Board 8 > Arti's Top 10 Games of 2019 (and other lists)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome once again to this annual topic where I again have played a number of games you haven't played or maybe even heard of and give you my thoughts on how the year went. To be fair, I was not too impressed with the games I played this year, and Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age and TrueTrophies' score challenge took up a lot of the year and therefore I didn't play as many 2019 games as I wanted. Here's the list of what I did play enough of, at least:

PS4
AI: The Somnium Files
Apex Legends
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Caravan Stories
Crystar
Deemo Reborn
Fate/extella Link
Judgment
Jump Force
Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal
Sword & Fairy 6
Team Sonic Racing
Worldend Syndrome
YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World
Zanki Zero: Last Beginning

Switch
Groove Coaster: Wai Wai Party!!!!
Ring Fit Adventure
Tetris 99

Vita
Crossovers by POWGI
Pic-a-Pix Classic
Pic-a-Pix Color 2

I will start the lists tomorrow, as it's already pretty late tonight!

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<cite>ninkendo posted [p:933854491] in Arti's Top... [t:78379062]...</cite> <quote>we already know AI is #1 just get it over with </quote>

Wait wheres Gravity Duck

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Top 5 Old Games of 2019:

note: fuck the new editor for trying to start every list with 1. instead of letting me do what I want so you get the # sign instead of that

#5 Nurse Love Addiction (Vita/Switch/PC) - Nurse Love Addiction is a perfect example of a game completely lying to you about what the game is actually about (ok, one route is actually as described, I guess). I played it thinking that it would be a funny joke to play this yuri visual novel and got a very different premise with the main characters, incorporating a whole bunch of themes that you wouldn't have expected. It's pretty similar to Hatoful Boyfriend's final route, which also shocked me as I read through it. I wonder if the prequel, which I also own, is similar to this or played straight, hopefully the former.

#4 Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds (360/Vita/PS4/Switch/PC) - I actually own this game three times over, once on PC through B8 Secret Santa (thanks MegamanX), on Vita on a deep discount and a physical copy on PS4 through Limited Run Games. It's a beat-em-up spinoff of a fighting game series that was never released in NA, so it's a hard sell on the characters, but I'm a big fan of the gameplay with the foreground/background swap mechanic, and the whole Demonsphere level is a very complex dungeon level, especially in the higher difficulties. Plus, the addition of Science Adventure characters as playable makes the character selection a little bit better. I beat the game on all difficulties and got a character to the max level of 99 - so there wasn't much else to do after that! One of my favorite non-platinum PSN titles.

#3 The Silver Case (PS4/PC) - Before Suda51 brought us the weird world of killer7 overseas, one of his earlier titles that was only released in Japan was The Silver Case, a little known visual novel. The game stars a character you name joining up with a special police division of the 24 Districts, and the crimes they investigate and how they are linked to a serial killer named Kamui Uehara. The game is unique in the way that it follows not only this character but a reporter by the name of Tokio Morishima, who investigates the cases from a different point of view. Despite the complete lack of an ending (there's a sequel, so I'll probably get to that eventually), the way the story unfolds is not only told through the text but the way everything is presented as well - incorporating live-action scenes as well as bad PS1 polygon art (seriously). It's a very intriguing tale and definitely worth the read.

#2 Yakuza 0 (PS4/XB1/PC) - It's a great thing to see the Yakuza series take off around here, and this game, being one of the best in the series, is definitely one of the reasons why. Set in the 1980s, Yakuza 0 tells the stories of both Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima before they became the yakuza they were in the original game - and it's a lot to take in. The story is top-notch even if the game gets a bit too predictable at times - though that might have been because I played Kiwami first and knew some characters had to live or it didn't make much sense. One of the main draws of Yakuza 0 is the overwhelming amount of side content packed into it - each character has its own secondary storyline through mini-games, there's 100 sub-stories packed into it, and there's a ridiculous amount of other mini-games that will easily take you over a hundred hours just to get through them all. Truly an amazing package and I'm probably going to go back in there soon and finish up some things I left unfinished.

