The Games GOTY Thread 2020: WINNER ANNOUNCED INSIDE...

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Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Khanstant posted:

I can't do anime VAs and don't have a play station but I'm very curious what possible reason they could have to justify their choice to make a nude teen game

It's a skeevy art direction decision to be sure but after the, like, second to last big reveal I actually did have an "ashamed of your words and deeds" moments about the jokes I made way back when I just saw the marketing for the game.

Actually explaining it pretty much blows up a big chunk of the mystery and I don't even want to do that with spoiler bars but I will say they definitely didn't need to show nude portraits. They could've made fake clothed portraits for the pilots and showed those instead but george kamitani is a dirty old man.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2020 20:18

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 12:26

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

There is however implied nudity and I can see why people would find that off-putting.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2020 22:48

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Zore posted:

my favorite Platinum game is Infinite Space

Though technically I think the main dev team for IS was the Steel Battalion people and Platinum just helped with some stuff and got credited as co-devs.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2020 01:41

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Ah, 2020, the year a pandemic led to the meteoric rise of streamers pretending to be animes and getting paid absurd amounts of money in superchats for it. And also causing an international incident with China! So that was fun.

But that's not games, that's vtubers. These are games.

An Unfortunate Mention:
XCOM Chimera Squad - XCOM becomes the XCOPs (oh no)
Wow what incredibly good timing for this game to come out before the protests kicked off, huh? Still, this is a solid refinement of the XCOM formula with a laser-tight focus on small-unit tactics in a series of tight engagements, a far cry from crawling around the sprawling maps of the previous games, slowly trying not to aggro too many pods at once. Genuinely the most fun I've had in an XCOM, and I prefer the Firaxis games to the classic games by a fair bit. Also liked the Agents being defined characters with their own unique abilities and mechanics.

Also too real in a dark comedy sort of way that lethal force is the default setting and nonlethally arresting perps is the optional, harder way to go about things.

The Actual List:

10 - Murder By Numbers - An Out-of-Work Actress and a Picross-solving robot team up to fight crime

I'm not going to lie, I completely exhausted the content this game had to offer and I loved every second of it. This is essentially a short visual novel attempting to recreate the magic of the Ace Attorney games, even going so far as to hire the composer of the first one, and pair it with nonograms. I'll level with you, storywise Murder By Numbers doesn't quite reach those lofty heights. But it's ambitious that they tried and I respect that a lot. The studio also put out Fall Guys not long after which I guess people generally liked more. A lot more, actually. But I'd like to see another one of these someday. Maybe more fun moments in writing with more characters returning and getting into hijinx Ace Attorney-style.

9 - Monster Train - Slay the Railroad

I'm told Slay the Spire is better but I dumped a shitload of time into this and not that. Ever since Hearthstone stopped making new Dungeon Runs I'd been looking for a game to fill the void and, of all the deckbuilders I've tried, this was it. I even slammed my face into the Daily Challenges to try to get the Master of the Pyre cheevo, that one was nasty. Even with the caveat that you can keep retrying a daily challenge regardless of whether you've submitted your score or not.

I should probably get back to it now that it's got new heroes and stuff.

8 - Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Time travel is legal now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-25c8Rsobw

(thanks triforce-princess)
While a large part of BotW involved the character arcs of the champions' successors, I think the champions were pretty great characters in their own right! So while I kind of bounced off Hyrule Warriors, I was completely down for this one. Which is good, because my jaw dropped and I actually said, out loud, "holy poo poo!" when Sidon's trident flew in from a time portal during Mipha's fight against the Waterblight Ganon. That's when I knew all the gloves were off and things were going to get buckwild. Not that I should've been surprised. It's a Warrior's game for crying out loud. History's their bread but alternate history is their butter.

In a lot of ways this is Zelda's story but it also gets across pretty well exactly how much of a shitwrecker Link is compared to everyone else. Combatwise it's basically "BotW but with more stuff to do" which was a surprise because BotW's combat was already solid and technical in its own right. That and warriors games are generally more forgiving and appear buttonmashy at lower difficulties, which is their blessing and curse as most people's impressions, especially game journos, tend to focus on that as their first impression and disregard all of the other mechanics and tech in those games.

7 - FF7R - The One Real-Time With Pause Game I Enjoyed

I heard people was talking poo poo about this game. That's fair, it's not perfect. The story goes into real meta directions later on and, I'll be honest, I hate it when stories go meta. Hell, I hate it when they start meta. But despite that, this is an excellent reimagining of the first disc of ff7, bringing that world to life and even turning the unfortunate joke of the original Honeybee Inn into a dazzling spectacle and celebration of living and loving life. Even the weird and incongruous stuff, like eclectic random encounters, from the original are not only lovingly represented, but even explained. They even included Hell House.

Also Erica Lindbeck knocks it out of the park as Jessie, a former bit part turned spotlight-stealing sweetheart.

And as I mentioned, this is basically a real-time with pause action game. Unlike rtwp trpg adaptations, and games aping those adaptations, it actually works here because the mechanics were designed to be real-time from the ground up, being fundamentally an action game rather than a simple rts with D&D dicerolls stapled to it.

But I digress.

