Board 8 > transience's top 60 games - 2018 edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's time again for my biennial top xx games list! I'm no Heroic Mario but my games taste does change a bit from year to year and it's fun to refresh as a thought exercise. I rarely have the same #1 two lists in a row. (I haven't finalized my #1 yet so I'm not sure if that will hold true this time around.)

I'm going to be brief this year -- so, let's say, maybe 100 words for each game. I won't be counting words or anything but there's only so many times I can write (and you can read) about Mega Man 2 or Final Fantasy Whatever. I might splurge if I have something significant to say but I'll probably reserve that for games I have real strong feelings about right now. As such, I'll aim to have this completed by the end of the week.

So get those predictions in! I'll start in a little bit!
---

I used to be so good at this

I think I'll wait for top 20 before predix
---

hot predix - #24, the walking dead
---

1. Xenoblade Chronicles 2
---

Aww yeah
---

I like where we're going here
---

okay, this year I'm just doing pictures! I think it evokes better memories/feelings of games. I hope you haven't turned them off or else this won't be much fun

60.



The posterchild of Final Fantasy. FF9 evokes all of the feelings from the 90s Final Fantasy games (well, except 8) into one distilled package. Despite being a throwback, FF9 has a cohesive theme and plot that comes together really well.

It's unfortunately marred by poor battle load times and slow ATB gauges that get more and more unacceptable each year as games continue to get quicker and more accessible. You'd think a PC port would natively fix that, but nope!
---

https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasyix/mods/3

I think this mod lets you speed up the game considerably.
---

The battle load times even in PC port confuses me too.
---

I've been waiting to replay it because I'm assuming someone is going to do something amazing to the game now that it's on PC. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.
---

59.



It looks like a goofy NBA Jam-like sports game, but Lethal League is definitely a fighting game at heart. It's got a perfect loop of incredible buildup as the ball goes faster and faster followed by the amazing feeling of completely wrecking your opponent. The animations and colors sell this game really well. This game is great both for couch co-op or just goofing off in an online lobby. I fondly remember a game with me, Dante, Nee and Theo that was way more fun than it had any right to be.
---

transience posted...

I've been waiting to replay it because I'm assuming someone is going to do something amazing to the game now that it's on PC. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

The three mods I can see on Nexus mods are the only ones I can see, but they look really cool. HD backgrounds, pseudo job system, widescreen support, faster battles, ect. That's enough for it to be a new experience to me.
---

tag

I think the default speed-up option is enough to improve FF9's playability, but it's pretty goofy.
---

I'm glad you mentioned the title of the game in your description because the logo was unreadable!
---

wait, job system? tell me more
---

lethal league is instantly recognizable.
---

58.



MAN does this game have a cool look. It's the first thing anyone says about it and rightly so. The music plays into it so well. Persona 5 is just cool.

Persona 5 makes smart gameplay changes, especially in regards to leveling up your social links. It'll be hard to go back to 3 and 4 and find links that don't give you some kind of perk. (damn you instant gratification!) This game should be the best one of these but there are pacing issues and the endgame swerve is a bit of a letdown.
---

Looking at it closer, the mod with a job system makes some questionable choices with replacing character models. Might be able to fix that with some personal work but it's still dumb that you need to.

My Persona 5 feelings are mixed. I like the game and it does a lot of stuff right but it really has so many issues. The pacing is awful. The party members are generally sub-par characters and have poor interaction/cohesion as a group. Despite a great soundtrack, it plays the same songs over and over to the point where you start to hate them. On that same note, while the battle system is great, the game being so long means you get tired of it by the end. The bosses tend to have a gimmick which means you don't get to flex your RPG muscles as much because it's more about hitting their weak point and auto-winning afterwards. Almost all of Act 5 (the Hawaii trip and 5th palace) is just plain bad and easily the worst stretch in any Persona game.

It's actually kind of amazing that - for one of fmy favorite games of the year - I can talk way longer about the problems than the stuff I enjoyed. The Confidants are really good and the visual style is best in class and overall it's still Persona, but...yeah.
---

57.



Let's be honest - Isaac's core gameplay isn't that great. Circling rooms shooting guys endlessly is not that fun and it's not like any of the game's random levels present particularly interesting challenges.