#1 Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (PS4/PC/Switch) - I actually wish that I had played this earlier in 2018 so that I could have ranked it in my list then - probably would have ranked it around 3rd or 4th. This entry in the Dragon Quest series is definitely one of the most polished up of any of the games while still retaining the turn-based gameplay that started it all, plus weaving a very exciting narrative - especially after the first act concludes. Note that I did this on the PS4, so none of the Switch upgrades, though it might be interesting to pick that one up when it decreases in price at some point. It was a very well-spent eighty hours+ to get everything for the platinum. Though I still think V is the best Dragon Quest title, XI is definitely close. After all, what other Dragon Quest game has THE GREAT SYLVANDO in it?

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yeah we need to file a complaint with Allen over the way the automatic numbering system works because it blows for making lists

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Top 5 Games I Wish I Played In 2019

Apparently copying and pasting in a list from a notepad file works fine. So I did that with this list!

5. Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & The Secret Hideout (PS4/Switch/PC) - I think it might be finally time to get back to the series that I liked for such a long time. It'll be much easier to get back to the series with Ryza, as the three games in-between this and Firis all have returning characters that would be weird having them not dubbed over after getting used to the character voices. Also THIGHS

4. Steins;Gate: Linear Bound Phenogram (PS4/PC) - Unfortunately I've only finished a few of the stories in this so I can't give it a definitive ranking, but I have enjoyed what I've read so far and hope the rest of the stories are good too. Strange how I haven't played it when Steins;Gate is probably my favorite VN, but I guess it happened - nothing much elseto say there.

3. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch) - It's no secret that I miss Advance Wars more than any other series that hasn't had an entry in a while - and while Fire Emblem is great it doesn't quite hit that itch. Regardless, I have played a bit of this game, not much at all, but a few maps - and I will definitely play through it someday. With both Fates and Shadows of Valentia both unfinished as well though it may take a while.

2. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (PS4/XB1/Switch/PC) - I haven't heard much good about this port, unfortunately, but I still liked the original more than most and definitely want to see the new content that I've only seen through Pikachu025's LP on the SA Forums - it really looks like they added so much to the game that the 360 version felt like a beta after reading through it. Probably will enjoy it overall.

1. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III (PS4) - duh. Though I have a lot of lore to catch up on as I'm still in Cold Steel 1, having not played the 3rd either and with Geofront's translation of Zero approaching soon that's another game to build up with. EVENTUALLY I will get through all of this. Last year's big projects were Dragon Quest XI and Yakuza 0 so this is probably the big project of 2020.

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yeah the Crossbell games are on my to-do list this year once that fan translation is officially complete

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Give me the ps4 versions with juna and towa added in

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then I can delay playing it even more

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Honorable Mentions

Caravan Stories (PS4) - A free to play MMO released overseas for the first time, with a very good soundtrack; which is why I blame the vgm crowd on b8 now that I started playing this. Sadly I haven't gotten to a point where most of these songs have played yet. The main gimmick seems to be your caravan that follows you around, where you can build certain items to produce gold or craft other items in it. It's weird though that this is supposed to be a MMO and yet I haven't seen a single other player anywhere, though I have heard players talk in the chat. Haven't played in a while, the last two trophies are kind of a grind so I'll be continuing this at some point.

Pic-a-Pix Classic (Vita) - It's basically a picross game. Made by Lightwood Games, one of the few companies that still support the Vita, it's a package of 150 picross puzzles from 5x5 to 30x20. It's the perfect game to just pick and up play with the Vita, and I think they even released Pic-a-Pix Classic 2 at some point but I haven't picked it up yet. Shame there aren't more picross games on the Vita, but these are pretty good! They go on sale for $4 every so often so I'll probably pick up the sequel when that happens.

Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal (PS4) - It's a remake of Senran Kagura Burst originally released on the 3DS. Except it's been completely remade into 3D and they cut out at least half the missions. Yeah... I have no idea why you would actually have to cut content when moving from the 3DS to the PS4, but who knows at this point. The highlight here are really the secret bosses that appear on different levels - some take a good deal of skill to defeat and there's a mission at the end where you fight a whole bunch in a row. Plus, it's nice to see the original two schools fighting it out again, without Gessen or new Hebijo being annoying. Funny how I never was able to beat Daidouji in the 3DS version but managed it here - she's a lot less threatening in this game for some reason.

