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 10. Code Vein - A pretty darn good souls-like. Extremely anime in every way, which is fine with me. Super encourages trying out different builds. Solid gameplay. Marred by some lovely environment and level design (the cathedral is godawful) and basically zero replay value. Otherwise, a great time!  9. Islanders - One of the chillest games I've ever come across, especially considering it's a city builder. Extremely low-intensity game, perfect for passing the time, and yet surprisingly addictive as you try to shoot for the high scores and hunt for the absolute perfect place to plop down that tavern.  8. Eviternity - Does this count? It's a Doom WAD released in the last year and it's utterly phenomenal. Perfect level design, amazing new textures, excellent new monsters, just fantastic flow from one environment to the next. The levels are huge and detailed without being slogs, the fight design is an excellent challenge; overall, one of the best Doom WADs I've ever played, and I've played almost all of them.  7. Sayonara Wild Hearts - Came out of absolutely nowhere for me, but from the first second I was enthralled. The aesthetic, the colors, the music, Queen Latifah's amazing narration, all wrapped around a very solid rhythm game with some of the neatest gimmicks I've encountered. The Switch version is fantastic; please don't sleep on this, it's worth your time.  6. Dragon Quest XI S - It's Dragon Quest! It's great! Everyone's already played this but I'm new to it and still only like halfway through (if even that) but it's fantastic! Great to look at, great to listen to, extremely basic but extremely solid JRPG gameplay; it's the equivalent of videogame comfort food, and I couldn't possibly ask for more. Having it on the Switch and letting me play it whenever just makes it all the more perfect. Plus, Jade is my wife and I'm going to marry her.  5. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Edelgard is my other wife and I'm going to marry her too. I never played any of the pre-anime Fire Emblems, so this sort of game is all I know, and I'm absolutely here for it. The time management stuff was a neat addition, the combat is as satisfying as ever, the overall plot is fine but kind of stretched out, but it was the character writing that kept me glued to my Switch for god knows how many hours. The interactions were great, the end cards showing everyone's fates were largely heartwarming, and I got to gay marry Edelgard and so the game is perfect.  4. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - I love metroidvanias; specifically the 'vania part. The abandonment of Castlevania by the coward Konami is one of the great gaming injustices, but Bloodstained made everything right again. The exploration was spot on, movement felt great, all the cool powers opened things up just the way you wanted. Bosses were a little easy, and the quests just kind of went on and on, and there were a couple spots of progression that weren't clear, but the sheer number of secrets and easter eggs packed into an extremely solid game ensured its spot high on my list.  3. FFXIV Shadowbringers - Shadowbringers has, without a doubt, the best story in the entire Final Fantasy series, possibly out of all JRPGs. It's remarkably self-contained, it keeps a solid sense of pacing and momentum, it has one of the best and most relatable antagonists I've ever seen in Emet-Selch, and it helps that the gameplay, while more of the same XIV stuff, continues to improve. The fight design in the dungeons has only gotten better, the new classes are fine at best, but it's really the story of this that will keep it relevant for years to come. Too bad you have to play hundreds of hours of less good -- but still good! -- MMO to get here, otherwise it would be much easier to recommend.  2. Dusk - Dusk is a game that was made for me. The environment progression from rusty metal to blood-filled machines to fortresses in the sky to a Lovecraftian descent is amazing, and has some of the best level design in a video game. Flat out ever. The combat is incredibly fast and fluid, the weaponry varied and powerful (especially the cool loving crossbow and the dual shotguns), the enemies suitably terrifying despite having such a low poly count. Everything about this game seems to be made specifically to appeal to me, and I thought for the whole year it would be my number one, until ...  1. AI: The Somnium Files - Uchikoshi successfully grabbed me for his latest wild ride, and it easily blows the entire Zero Escape trilogy out of the water. No longer constrained by the death game setup, he puts together a fantastic murder mystery with all of the standard Uchikoshi loving weirdness and twists and turns. Once again, however, it's the characters that hold this adventure together; I loved each and every one of these stupid dorks. The ending sequence would have been moronic in any other game and completely failed to land, but Uchikoshi trusted that he wrote these characters compelling enough for you to fall in love with, and goddammit he was right. A-Set, You Bet!
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Dec 11, 2019 06:40
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BabyRyoga posted:Re: FF14 these are all unambiguously positive things
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Dec 28, 2019 00:57
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it really is just that good
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Dec 31, 2019 16:43
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two golden quotes already, hell yeah
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Jan 3, 2020 17:37
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Zaphod42 posted:They're both on the list and got lots of votes. They may not have beaten Tetris Effect on the list, but to say there were no big name VR releases is to say you don't play VR games and don't pay attention to them. easy answer: no one plays vr games and no one pays attention to them
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Jan 3, 2020 18:06
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cadence has a rad soundtrack, at least
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Jan 3, 2020 18:23
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gently caress randy pitchford
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Jan 3, 2020 18:31
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hell yeah!!! dusk is so loving good!!! please play dusk!!!
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Jan 3, 2020 18:40
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wuggles posted:Rarity this is great
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Jan 3, 2020 19:14
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Stux posted:witcher 3 has stayed in the same place for so long because it fell asleep reading its own script and everyone is being very conscientious and not disturbing its nap
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Jan 3, 2020 21:26
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having played more of dq11 since posting my list, i'm just more certain that jade is my wife and we're going to be very happy together the game is really, really good
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Jan 3, 2020 22:02
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Kaboobi posted:note: the DQ11 switch port that came out this year is unarguably the better version as it has an orchestral soundtrack and some more content and a lot of little balance tweaks and NO CROSSBOW BULLSHIT and you should 100% play that version over the PC/PS4 one i've only played the switch version; what does this refer to?
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Jan 3, 2020 22:02
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Kaboobi posted:manually scanning every area in first person mode for tiny little red targets you could shoot to get some stat seeds and stuff, it was tedious and bad unless you just used a guide to look up the locations oh that sounds awful, i'm glad it's not in the switch version
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Jan 3, 2020 22:05
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obra dinn is a great game that i'm too loving stupid to play
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Jan 3, 2020 22:19
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StrixNebulosa posted:How is it for people who loved ZTD if you like uchikoshi at all, please play AI. it's fantastic
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Jan 3, 2020 22:36
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bloodstained was such a solid and well-designed metroidvania, i loved it
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Jan 3, 2020 23:12
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Arist posted:RIGGED
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Jan 3, 2020 23:22
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edelgard and jade and i are going to be the strongest wife trio and live happily ever after
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Jan 3, 2020 23:51
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huge slam on god of war out of nowhere
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Jan 3, 2020 23:54
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BeanpolePeckerwood posted:It's not a metroidvania, it's a metroid prime-like. There's no VANIA in Control at all. It's not a 2D game. metroidvania isn't necessarily 2d
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Jan 4, 2020 00:11
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