; when I was 5, I was able to beat the entire game on my own, without my mom's help at all. Mega Man 2 was my video game equivalent of learning to walk; I learned to love both video games and music from playing it. It's one of my most formative experiences and to this day it's one of the most important games to me. All of the NES Mega Mans were a big deal; I beat them all before I was 8. I remember at the time that there was criticism over the fact that they just kept making a new Mega Man every year and that they all looked the same, but this didn't matter to me - I loved how many different games in the series there were. It was one of my favorites, so why would I not want Mega Man games every year in perpetuity for the rest of my life? Sadly, of course, an endless stream of Mega Man games was not to be - we got a couple more numeric MMs on the SNES and PS1 (which I didn't own) and otherwise the series moved onto the X spinoffs, which I never liked as much. I longed for the heyday of Mega Man gone by, and one of those fantasies I had in the back of my brain was how cool it would be if Capcom themselves ever decided to put out a brand-new NES-stylized Mega Man game. In the early 00's, there were people who were trying to do this sort of thing in flash and in some of the earliest ROMhacks but they were never very polished (not until Mega Man Unlimited in the early 10's, see earlier part of list), so it was clear to me that the market for this sort of thing existed, but I never imagined that Capcom would do it - but man, what if they did, though? So imagine my shock when the madmen did it and released Mega Man 9 in the late 00's, a perfect followup to the NES stylization of Mega Man 6, as if the past 15 years of development in gaming had never happened - a completely flawless return to the days of 2D sprites and 8-bit music. I said earlier that Cadence of Hyrule was one of the most amazing miracles, but I think Mega Man 9 shocked me even more. Putting out a retro game that didn't feature the latest innovations in graphics technology just wasn't a thing back then. It was unthinkable that anyone would make a new NES game on purpose. And yet, they did it. Mega Man 9 was great. What if those crazy fuckers did it AGAIN, though? 9 was nice, but it was probably a one time thing, right? Surely they wouldn't be doing a new one every year again. BAM, here's Mega Man 10. Mind blown again. I really liked MM9 but I adored MM10 to death. It's hard to explain - I know the general take on it is that 9 is the superior game, but I think 10 is just a little more polished and a little more interesting. 10 feels like a more finished product to me - I know this is a seemingly very small thing to harp on, but I never liked how MM9 reused music assets from Mega Man 2, it made it feel like it wasn't trying to have its own identity. 10 doesn't have this problem, making something completely new. It introduces a much-needed hard mode that I've always been hoping for in the series, and it delivers - the boss fights in hard mode are so much more challenging and involved than the boss fights anywhere else in the series. I like the level and boss designs more than 9, overall, and I loved how 10's Wily Castle ends on a big, dramatic reveal, whereas 9's it kind of an anticlimax. I love the music in 10 more, too. For a diehard fan of the Mega Man series like me, and Mega Man's music in particular, it was an unbelievably awesome treat to see nearly every previous Mega Man composer (2's Takeshi Tateishi nowhere to be found sadly) and have them each compose a track for each stage. I ended up going 8 for 8 on predicting who wrote which one - I've picked apart the franchise's music so thoroughly that I can recognize everyone's styles by this point, and they really stood out here. The fact that every song has a slightly different flavor to it was really fun and made it stand out as one of my favorite soundtracks in the series - and music is something that REALLY matters to me in a Mega Man game. Music is a thing that keeps me coming back to a lot of video games, but this one in particular. Bringing everyone back for one last go at the soundtrack as well as all the other references to older games in the series, like in the Weapons Archive boss fight and the DLC stages that have you face off against bosses from the game boy games, made Mega Man 10 feel like something of a swan song for the series. When I played it, I sort of got the sense that this might be sort of a farewell to the series, and the most magical thing that Mega Man 10 did for me was make me feel perfectly at ease with that. This is one of my favorite games in the series, and it delivered everything I wanted so well that I felt like I I would be okay if they never made another one of these things again. It's really difficult to put into words how great it is to receive closure on a beloved