Sword & Fairy 6 (PS4) - This is apparently part of a long-running Chinese RPG series, and definitely takes a lot of its inspiration from Final Fantasy, mainly FFXIII in its battle system. The battle systems of both games are very similar, except that this game allows you to have more than three people in your party (though the 4th and 5th members come a bit later). While the gameplay is solid, the game itself is not, and it will frequently have graphical and technical glitches, including one where I got stuck in a jumping position and had to restart. Not a good thing when you have titles that award you for exploring the map for hidden areas! Either way, the gameplay and limited story is enough to keep me playing through this.

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The 6th sword and fairy

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Wow this is slow

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#10 - YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World
5pb / Spike Chunsoft
PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC
Released October 1, 2019

Spike Chunsoft is doing a pretty good job at getting us many of the visual novels we've missed over the years - last year 428: Shibuya Scramble was my game of the year which originally released back in 2008. This one goes back even farther, stretching back to 1996, one of the most influential visual novels ever released. When playing, it's easy to see how several visual novels that have been released since its original release have been influenced by this one.

YU-NO's main character is Takuya Arima, a high school student. His dad supposedly died in an accident two months prior to the game's events, and Takuya is very unmotivated as he goes to class and lives with his stepmother, Ayumi. At the beginning of the game, he receives a package from his father containing a strange device called the Reflector, which requires ten jewels to fully power it up (of which there are four to begin). The letter from his dad says to bring all ten jewels and the device to the nearby area of Sword Cape. After a mysterious run-in at the shrine, Takuya wakes up at Sword Cape and sets out to find the rest of the jewels to find out what his dad is looking for him to do.

Looking back at the original game, the original game had only eight jewels, the flowchart wasn't colored in to indicate what route you were on, and exploration wasn't a point and click nightmare trying to find out where to go. The remake simplifies all this. Since the entire point of the game is making jewel saves to see different routes of the game, two more gems were added to make decision making a little bit easier. Routes are now colored in so you know what route you've suddenly found yourself on. The biggest change was made to exploration - every item that can be examined is now highlighted - and the game's hint system will tell you exactly where you need to go in case you ever get lost (though there is one ending you have to deliberately go against it).

As for the story, it is fine up to a certain point. Around the halfway point, it switches its genre pretty abruptly and is not much better for it. The mysteries that you had been searching for throughout the rest of the game all lead up to this point, and the payoff just is not as well executed as the rest of the game. That's not to say it isn't worth the effort, but it feels like it was setting itself up for more. The twists included are still pretty surprising, at least when I was reading through.

While I sometimes feel YU-NO is more of a history lesson on how visual novels evolved since its release, I think it is definitely worth a play through, and that is why I believe it belongs on this list. It is definitely enjoyable for a good portion of the time, and has some nice twists throughout the story to keep you entertained - and it is interesting to see where games such as the Zero Escape series got its roots from.

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Arti posted...

one of the most influential visual novels ever released.

Never heard of it until you started playing it

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#9 - Apex Legends
Respawn Entertainment
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Released February 4, 2019

Apex Legends is a very weird case for me, as it is my first battle royale game and a genre that I usually completely suck at, being a FPS. @WiggumFan267 and @ninkendo were pestering me for months to play it by sending me invites practically every night, until I finally decided to accept an invite back in July. It was a disaster to start for a while, but I've slowly been getting better every time I decide to play, which isn't very much to be honest (mainly because Wigs, TLO, icon, and SHINE all like playing at 1 AM or later because Wigs doesn't need sleep and all the others are not in the EST time zone). I don't really find playing with randoms very fun at all, so it limits my playtime with it sometimes. I did play during the limited single player mode a few times, though I wish they kept it for a bit longer.

Unfortunately, even with all this, I still haven't won a game yet, as it is clearly shown on my trophy list so far. Doesn't mean I haven't had fun just messing around, racking up some damage with every game, and fulfilling whatever daily missions are available every time I play. Helps to have a good amount of people to group up with when playing at night.

While I don't play it nearly enough to cover getting 110 on a battle pass or anything like that, I have fun playing when I have the chance. Let me play Gibraltar and Wraith forever and I'm good to go.