The fun of Isaac is in the ever-growing numbers of items and modifiers that you bolt on to yourself throughout the course of a run. That "what am I going to get next?" aspect to the game's hundreds of upgrades is super fascinating and makes it feel like a true capital-r roguelike where the possibilities are kind of endless and no two runs are even remotely the same. It's empty calories due to the gameplay not being super appealing but the insane combos that you get more than makes up for it.
---

I get bored reading when there are no pictures.

Tag.
---

To me, Persona 5 is the best in the series by a longshot. It excels in every single category, especially its design and main cast.
---

KamikazePotato posted...

Looking at it closer, the mod with a job system makes some questionable choices with replacing character models.

That made me check out the models with high hopes but it was the boring kind of questionable :(

I thought the PC version of IX already had some kind of speed-up function, did it end up being just a rumor or is it still too slow?
---

56.



You can play 7-8 runs of Super Hexagon in like 3 minutes, sometimes more if you're playing the hardestest levels or just sucking. This isn't a game you can realistically play for 30 minutes straight. It's the perfect phone game - and also is a high skill game that works perfectly on a touch screen. Those two things combined really work in its favor.

The distracting visuals and the great music also work really well together. It's a real experience, but also video games distilled to its purest form - that's basically Super Hexagon. You get in there, you get tortured and maybe you survived an extra two seconds. Love this game.
---

there's, like, some cheat mode kinds of speed up options I think? but it's more like put the game at warp speed similar to an emulator would, not fixing the base problem.

I want that Battle 1 but not that 10 second pan between your characters and the enemies every darn time
---

55.



I can name pretty much every DW1 enemy, probably in order (https://www.sporcle.com/games/wonderslime/dragonwarriormonsters - 100%, yo). I can walk through that cave where the Green Dragon is to get to the southeastern continent without lighting a torch. There's something about that map and that world that's truly classic. The original Dragon Warrior is a game I can jog through every few years and really enjoy. Others did it better but none felt as essential.

Just don't play the NES version - those exp tables are painful to grind through. Not even I can stomach fighting 42 rogue scorpions in a row.
---

Plus in the remakes you can level up super fast by saving the princess and then intentionally dying before taking her to the castle--this makes the Dragon respawn, and in the remakes that Dragon specifically gives a ton more experience than normal. Rinse and repeat for lots of exp
---

I'd probably have FFIX and Persona 5 at similar spots on my own list, too, actually.
---

54.



A lighthearted and fun little action RPG romp with super addicting music. Crystalis is ahead of its time blah blah blah and also it's just really fun to play. Gameplay is simple and effective in that half Zelda, half Secret of Mana kind of way. Seriously, it might have the best soundtrack on the NES. Maybe the best one without 'Mega Man' in the title.

I go back to this game every 3 or so years and really enjoy it every time.
---

53.



People who follow me closely know that my favourite thing in action-y video games is how I move across an environment, from point a to point b. I need my traversal to flow and feel good.

Mario Odyssey has more enjoyable ways of traversal than just about anything I can think of, and a whole lot of them are really fun. 2d Mario games are very straightforward and Mario 64 always controlled like garbage. Mario Odyssey is an absolute joy to play, whether you're just doing crazy hat tech or taking over all of the crazy creatures. The variety is impressive and their movements feel refined in a way that surprises because there's just so much there. A lot of people put a lot of love into this game and it shows. I didn't expect to like it that much and it ended up being my favourite Mario game.
---

transience posted...

2d Mario games are very straightforward and Mario 64 always controlled like garbage

What about Mario Sunshine

unlike Galaxy it isnt straight forward like the 2D games and has more refined controls than Mario 64
---

I really hated how Mario Sunshine moved but it's been 15 years so don't expect any supporting details!
---

Sunshine's controls are more refined, I guess, but FLUDD isn't very fun to use, so it kind of negates the better controls.
---

52.



EO5 is classic Etrian Odyssey but with lots of little quality of life changes to make it a more enjoyable play. It moves quicker, maps more conveniently, conveys information better and is overall a better play experience. I just wrote this a few weeks ago but the Etrian Odyssey series isn't great just because you get to draw a map. It's great because there's a slow build from darkness to sight, from the enemies to the skills you learn to the synergy with your team to, yes, the dungeon and its map. EO5 is one of the best ones of those.
---

51.



I love terminals and command prompts. I'm a person who lists Zork as one of my 10 most influential games. I love fake-ass hacking because I'm too fake to make it doing that stuff. Hacknet works on me because it's light and Hollywood-y and basically just a real light puzzle game with some great presentation. I wish it was a little more, I don't know, real but I'll take what I can get.