franchise like that, to be able to say goodbye to it and move on without feeling like there was untapped potential left unexplored. Mega Man 10 did the impossible; it made me feel at ease with the unavoidable march of time. Then Mega Man 11 came out 8 years later and eh, it was fine I guess <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933304099] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>#7 Years of release: 2010 (Wii/PS3/360), 2017 (PC, in MMLC2), 2018 (Switch, in MMLC2) Beaten?: Many times Mega Man has been, for a very long time now, one of my favorite gaming franchises, if not my favorite, and classic Mega Man in particular is my jam. I've been playing them since I was toddler-age - my mom was a young, hip, video-game playing mom back in the 90's, and she had an NES, and we played video games together all the time. One of our favorites was Mega Man 2. Most kids have a favorite Disney movie or something like that that their parents put on for them. For me, my mom would sit down with me and play Mega Man 2 for me almost every night, from start to finish, and I would follow along, learning every part of the game. By the time I was 4, I could start playing it a little bit myself; when I was 5, I was able to beat the entire game on my own, without my mom's help at all. Mega Man 2 was my video game equivalent of learning to walk; I learned to love both video games and music from playing it. It's one of my most formative experiences and to this day it's one of the most important games to me. All of the NES Mega Mans were a big deal; I beat them all before I was 8. I remember at the time that there was criticism over the fact that they just kept making a new Mega Man every year and that they all looked the same, but this didn't matter to me - I loved how many different games in the series there were. It was one of my favorites, so why would I not want Mega Man games every year in perpetuity for the rest of my life? Sadly, of course, an endless stream of Mega Man games was not to be - we got a couple more numeric MMs on the SNES and PS1 (which I didn't own) and otherwise the series moved onto the X spinoffs, which I never liked as much. I longed for the heyday of Mega Man gone by, and one of those fantasies I had in the back of my brain was how cool it would be if Capcom themselves ever decided to put out a brand-new NES-stylized Mega Man game. In the early 00's, there were people who were trying to do this sort of thing in flash and in some of the earliest ROMhacks but they were never very polished (not until Mega Man Unlimited in the early 10's, see earlier part of list), so it was clear to me that the market for this sort of thing existed, but I never imagined that Capcom would do it - but man, what if they did, though? So imagine my shock when the madmen did it and released Mega Man 9 in the late 00's, a perfect followup to the NES stylization of Mega Man 6, as if the past 15 years of development in gaming had never happened - a completely flawless return to the days of 2D sprites and 8-bit music. I said earlier that Cadence of Hyrule was one of the most amazing miracles, but I think Mega Man 9 shocked me even more. Putting out a retro game that didn't feature the latest innovations in graphics technology just wasn't a thing back then. It was unthinkable that anyone would make a new NES game on purpose. And yet, they did it. Mega Man 9 was great. What if those crazy fuckers did it AGAIN, though? 9 was nice, but it was probably a one time thing, right? Surely they wouldn't be doing a new one every year again. BAM, here's Mega Man 10. Mind blown again. I really liked MM9 but I adored MM10 to death. It's hard to explain - I know the general take on it is that 9 is the superior game, but I think 10 is just a little more polished and a little more interesting. 10 feels like a more finished product to me - I know this is a seemingly very small thing to harp on, but I never liked how MM9 reused music assets from Mega Man 2, it made it feel like it wasn't trying to have its own identity. 10 doesn't have this problem, making something completely new. It introduces a much-needed hard mode that I've always been hoping for in the series, and it delivers - the boss fights in hard mode are so much more challenging and involved than the boss fights anywhere else in the series. I like the level and boss designs more than 9, overall, and I loved how 10's Wily Castle ends on a big, dramatic reveal, whereas 9's it kind of an anticlimax. I love the music in 10 more, too. For a diehard fan of the Mega Man series like me, and Mega Man's music in particular, it was an unbelievably awesome treat to see nearly every previous Mega Man composer (2's Takeshi Tateishi nowhere to be found sadly) and have them each compose a track for each stage. I ended up going 8 for 8 on predicting who wrote which one - I've picked