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Finally a real video game

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#8 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
ArtPlay / 505 Games
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Released June 18, 2019

Let me first say that despite pledging to this Kickstarter I still have yet to beat a game from either of the two game series that make up the genre name of Metroidvania. Yet, I had played a few games that had similar mechanics like Guacamelee! and Batman Arkham Asylum to give it a try.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night stars Miriam, who is a Shardbinder - a person fused with demon crystals that allow one to use various powers. Another Shardbinder, Gebel, is seeking revenge and is summoning demons to destroy the alchemists who made both Miriam and Gebel Shardbinders in the first place. Miriam, along with Johannes (one of the alchemists) sets off to stop him.

I have not beaten the game yet, but I have played enough that I have really enjoyed how the game plays. It's much closer to a RPG then the other two Metroidvanias I described earlier, which definitely helped get me more invested into the game. The sidequests are also a nice addition, and KILL THOSE MURDERERS DEAD will forever be burned into my memory.

I feel like if I did actually beat the game or if I played more Metroidvania games to compare it to, it might have ended up higher than here - as it is, I feel this is the perfect place for it. A very solid game that I will continue to enjoy as I continue my play through in it.

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both too low

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#7 - Team Sonic Racing
Sumo Digital / Sega
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Released May 21, 2019

The newest Sonic kart racer by Sumo Digital, Team Sonic Racing ditches the other Sega characters and decides to just use Sonic characters in this one.

All of the characters are broken down into teams of three, such as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles for the first team. This is a team racer, so it depends on how well your teammates race as well as yourself - for the most part, the AI is competent enough to do close to where you end up in the race. The teams have four power-ups that are unique to this game - a skimboost boosts an ally if you drive near them after they've spun out from a hazard, a slingshot boost an ally if you drive behind them for a short distance, teams can also share items between their teammates, and a team ultimate is charged as the first three powers are used - this makes all members of the team run at high speeds for a short period of time. As you would expect, proper use of the Team Ultimate is integral to winning races at higher difficulties.

The story mode itself is pretty barebones and doesn't really inspire anything. A tanuki name Dodon Pa is gathering racers from various Sonic games to race against each other. Eggman also shows up and becomes a racer, while also having his own plans. Nothing new here and there aren't any real cutscenes either.

To be fair, if you've played the Sonic racing games in the previous generation, you probably know what to expect from this one, as the other parts of the game besides the team aspect are the same as those, just updated for a new console generation. So if you have one of those games, it might be best to stick with those games - however, if you haven't, this is a great game to start out with. In the end, it's Mario Kart with Sonic characters and a cool team mechanic, and I'm fine with that!

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hey I played that

I didn't feel I played it enough to rank it though

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well you did only play a chapter of it

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I thought I got to like chapter 3

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Uh-oh.

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Arti forgot to play any more 2019 games

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#6 - Deemo Reborn
Rayark Inc. / Unties
PlayStation 4
Released November 21, 2019

Deemo Reborn is a remake of the original Deemo released for a number of platforms. This version, unlike the originals, is completely remade in 3D and adds a good number of puzzles to the game as well. Also, since the PS4 has no touch screen to hit notes with like the other platforms, the PS4 gameplay uses the DJMAX/Musynx playstyle, and almost all the original songs are remade in this form.

To those that don't know what Deemo is, Deemo begins with a young girl falling from a window into a strange area with a mysterious creature known only as Deemo. Deemo cannot speak, but he is able to play the piano that is at the bottom of the area, which starts to help a tree sapling in the area grow as well. As more songs are played on the piano, the tree continues to grow higher and more mysteries of the area, and of Deemo, are revealed throughout the story.

The main difference in Deemo Reborn is the addition of puzzles in all rooms that unlock the new songs as you proceed through the game. One of my complaints with the original game is that it sometimes takes too long to unlock new parts of the story, as songs help gain more of the tree height when played for the first time. That's not the case in Reborn, as keeping up with the puzzles gives you more than enough new songs to play through, making the tree grow at a steady pace. Some of these puzzles are pretty simple, but the ones unlocking the golden boxes are usually somewhat difficult and may require several attempts to figure out what to do, which is a nice addition.