I should talk more about that presentation. I love the screens and how they glow. I love the music that plays during some of the climaxes. A good terminal window and a proper soundtrack goes a long way and Hacknet gets it right.

Also the DLC for this game is pretty great and has mindfucky out-of-world stuff in it that makes pretenders like Undertale look bad. Play it.
---

Great list, lots of awesome non-traditional choices such as Lethal League. Taggggg
---

Tag, this is awesome stuff so far.
---

tag
---

let's see how far we can get tonight!

50.



There's like a quadrillion things you could complain about in X but the exploration shines through. It's just so much fun to look around this alien world and they give you a ridiculous jump that lets you ascend mountains with ease. It works in its favour because all you really want to do in X is inch your way forward, trying to survive as you get further and further in trying to unlock check points or whatever. The quests and main story and music and hub city are all riddled with flaws but screw that. This game is great.

Also that NLA music is delicious for reasons unknown
---

I need a bigger gun
---

49.



Inside's hard to talk around. It has a craft and care to it that Limbo lacked, and its artistic vision is coherent and consistent throughout. You can see it as a straight puzzle game where weird things happen but that undercuts the oppressive narrative that is woven throughout this silent game. Everything is hand crafted and in the perfect position here. You'll only see each set piece or moment once. I don't have the words to explain it, but this game probably shouldn't exist. The cohesive package and interpreted story that this game tells is mega impressive.

And once you go inside -- oh my god. It's all I thought about for days.
---

The ending to Inside might be a top 5 gaming ending of all time.
---

48.



PS2 JRPGs are in a weird spot because they haven't aged super well. There was a time when i was all in on FFX's world building and story but it feels kind of childish now. The voice acting doesn't help it and the level design, well, yeah. Still, this game crafts a world that made a major impression 17 years ago (?!) and the battle system remains a major bright spot. It's fun to build out your characters and the endgame content is a lot of fun provided you put in a lot of time to get endgame equipment. That stuff is painful. Anyway, that endgame grind kind of defines FFX in a way - you get what you put in. If you invest yourself in the story and the world of Spira, it really rewards you.
---

I spent like 2 days after beating Inside just watching popular streamers see those last 20 minutes over and over. I don't normally do that but there was something about Inside that I just had to see how others responded.
---

transience posted...

I spent like 2 days after beating Inside just watching popular streamers see those last 20 minutes over and over. I don't normally do that but there was something about Inside that I just had to see how others responded.

Yeah, personally I went with the flat "what".
---

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Aww yeah

---

47.



Yeah, Ace Attorney games are great and there isn't a lot to say besides 'these are really fun narrative games with fun, quirky characters and enjoyable stories.' The writing and setup in AAI2 is a mile ahead of the first Investigations game and the plot cohesion is honestly the best in the series. There's an inherent limit to what you can do in these investigation scenes as opposed to a true honest day of court but AAI2 gives you a really great overarching narrative that pays off on several levels.
---

46.



Castle Crashers is just the most playable video game. Everyone likes it. I've recently taken to playing this with my kids. My 4 and 10 year old suck but they absolutely love just jamming on buttons and hitting dudes. Even with that weird environment, it's still really fun! It's the only multiplayer game that I can play with my young ones without wanting to kill myself, and it's worth a high spot on this list for that alone. It's also just a really great and accessible beat-em-up, one that pretty much towers over the genre.
---

I took that DQ1 quiz, even though it's been about 20 years since I last touched it. I got 22/39, mostly because I spent a long chunk of time trying to remember what a "druin" was.
---

45.



This one's weird because it's not only a fan project but also essentially in early access. They just added new bosses and items the other day.

It's great though, Mario Maker was a great effort that totally missed me because I'm just not that into Mario. I think one of the biggest appeals is how you can make these weird monstrosities that totally subvert 30 years of Mario.

That's where I am with Mega Maker - I made a level with like 500 of those annoying Mega Man 3 fish on one screen and gave the player an unlimited metal blade. I made a true maze level that was like an 8x8 grid with no screen transitions or borders that let you just go wherever, almost metroidvania style. I made a Bomb Man fight with conveyor belts and quick man-esque laser beams that you had to avoid. There's so much fun stuff that you can do within the Mega Man formula, way more than Mario, and given my status as a classic Mega Man superfan, it hits in just the right way.
---