apart the franchise's music so thoroughly that I can recognize everyone's styles by this point, and they really stood out here. The fact that every song has a slightly different flavor to it was really fun and made it stand out as one of my favorite soundtracks in the series - and music is something that REALLY matters to me in a Mega Man game. Music is a thing that keeps me coming back to a lot of video games, but this one in particular. Bringing everyone back for one last go at the soundtrack as well as all the other references to older games in the series, like in the Weapons Archive boss fight and the DLC stages that have you face off against bosses from the game boy games, made Mega Man 10 feel like something of a swan song for the series. When I played it, I sort of got the sense that this might be sort of a farewell to the series, and the most magical thing that Mega Man 10 did for me was make me feel perfectly at ease with that. This is one of my favorite games in the series, and it delivered everything I wanted so well that I felt like I I would be okay if they never made another one of these things again. It's really difficult to put into words how great it is to receive closure on a beloved franchise like that, to be able to say goodbye to it and move on without feeling like there was untapped potential left unexplored. Mega Man 10 did the impossible; it made me feel at ease with the unavoidable march of time. Then Mega Man 11 came out 8 years later and eh, it was fine I guess </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/21/20 11:54:14 PM #336:	This decade of games was so good that a game that I thought was a perfectly executed swan song to one of my most beloved franchises ever is still somehow outranked by 6 games <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933304198] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>This decade of games was so good that a game that I thought was a perfectly executed swan song to one of my most beloved franchises ever is still somehow outranked by 6 games </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/22/20 1:02:44 AM #337:	If tiers are a thing you care about, then this is the last tier of games. Every game from here on out is something that I regard as a top-of-the-top masterpiece and was something that I seriously considered ranking as my #1 game of the decade. I feel confident about the order I chose to rank these games in but these are my absolute favorites and they're kind of the reason I wanted to make a list. Everything else up to this point was great but this is the Real Shit. #6 Years of release: 2018 (PC) Beaten?: Yes, pending epilogue content coming in 2020 Holy shit, guys, we really fucked up on this one. Well, okay, I didn't. But you guys have really screwed the pooch on this one by allowing CrossCode to be my hidden gem of the decade - my unequivocal top candidate for the most overlooked game in quite a long time. I don't want to overhype this game too much, but, well, given how much praise I've given to games ranked lower than this I guess the ship has already sailed on that, so let me tell you about CrossCode, my 2018 Game of the Year. Whereas Mega Man 10 envisions a world in which we never stopped making Mega Man games, CrossCode imagines a world in which we never stopped making SNES RPGs. Except, instead of going back to that time and recreating it as it was back then, this feels like a natural evolution; a game with 1995 sensibilities that could only have ever been made in the 2010's, with all the game dev tools and game design knowledge that we have today. This game takes Secret of Mana's gameplay and Phantasy Star's aesthetics and refines both to a sharp point, and the level of polish and the size of the game are really on another level. I can't believe I only ranked this game #6. The game takes place in the virtual MMORPG world of CrossWorlds, where people log into physical avatars that they play as in a physical game world, and you play as Lea, a main character who is both mute AND an amnesiac, and yet bucks every single cliche you'd expect on both fronts and is probably my favorite protagonist in an RPG to date for reasons I care not to spoil. Events unfold as you play through the game of CrossWorlds, making new online friends and looking for answers to Lea's mysterious past. The story starts out pretty simple and unobtrusive but suddenly kicks into high gear in the game's second half, and I found it pretty gripping and demanding to be seen to the end. The writing quality's a notch above most of its peers; jokes land, emotional beats are felt, and the cast of characters is one of the most deeply likeable I can think of in an RPG this side of, well, Bug Fables. The gameplay is like Secret of Mana meets a twin-stick shooter and while I've heard some people find it a bit overbearing, I found it to be absolutely