Of course, the main focus on the game is the rhythm portion, and Deemo Reborn's song list is pretty expansive as noted above. The two Deemo Collections, Vol.1 and Vol.2, return from the other versions of the series, though V.K's songs are all removed, which is a large list of songs that are missing in this version. I'm not exactly sure what the reasoning is, but I've seen some comments referring to some controversy with him. It's a shame since some of his songs were some of the original's best. Anyway, Reborn adds another 30+ new songs to the base game in its Vocal Collection, Golden Sheets Collection, Reborn Collection, and Stone Monument Collection. While the other collections are given out periodically, the Golden Sheets collection songs are rewarded for playing through the most difficult puzzles, and the Stone Monument Collection, while only being unlocked after viewing the ending, are among the hardest songs in the game.

Though I've played through the original game before, I enjoyed my return to the Deemo story, and it's nice to see all the cutscenes from the original game updated to 3D. I probably won't play much more of it as I'm not very good at DJMAX gameplay (and DJMAX Respect taught me that very well last year) but the game's puzzles and what I could play of the rhythm game makes it deserve this spot on the list.

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I still don't know what it is but I'm glad you liked it

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#5 - Crystar
Gemdrops Inc. / FuRyu / Spike Chunsoft
PlayStation 4, PC
Released August 27, 2019

Crystar is definitely my pick for the most obscure game on this list - it was released completely out of nowhere and was developed by a little-known Japanese indie developer known as Gemdrops Inc., making their first full-fledged console title.

Crystar's main character is Rei Hatada, who ends up finding herself in Purgatory along with her sister, Mirai Hatada. After a close encounter with the demon that pulled her into Purgatory, Anamnesis, Rei ends up accidentally stabbing her sister and sending her deeper into Purgatory. Two other demons, known as Mephis and Pheles (yes, there's an obvious reference there), offer to revive Mirai if Rei becomes their Executor by killing other rampaging enemies in Purgatory, including the demon Anamnesis. Rei reluctantly accepts after being heartbroken after what she did to Mirai. As she descends through the levels of Purgatory she meets others who are also fighting in Purgatory for reasons related to their families.

One of the best parts of Crystar is how it handles the story and characters - the writer of the game said he was influenced by Drakengard, which fits with how dark the story gets the further the characters descend into Purgatory. The main theme of the game, as stated above, are the bond between family, and each of the three Executors are all fighting in Purgatory due to something that happened with their family. Which makes the fourth character's inclusion all the more bizarre as she doesn't fit the main theme of the game at all, and is also incredibly annoying. The game would probably be much better if she was removed entirely. The game does have its questionable decision of events near the end, though I didn't mind it at all - the game's storytelling was fine to me even though it did take a while to get to the finale of the game.

The game still has its fair share of problems, and most of it is due to the gameplay. The game starts out with a system fairly similar to the current control system in the Ys series - normal attacks with the square and triangle buttons, and special attacks being mapped to R1 + one of the face buttons. Characters can also summon their Guardian after defeating enough enemies or taking enough damage, and can unleash a special attack while doing so. However, the game never adds anything additional to this, and when you are looking at a forty hour long RPG, this really doesn't help carry the narrative as well as it should. Furthermore, all of the game's equipment is done via random drops, and you can't tell what the item is when picking it up. Though most of the items you will get are fine enough, it's enough of an annoyance to be mentioned here.

I highly recommend Crystar to anyone who enjoys a deep plot in their JRPGs. It's not the best for those who like the action portion as that's a bit weak, unfortunately. Also, one last note:

https://twitter.com/canyoupetthedog/status/1166348530602168320

You can pet the dog, and she even has her own menu option! And you get trophies for doing so.

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ninkendo posted...

I still don't know what it is but I'm glad you liked it

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#4 - Groove Coaster: Wai Wai Party!!!!
Matrix Software / Taito
Nintendo Switch
Released November 7, 2019

Groove Coaster: Wai Wai Party is the newest title in the Groove Coaster rhythm game series. Mostly a mobile and arcade series, it had its first release on PC last year, and consoles this year with this release on the Switch. This is the first game in the series I have played though, not knowing about it completely until the current VGM crew has been hyping up some of its tracks for a while now.

Groove Coaster's rhythm gameplay is pretty simple. Your avatar goes through a path on the screen, and notes that correspond to the music appear on the route. The trick is that the path can be unpredictable and sometimes can take random jumps and zigzags, similar to a roller coaster. There are additional notes that require different inputs as you proceed into higher difficulties. I have one complaint about this, and it's the addition of Groove Coaster's Ad-Lib notes, which are extra notes on the track that are invisible, but count towards the song's % score. Most of these notes correspond to the song's beat and can be easy enough to spot, but I feel like they are not a very fun addition to search for if one is hidden where you wouldn't expect a note to be. There is an item that reveals all the ad-lib notes making them just like regular ones, so it's not much of a problem in the end.

