Near the beginning of the year, I had Sophia on to talk about how much we both disliked last year in gaming. I believe I went so far as to say that, were the games of 2018 to be put into a top ten list next to the games of 2017, nothing below my number six pick from 2018 would even be considered.Honestly, I think only my top three games would even make the cut if they were released in 2017 instead of 2018.
In part, I think it's because 2018 just looked bad compared to 2017. That year gave us Nier: Automata and Persona 5, those games were just hard to compete against. At the same time, I had forgotten most games on that list until I looked it up for this post, and my number ten spot of last year went to Shotgun Legend, a one-dollar game on steam that is a silly Legend of Zelda knockoff where you play a redneck with a Shotgun. That is how bleak most of that year was for me.
Having made it most of the way through this year, however, I am beginning to long for the day of 2018. There are still some releases coming I want, don't get me wrong. I am, for the first time in a long time, going to play a Doom game. Not a big FPS guy, and haven't played Doom since I played the first one, but I think this is a good time to give it another go, but at the same time, not a big FPS fan, so I don't know how much mileage I'll get out of this one yet. A new Pokemon is always welcome, but it's still just another Pokemon game, and I don't expect anything mind-blowing to be added. Deamon X Machina is likely to fall the camp of really fun game, but nothing that will leave a great lasting impression. Then there is the one that breaks my heart, Trails of Cold Steel III,because I do not trust NISA at all, who have gotten the publishing rights and have a pretty bad history of completely screwing up their localizations. Most of my hopes this year are on Links Awakening and Code Vein.
And it's not that there haven't been fun and interesting games this year, there has been, but I would struggle to place any of these in my top three of even last year. I really liked Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, and it is a good game, but it's more because it marks a return of No More Heroes as to why it excites me. Kingdom Hearts III, while I liked it, was in a lot of ways pretty laughable considering how long people waited for it to come out. A very real contender for my #1 spot for this year, without taking into account anything else coming out, is Fire Emblem: Three Houses. And I honestly feel this one just comes out as a solid Strategy RPG, but not a lot else. There was way too much in terms of menial tasks that dragged that game down from being a classic I feel.
As much as I ragged on last year, at least we got Octopath Traveler out of it. A game that exceeded my expectations by doing a great job of capturing that old school RPG feel while having it's own unique twists and combat that kept it feeling like it's own thing. It also had Crosscode, my second favorite game of the year, which was an absolute breath of fresh air.It is one of the best indie titles I've played in ages. Then there was the joy of seeing Dragon Quest come in and, despite the times,still hold true to everything Dragon Quest has always done. It may only have been three, but those top three games were fantastic.
Even the bad was more interesting. Say what you will about Detroit: Become Human, there was so much energy and passion behind it you couldn't help but be enthralled. Yes, it was insufferably stupid most of the time, but it was interesting.Even the bad games I've played this year haven't been fun to bitch about, they are just boring in the worst kind of ways. Too easy, too repetitive, nothing interesting to say, just a bunch of slogs to sit through
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So, 2018, I'm sorry. I took for granted the great things you had to offer me.