perfect. Combat in this game is butter-smooth; Lea's melee and ranged attacks, as well as her dashes and guards, all feel perfectly intuitive and effective. Combat is fast and hits hard. The game fortunately has pretty forgiving difficulty sliders that you can turn down, which is good, because I think first time RPG players would find this game pretty tough. For me, it was just right - this game demanded exactly the right amount of timing, reflexes, and strategy that I want out of an action RPG. It also offers exactly the amount of character building and customization that I wanted - CrossCode has a very sphere grid-like system of upgrades with the ability to swap between several different layouts on the fly, and nearly all of Lea's special arts are useful and turn the tide of battle in a different way, allowing for a lot of different ways to approach combat. Tons of options here, none of which felt especially inferior to any other. Combat never got old for me in this game; both random encounters and boss fights demanded my attention, and one plot-relevant boss fight near the game's climax was so exhilirating and demanding my mastery of every single aspect of the game's combat that I think it might be my favorite boss fight in a video game ever? I'd have to really meditate on that but yeah I think it might be true. Again, I really hate to overhype this thing, but there's no getting around the fact that this game has my favorite RPG combat ever. I can't believe I only ranked this game #6. Even the visuals and the music are good! This game really has Nintendo levels of polish in every facet of its design that I just don't see in indie games very often. Sprites are colorful and lovingly animated, everything's easy on the eyes and pops off the screen in bright, beautiful hues, and enemy and boss designs are universally inspired and creative. The music takes a lot of cues from Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and Phantasy Star Online, and while I wouldn't call it quite as good as any of those three, it still have a really good sense of personality and panache that this style of game demands. I do have to warn you ahead of time that CROSSCODE IS ALSO SECRETLY A PUZZLE GAME. These aren't RPG puzzles for babies like you'd get out of Golden Sun or something - CrossCode has dungeons that are more like a Zelda game in their complexity, but I'd put the level of difficulty in their puzzles on something more like the level of Braid, or another medium-difficulty puzzler like that. Some puzzles in dungeons took me a good 15-30 minutes to figure out, which is good enough for me to call them serious headscratchers, and I think some people have gotten turned off this aspect of the game. I loved it though - the mix of combat and puzzles in this game is probably better realized than any other RPG I've played to date. I can't believe I only ranked this game #6. I do have a COUPLE of problems with this game. First of all, exploring areas can be a little too difficult for its own good sometimes, and it almost feels like a running joke that the devs had fun making areas increasingly complicated and annoying, with multiple layers of platforms that are very difficult to read as you're jumping across them, and item boxes in high places that you have no idea how to reach are common. This game also leans a little too hard into it's MMORPG premise at times with how much money and items you need to craft current-grade armor and weapons; a lot of the times I would find myself badly needing an armor upgrade, only to level myself out of needing it by the time I found all the necessary materials to make it. Armor upgrades can be a bit frustrating too as you end up losing combat modifiers that you really liked in order to get a stat increase. These are both minor complaints, but frustrating enough that I do suddenly remember why I ranked this game #6. I enjoyed this game so much, and was so ho <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933306302] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>If tiers are a thing you care about, then this is the last tier of games. Every game from here on out is something that I regard as a top-of-the-top masterpiece and was something that I seriously considered ranking as my #1 game of the decade. I feel confident about the order I chose to rank these games in but these are my absolute favorites and they're kind of the reason I wanted to make a list. Everything else up to this point was great but this is the Real Shit. #6 Years of release: 2018 (PC) Beaten?: Yes, pending epilogue content coming in 2020 Holy shit, guys, we really fucked up on this one. Well, okay, I didn't. But you guys have really screwed the pooch on this one by allowing CrossCode to be my hidden gem of the decade - my unequivocal top candidate for the most overlooked game in quite a long time. I don't