The setlist for Groove Coaster is excellent - though pretty similar in what Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! brought to the table last year (including a whole bunch of anime openings, a few Japanese pop songs, many really good Vocaloid tracks, and even a whole section for Touhou tracks), though playing them in another form is definitely a treat. You get obviously game music from Taito series instead of Namco series, obviously - and while most of them are tracks from various Darius games and the random DLC of ten Undertale tracks, there's a Bubble Bobble medley and a remix of Battle #2 from Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, which is always welcome. Now someone get me Daddy Mulk from the PC version and that would be perfect.

Groove Coaster also includes a menu navigator fully dubbed over in English, which is very interesting to see, and has 300 missions to complete, ranging from playing a song on a different difficulty to getting 10 NO-MISS playthroughs on a certain genre of tracks. The unlockables in this mission mode include some of the songs included in the game, as well as titles, other avatars (the default is the Space Invader avatar), and some other menu navigators (which are dubbed over only using a simple robotic voice).

With only slightly over 20% of the missions complete for me, I definitely think this game will last me a great deal of time making my way through everything. But with so much to unlock, I think I'll have a blast doing so. This is my favorite rhythm game released this year and definitely one to pick up at some point if you like them at all.

Soundtrack Links:

Battle #2 ~Hige Driver Mix~ (from Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blO9ElhNP6g

LINK LINK FEVER!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKysHvSg1o0

I've noticed that the game really likes exclamation points, though I'm not sure why exactly.


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#3 - Fate/Extella Link
Marvelous / XSEED Games
PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, PC
Released March 19, 2019

Fate/Extella Link is the newest beat-em-up in the Fate series, a sequel to the previously released Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star. Instead of following the Fate/Extra Nero Claudius and Tamamo-no-Mae that the first game did, this game instead follows a young version of Charlemagne, before his days as the ruler of what is now France. The player, continuing on from the previous games, acts as the Master and leads his or her servants against Rex Magnum, who intends to conquer all of SE.RA.PH.

Compared to the gameplay in the original game, the combat in the game, while still a psuedo-musou game, the game is more fast paced and fluid than the original, which fits its genre a lot better. This game adds ten more characters to the fray, all related to previous characters or have appeared in this subseries in the past (except Charlemagne, obviously), and the characters can be swapped out at any time to keep the gameplay fresh. Combat is done in a number of zones in a battlefield - you control the Servant of your choice to fight in these zones, defeating enemy Aggressors or other Servants to capture the zones over to your side. The Master also sets up on the battlefield and can cast helpful spells to buff or heal the Servant fighting - though his or her presence on the battlefield naturally attracts enemies and if defeated, the battle is lost.

To those that played the original game, improvements include no need to collect the Noble Phantasm powerups scattered throughout the zones, instead it charges up throughout the battle and can even be used multiple times. Allies are also actually useful in this game, as some allies will now kill other aggressors and enemy Servants, capturing zones over to your side instead of forcing you to always help them do so.

Fate/Extella Link follows a similar thread to its predecessor in the story department as well, dealing with a multiple timeline situation - you're presented with a flowchart in the beginning, and the battles you pick will eventually lead you to one of the endings. Unfortunately, the story in this one is pretty barebones and doesn't really get very complicated, especially considering other Fate titles, but I think this is to its benefit as most of the Fate/Extella storyline was pretty terrible as well. This game chooses to push its combat to the forefront and it's all the better for it.

Continuing the game's focus on combat, the other content the game has is a number of extra stages that are unlocked as you proceed through the story. While these are somewhat interesting, a good number of them are just reskins of story mode battles with a higher level requirement. Still, there's the odd one or two that are fun to mess around in once in a while.

I've had a lot of fun with Fate/Extella Link, and I feel like continuing my Very Hard playthrough with Scathach at some point. Even at this point, I don't think the gameplay has gone stale yet, which is a real testament to how the game was made.

Now when is Charlemagne coming to Fate/Grand Order!? Make it happen, DW.