want to overhype this game too much, but, well, given how much praise I've given to games ranked lower than this I guess the ship has already sailed on that, so let me tell you about CrossCode, my 2018 Game of the Year. Whereas Mega Man 10 envisions a world in which we never stopped making Mega Man games, CrossCode imagines a world in which we never stopped making SNES RPGs. Except, instead of going back to that time and recreating it as it was back then, this feels like a natural evolution; a game with 1995 sensibilities that could only have ever been made in the 2010's, with all the game dev tools and game design knowledge that we have today. This game takes Secret of Mana's gameplay and Phantasy Star's aesthetics and refines both to a sharp point, and the level of polish and the size of the game are really on another level. I can't believe I only ranked this game #6. The game takes place in the virtual MMORPG world of CrossWorlds, where people log into physical avatars that they play as in a physical game world, and you play as Lea, a main character who is both mute AND an amnesiac, and yet bucks every single cliche you'd expect on both fronts and is probably my favorite protagonist in an RPG to date for reasons I care not to spoil. Events unfold as you play through the game of CrossWorlds, making new online friends and looking for answers to Lea's mysterious past. The story starts out pretty simple and unobtrusive but suddenly kicks into high gear in the game's second half, and I found it pretty gripping and demanding to be seen to the end. The writing quality's a notch above most of its peers; jokes land, emotional beats are felt, and the cast of characters is one of the most deeply likeable I can think of in an RPG this side of, well, Bug Fables. The gameplay is like Secret of Mana meets a twin-stick shooter and while I've heard some people find it a bit overbearing, I found it to be absolutely perfect. Combat in this game is butter-smooth; Lea's melee and ranged attacks, as well as her dashes and guards, all feel perfectly intuitive and effective. Combat is fast and hits hard. The game fortunately has pretty forgiving difficulty sliders that you can turn down, which is good, because I think first time RPG players would find this game pretty tough. For me, it was just right - this game demanded exactly the right amount of timing, reflexes, and strategy that I want out of an action RPG. It also offers exactly the amount of character building and customization that I wanted - CrossCode has a very sphere grid-like system of upgrades with the ability to swap between several different layouts on the fly, and nearly all of Lea's special arts are useful and turn the tide of battle in a different way, allowing for a lot of different ways to approach combat. Tons of options here, none of which felt especially inferior to any other. Combat never got old for me in this game; both random encounters and boss fights demanded my attention, and one plot-relevant boss fight near the game's climax was so exhilirating and demanding my mastery of every single aspect of the game's combat that I think it might be my favorite boss fight in a video game ever? I'd have to really meditate on that but yeah I think it might be true. Again, I really hate to overhype this thing, but there's no getting around the fact that this game has my favorite RPG combat ever. I can't believe I only ranked this game #6. Even the visuals and the music are good! This game really has Nintendo levels of polish in every facet of its design that I just don't see in indie games very often. Sprites are colorful and lovingly animated, everything's easy on the eyes and pops off the screen in bright, beautiful hues, and enemy and boss designs are universally inspired and creative. The music takes a lot of cues from Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and Phantasy Star Online, and while I wouldn't call it quite as good as any of those three, it still have a really good sense of personality and panache that this style of game demands. I do have to warn you ahead of time that CROSSCODE IS ALSO SECRETLY A PUZZLE GAME. These aren't RPG puzzles for babies like you'd get out of Golden Sun or something - CrossCode has dungeons that are more like a Zelda game in their complexity, but I'd put the level of difficulty in their puzzles on something more like the level of Braid, or another medium-difficulty puzzler like that. Some puzzles in dungeons took me a good 15-30 minutes to figure out, which is good enough for me to call them serious headscratchers, and I think some people have gotten turned off this aspect of the game. I loved it though - the mix of combat and puzzles in this game is probably better realized than any other RPG I've played to date. I can't believe I only ranked this game #6. I do have a COUPLE of problems with this game. First of all, exploring areas can be a little too difficult for its own good sometimes, and it almost feels like a running joke that the devs had fun making areas increasingly complicated and annoying, with multiple layers of platforms that are very difficult to read as you're jumping across them, and item boxes in high places that you have no idea how to reach are common. This game also leans a little too hard into it's MMORPG premise at times with how much money and items you need to craft current-grade armor and weapons; a lot of the times I would find myself badly needing an armor upgrade, only to level myself out of needing it by the time I found all the necessary materials to make it. Armor upgrades can be a bit frustrating too as you end up losing combat modifiers that you really liked in order to get a stat increase. These are both minor complaints, but frustrating enough that I do suddenly remember why I ranked this game #6. I enjoyed this game so much, and was so ho</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
KamikazePotato 01/22/20 1:10:04 AM #338:	I don't want to overhype this game too much, I'll help then. CrossCode is really good. --- Black Turtle did a pretty good job. <cite>KamikazePotato posted [p:933306555] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote><quote>I don't want to overhype this game too much,</quote>I'll help then. CrossCode is really good. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/22/20 1:22:08 AM #339:	Update on Return of the Obra Dinn: I've played a little bit of it now and it's really cool. I like the whole concept of piecing together the story bit by bit, it has a little bit of a Her Story feel to it in that way, and it almost feels like doing actual detective work the way the game expects you to make inferences based on tiny details. Will almost certainly be a top 100 game by the time I'm done. Probably not top 20. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933306870] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Update on Return of the Obra Dinn: I've played a little bit of it now and it's really cool. I like the whole concept of piecing together the story bit by bit, it has a little bit of a Her Story feel to it in that way, and it almost feels like doing actual detective work the way the game expects you to make inferences based on tiny details. Will almost certainly be a top 100 game by the time I'm done. Probably not top 20. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
KamikazePotato 01/22/20 1:25:59 AM #340:	Also can confirm regarding CrossCode that I had no crashes. Had some slowdown in some areas, but turning off weather effects fixed that. For Para's eyes only: ~~the Vermillion Wasteland, from start to finish, is one of the most emotionally satisfying stretches of gaming I've ever played.~~ --- Black Turtle did a pretty good job. <cite>KamikazePotato posted [p:933306963] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Also can confirm regarding CrossCode that I had no crashes. Had some slowdown in some areas, but turning off weather effects fixed that. For Para's eyes only: the Vermillion Wasteland, from start to finish, is one of the most emotionally satisfying stretches of gaming I've ever played. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/22/20 1:44:55 AM #341:	KamikazePotato posted... Also can confirm regarding CrossCode that I had no crashes. Had some slowdown in some areas, but turning off weather effects fixed that. For Para's eyes only: ~~the Vermillion Wasteland, from start to finish, is one of the most emotionally satisfying stretches of gaming I've ever played.~~ I stayed up until 8 in the morning during that part <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933307471] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>KamikazePotato posted... </cite> <quote>Also can confirm regarding CrossCode that I had no crashes. Had some slowdown in some areas, but turning off weather effects fixed that. For Para's eyes only: the Vermillion Wasteland, from start to finish, is one of the most emotionally satisfying stretches of gaming I've ever played.</quote>I stayed up until 8 in the morning during that part </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
KamikazePotato 01/22/20 1:56:27 AM #342:	Yeah that was one part where I just accepted that my bedtime that night just became 'when I finish this section'. Good times. It's weird to say for a game that is gameplay heavy and pulls that aspect off well, but I think CrossCode's writing impressed me more than any other part of the game. I think I enjoyed literally every bit of dialogue in the game. --- Black Turtle did a pretty good job. <cite>KamikazePotato posted [p:933307737] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Yeah that was one part where I just accepted that my bedtime that night just became 'when I finish this section'. Good times. It's weird to say for a game that is gameplay heavy and pulls that aspect off well, but I think CrossCode's writing impressed me more than any other part of the game. I think I enjoyed literally every bit of dialogue in the game. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