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When will you play granblue fantasy versus

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ninkendo posted...

When will you play granblue fantasy versus

how about never

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#2 - AI: The Somnium Files
Spike Chunsoft
PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC
Released September 17, 2019

AI: The Somnium Files is the newest visual novel by Kotaro Uchikoshi, creator of the Infinity and Zero Escape series. Knowing this, I definitely pre-ordered the CE of this game and it was well worth the purchase overall.

AI: The Somnium Files stars Kaname Date, who works in the police department as a member of the Advanced Brain Investigation Squad. He is a Psyncer, and can enter the dreams of others to see secrets that the other person has. He is assisted by an AI named Aiba, who also acts as Date's left eye and provides him with various abilities to aid him in both combat and logical analysis. Aiba is also the avatar when exploring the dreams in the Somnium when Date is psyncing. The game starts off with Date investigating the murder of Shoko Nadami, tied to a memory-go-round horse in an abandoned carnival with her left eye removed. Also present is his adoptive daughter Mizuki in the central column, with the murder weapon in her hands.

AI is split into four different sections of gameplay; the investigation phase, similar to Phoenix Wright where you talk to others and investigate areas; the interrogation phase, also similar to Phoenix Wright as you present evidence to disprove a suspect's claims; small shooting events, where you process a few QTEs within the time limit to pass through, and finally the puzzle part of the game with the exploration of the Somnium. How this works is you have a six minute time limit, and you must perform all the required tasks within that time to undo all the mental locks in the mind. All Somniums have various items to interact with and each interaction with any item takes a small amount of time off the clock - and some items can even attach modifiers to force you to waste even more time (or save time). Using these modifiers is the key to getting some of the items for the gallery, as you must clear the Somnium under the six-minute time limit to grab one of the gallery items (the game will consider it passed if the last action would put you over the limit, but not give you the item.)

Without spoiling too much of what happens, Uchikoshi clearly wrote this with some elements of Zero Escape in mind, as the story branches off into multiple routes very early on. Like always with Uchikoshi's works, some of the later reveals should shock you, especially in the final two routes of the game. What really shines, though, is the work done in the Somniums. I definitely deliberately wasted time in Somniums doing completely random tasks that had no effect on what was actually happened, just for the hilarity of it. All dialogue in Somniums is voiced, and some of the reactions are just amazing. Not all Somniums have enough interaction to take advantage of this, especially ones later in the game, but there are enough to make it a really amazing part.

The game is not without some complaints - it seems Uchikoshi hasn't recovered from writing Punch Line and so Date as well as many other NPCs have huge porn fetishes, and the game will not hesitate to continually bring up this point until it is beaten into the ground. There are several scenes in the game where this adversely affects a scene that should really be more serious, and it hurts the game slightly as a result. There's also a lack of interrogation scenes as opposed to any of the other gameplay sections - I think the game could be improved with a few more of these as they have some of the highlights between the characters. However, even with these complaints, I feel they are pretty minor overall and don't detract from the core experience too much. The game is definitely one of the best visual novels the genre has to offer, and one of the best games of 2019 as well.

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"Everyone tries... But you can't escape the law."

#1 - Judgment
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio / Sega
PlayStation 4
Released June 25, 2019

Even though I had only played up to Kiwami 2 and was waiting for the Yakuza 3 through 5 Remastered collection to come out, I decided it was fine to jump directly into Judgment rather than waiting, as the games are not linked too much overall. Obviously by the position it landed on this list, it seems that was the right decision overall.

Judgment's main character is Takayuki Yagami, a private detective who works in Kamurocho. Three years prior to the main events in Judgment, he was an up and coming defense attorney who successfully defends a suspected serial killer from a murder charge. The man later goes on to be arrested for killing his girlfriend and burning down her apartment, and Yagami quits the lawyer profession in shame of the events. In the present day, Yagami finds himself on the track of another serial killer that is killing yakuza and gouging out their eyeballs. Yagami names this killer the Mole, while he and his partner, ex-Tojo Clan member Masaharu Kaito, work on this case that soon expands to link many other Kamurocho cases and Yagami's case from three years ago all together.