LeonhartFour 01/22/20 4:05:36 AM #343:	I'm in the process of playing Mega Man 9 for the first time and holy crap this game is so good although these Wily stages are no joke so many instant death traps --- http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/080/145/638.png https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq <cite>LeonhartFour posted [p:933309957] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>I'm in the process of playing Mega Man 9 for the first time and holy crap this game is so good although these Wily stages are no joke so many instant death traps </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
SeabassDebeste 01/22/20 8:01:49 AM #344:	forgot to say, i loved ghost trick, but i'd peobably only wanna replay it now, at least 5-10 years after playing it the first time most of the stuff in your top ten seems to be defined by being punishing, which i have no interest in! thought MM2 was ok when i played it for the first time like 2-3 years ago, much preferred DKC2 --- yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness <cite>SeabassDebeste posted [p:933313650] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>forgot to say, i loved ghost trick, but i'd peobably only wanna replay it now, at least 5-10 years after playing it the first time most of the stuff in your top ten seems to be defined by being punishing, which i have no interest in! thought MM2 was ok when i played it for the first time like 2-3 years ago, much preferred DKC2</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/22/20 8:06:55 AM #345:	SeabassDebeste posted... forgot to say, i loved ghost trick, but i'd peobably only wanna replay it now, at least 5-10 years after playing it the first time most of the stuff in your top ten seems to be defined by being punishing, which i have no interest in! thought MM2 was ok when i played it for the first time like 2-3 years ago, much preferred DKC2 I did notice this, but the only thing I'd define as punishing is Darkest Dungeon. CrossCode is fairly challenging but I don't think to a ridiculous degree (and it has some pretty friendly accessibility options if truly needed), Mega Man 10 also has an easy mode in addition to a hard mode (I just really like the fact that it has a hard mode), and FTL is kinda hard even on its easiest difficulty but I think anyone could get it with enough plays. DD's a motherfucker though yeah. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933313771] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>SeabassDebeste posted... </cite> <quote>forgot to say, i loved ghost trick, but i'd peobably only wanna replay it now, at least 5-10 years after playing it the first time most of the stuff in your top ten seems to be defined by being punishing, which i have no interest in! thought MM2 was ok when i played it for the first time like 2-3 years ago, much preferred DKC2</quote>I did notice this, but the only thing I'd define as punishing is Darkest Dungeon. CrossCode is fairly challenging but I don't think to a ridiculous degree (and it has some pretty friendly accessibility options if truly needed), Mega Man 10 also has an easy mode in addition to a hard mode (I just really like the fact that it has a hard mode), and FTL is kinda hard even on its easiest difficulty but I think anyone could get it with enough plays. DD's a motherfucker though yeah. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/22/20 8:11:02 AM #346:	KamikazePotato posted... Yeah that was one part where I just accepted that my bedtime that night just became 'when I finish this section'. Good times. It's weird to say for a game that is gameplay heavy and pulls that aspect off well, but I think CrossCode's writing impressed me more than any other part of the game. I think I enjoyed literally every bit of dialogue in the game. Yeah, I agree. A lot of really good writing in the game - I really didn't expect it to be so sharp. Even some of the plot beats in the game that I think could have been overly maudlin in the hands of another writer were really handled gracefully - this was a game that could have been silly in a bad way but instead was worth taking seriously. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933313866] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>KamikazePotato posted... </cite> <quote>Yeah that was one part where I just accepted that my bedtime that night just became 'when I finish this section'. Good times. It's weird to say for a game that is gameplay heavy and pulls that aspect off well, but I think CrossCode's writing impressed me more than any other part of the game. I think I enjoyed literally every bit of dialogue in the game.</quote>Yeah, I agree. A lot of really good writing in the game - I really didn't expect it to be so sharp. Even some of the plot beats in the game that I think could have been overly maudlin in the hands of another writer were really handled gracefully - this was a game that could have been silly in a bad way but instead was worth taking seriously. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
LeonhartFour 01/22/20 8:29:28 AM #347:	Yeah, I'm not a fan of punishing difficulty either. I wouldn't consider MM2 to be that difficult of a game. I thought MM3 was harder, but not really in a good way. It crafted difficulty through frustrating enemy placement and by using a lot of enemies that were too low to hit with the Buster. I wouldn't necessarily mind if it weren't annoying to have to open the menu to change weapons, especially since you have to shuffle back and forth between two screens. It's just too much after a while. MM9 is mostly in the sweet spot like MM2 was, although like I said, it could use fewer instant death traps. --- http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/080/145/638.png https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq <cite>LeonhartFour posted [p:933314331] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Yeah, I'm not a fan of punishing difficulty either. I wouldn't consider MM2 to be that difficult of a game. I thought MM3 was harder, but not really in a good way. It crafted difficulty through frustrating enemy placement and by using a lot of enemies that were too low to hit with the Buster. I wouldn't necessarily mind if it weren't annoying to have to open the menu to change weapons, especially since you have to shuffle back and forth between two screens. It's just too much after a while. MM9 is mostly in the sweet spot like MM2 was, although like I said, it could use fewer instant death traps. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 01/22/20 9:26:58 AM #348:	Hmm, I think MM9 is a lot harder than MM3 <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:933315838] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Hmm, I think MM9 is a lot harder than MM3 </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Lopen 01/22/20 10:07:35 AM #349:	I think so too. Maybe you're just better at Mega Man games than when you played MM3, Leonhart, if it's been a while. --- No problem! This is a cute and pop genocide of love! <cite>Lopen posted [p:933317190] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>I think so too. Maybe you're just better at Mega Man games than when you played MM3, Leonhart, if it's been a while. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
SeabassDebeste 01/22/20 10:25:25 AM #350:	Paratroopa1 posted... I did notice this, but the only thing I'd define as punishing is Darkest Dungeon. CrossCode is fairly challenging but I don't think to a ridiculous degree (and it has some pretty friendly accessibility options if truly needed), Mega Man 10 also has an easy mode in addition to a hard mode (I just really like the fact that it has a hard mode), and FTL is kinda hard even on its easiest difficulty but I think anyone could get it with enough plays. DD's a motherfucker though yeah. i guess to me, spending 30 minutes stuck on a single puzzle (with no guarantee of ever getting through) sounds like a colossal waste of time now. "with enough plays" for FTL also sounds like something that doesn't interest me! also DD has to look better than the screenshot, right? literally zero visual clarity for me there. guess a larger screen helps? --- yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness <cite>SeabassDebeste posted [p:933317825] in Para's top... [t:78297413]...</cite> <quote>Paratroopa1 posted...</cite> <quote> I did notice this, but the only thing I'd define as punishing is Darkest Dungeon. CrossCode is fairly challenging but I don't think to a ridiculous degree (and it has some pretty friendly accessibility options if truly needed), Mega Man 10 also has an easy mode in addition to a hard mode (I just really like the fact that it has a hard mode), and FTL is kinda hard even on its easiest difficulty but I think anyone could get it with enough plays. DD's a motherfucker though yeah. </quote> i guess to me, spending 30 minutes stuck on a single puzzle (with no guarantee of ever getting through) sounds like a colossal waste of time now. "with enough plays" for FTL also sounds like something that doesn't interest me! also DD has to look better than the screenshot, right? literally zero visual clarity for me there. guess a larger screen helps?</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Board 8 > Para's top 100 games of the decade, 2010-2019 (+) Yeah! (+)

Board 8 > Para's top 100 games of the decade, 2010-2019