One of the biggest differences besides the main character in Judgment compared to the Yakuza games is how dark Judgment is prepared to go. It's highlighted well in the soundtrack links below of Penumbra and Darkness. Without getting too much into spoilers, while it involves the Yakuza clan of previous games (though no returning characters, that is Yakuza 7's job), the game really shows how far one is to go for power. This isn't just a yakuza trying to take over Kamurocho that Kiryu aims to stop anymore.

For a game like this, the story and characters are the most important part of the game, and they definitely succeed on that front. Most of the side characters are just as well-written as Yagami is, and many have backstories that flesh out their own character arcs as well. The way the story unfolds in this game is just amazing and takes the Dragon Engine to its limits. Also to note is that both voice tracks, the dub and the sub, both fit the characters exceptionally well. The localizers also wanted extra care put to this, so the subtitle tracks change depending on what language you're listening to - the English track's subtitles match the dub, and the Japanese track's subtitles are more closer to the original translation.

The friend system was briefly explored in Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 2, and it expands here - Yagami is able to befriend almost all the shopkeepers and mini-game hosts in Kamurocho by doing small tasks for them, whether its buying items from the restaurant menu or completing certain side cases for them. Speaking of side cases, there is only 50 in total this time around, but this does not include the friend cases - so there's just as much content within this game as previous games in the Yakuza series. There's also the Quickstarter app, and like its namesake, it has people funding certain projects, like health drinks and shoji boards. Of course, Yagami must pay 50% of the price to unlock any of this, but it's an interesting mechanic and can be sped up through various skills.

Gameplay is more tailored towards Yagami's job as a detective rather than just beating up people, and Yagami carries around a number of tools in his kit to do so. There are investigation phases where Yagami looks around for clues (make sure you find all the cats for a trophy! I didn't, so I'll have to do it in my Legend play through), lockpicking, photography, and drone flying that are all used within his story missions. Yagami can also put on a disguise to sneak into an area or make himself look less suspicious to others. As far as combat goes, Yagami utilizes two battle styles; the crane style, which is useful for fighting multiple enemies at once, and the tiger style, which is more useful when fighting single enemies. Yagami isn't as skilled a fighter as Kiryu or Majima were, so when he takes damage from more powerful attacks, that becomes mortal damage and is not healed until he sees a doctor or uses a medical kit, both of which cost a good amount of cash. Thus, it's better to learn the enemy's attack patterns and to evade attacks more than just defeating the enemy in front of you. Yagami can also uses some parkour elements, such as attacking with a kick from off a wall, which can be used to chain into other powerful attacks.

No Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio game review is complete without a talk of the mini-games, and Judgment changes up a lot of what's required (no, you still have to play a lot of Mahjong. Stop complaining.) Gone are the billiards, bowling, karaoke (this hurts the most), baccarat, roulette, cho-han, and cee-lo. Even with the loss of karaoke, many of the minigames that were removed I did not miss in the least. Yagami's drone comes into play again here, and instead of racing toy cars, he instead uses his drone in races around Kamurocho. The bowling alley is replaced by a new area called Paradise VR, which is basically a board game based on Kamurocho that has you try to reach a certain area of the city in a given amount of turns (this is the addition I had the most fun with). Yagami also keeps a pinball machine in his office, which you can play with for a while. I was never that good at it, though. New to the Sega arcades is a minigame called Kamuro of the Dead, a play on everyone's favorite Yakuza spinoff Yakuza: Dead Souls which had the subtitle OF THE DEAD in Japan. This on-rails shooter is a nice addition and doesn't spend too much time to complete, but I feel it's too easy and I usually suck at shooters, so it must be really easy for those that have more experience than myself.

In the end, Judgment has everything you want in an open-world video game - a gripping story, well-written characters, and lots of content and mini-games to keep you entertained from start to finish. There's no surprise that in the end it was my game of the year for 2019.

Soundtrack Links

Darkness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kvD3vAekLk

Penumbra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcM-v-o4N4o

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Thanks for reading the topic! Here's the list in order again:

10. YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World
9. Apex Legends
8. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
7. Team Sonic Racing
6. Deemo Reborn
5. Crystar
4. Groove Coaster: Wai Wai Party!!!!
3. Fate/Extella Link
2. AI: The Somnium Files
1. Judgment

As always, I'll be writing my next list in February 2021. Hope to have you read that one as well!

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Judge Eyes

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