6 - Hades - A father-son bonding exercise

You know, if Diablo 3 had Hades' control scheme I would probably still be playing it. I'm very bad at this game, though, and my first clear was at 68% God Mode. I love the characters and the tons of little incidental writing. There's actually a lot of content there.

This is my second favorite game involving Hades I've played in 2020.

These Next Five Are All Very Close
and I've played them all wayyy too much this year

5 - Ring Fit Adventure - MY QUAAAAAADS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehlJJ59_jo0
Turns out, every day is leg day when you've got squats on your fit skill bar all the time. Mountain climbers also go from a pain bomb exploding in your body to a pretty easy and manageable exercise once you've strengthened your core. Currently somewhere around day 120+, I didn't really get going in earnest with this till the pandemic hit but it wound up being a perfect way to start the day. Well, every other day.

Also is it just me or do Ring and Drageaux have a lot of "ex-boyfriends" subtext going on.

The music is also really good, so if you haven't clicked that video embed I do recommend it.

4 - FFXIV Shadowbringers (Again) - I cried at the end of patch 5.3, good job game
A year ago I made my case as to why Shadowbringers is the best written Final Fantasy and my GOTY 2019. And specifically Shadowbringers, I'm not including ARR, HW, or StB in that assessment.

I don't have much to add to my 2019 review other than the patch 5.1-5.3 content was an incredible followup. Patch 5.4 is more about setting the stage for the next expac's storyline, and I expect when 5.5 comes out that it'll lead right into the action, but it's a welcome breather after a year's worth of emotional rollercoasters. And what a year it was.

I didn't know how they were going to match the incredible spectacle and emotional heights of the the climax of 5.0, but they did. The final dungeon of 5.3 has you fighting alongside all of the friends and allies you made in the course of Shadowbringers, and even past boss mechanics make a return and they're on your side now. It's an uplifting and rousing last hurrah to the story of The First and leads right into a final battle that left me in tears. They made me give a gently caress about Elidibus, how about that. And they gave us an vocal version of the Amaurot theme. If you know what it's talking about, the lyrics hit different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXCMW5-vPVs
(This is a boss fight theme and the actual fight is, again, a huge spoiler, so have a spoiler-free lyrics video.)

And then Alex Moukala made a funk remix of it and it's incredible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbR8TtVWReI

This is my favorite game involving Hades I've played in 2020.

3 - Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin - I am the goddess of farming and kicking rear end, rice to meet you

This one came outta nowhere and knocked me off my feet. I only recently got around to playing it but I'm pretty drat obsessed. And I'm not going to take a grain of rice for granted again anytime soon.

A very charming action rpg rooted deeply in Japanese mythology where you primarily get stronger by farming rice. And as you're stronger you're more able to go out into the world to adventure, but that also gets you the stuff you need to get better at rice farming! You can parry just about every enemy in the game and break their poise to kill them more easily and you can pull off shenanigans with a grappling hook. That said, when you're not airdashing and grappling and groundpounding and parrying and otherwise fighting for your life at Night, when everything's much stronger, because you want their uncommon elemental drops as crafting mats, it's a lovely, light-hearted, and pleasantly chill experience.

You can generally sort of brute force things with grinding out rice harvests to level up your stats, each of your attributes corresponds to a rice attribute.
Your rice's Yield corresponds to Sakuna's HP. Tastiness improves Sakuna's physical Strength. Hardiness affects Sakuna's Vitality. Stickiness affects her Gusto, which is the stat that determines how long her food buffs last and how long you can adventure before needing to come home and regroup. Aesthetic determines Sakuna's Luck, meaning pretty rice gives her a higher crit rate. Maybe it affects drop rate too? Iunno. Finally Aroma corresponds to Sakuna's Magic stat, because good-smelling rice makes your special moves hit harder, obviously. (It's also literally the most ethereal of the basic qualities rice can possess so it makes an elegant sort of sense.)

The different ways you can grow rice, how you fertilize the field, how much water to fill the paddy with, whether or not you correctly drain the field to ensure the offshoot stage doesn't overgrow (which would weaken the plants' capacity to send nutrients to the sprouting grains), and if you release DUCKS into the field. These all determine whether your harvest will have an especially impressive Yield, Glutinousness (Taste, Stickiness, Hardiness), Aesthetic, or Aroma. Different methods of rice growing produce different varieties of rice.

And how thoroughly you hull the rice determines whether you have Brown Rice, Mixed Rice, or White Rice! Brown rice gives much better stat boosts in meals due to the nutritive value, but white rice gives more exp and is worth more in trade due to its flavor and lusciousness.

The gameplay loop is just, absolutely perfect for what it's going for and adventuring, rice farming, and gathering crafting mats/fertilizer ingredients, it all feeds into each other in a satisfying way. And Sakuna's english dub is exactly the right level of cartoony spoiled brat her character calls for, making everything a fun experience overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqI7Iqb1pak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTfzHsGaYRg

https://twitter.com/manfightdragon/status/1319248129288400897?s=20

2 - 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - The most ambitious game writing of 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hfxr1LCtvY

I'd heard good things about this game a few months ago, and Yoko Taro tweeted that people should play it which was endorsement enough for me. Well, so did Hideo Kojima but I couldn't really care less what that starfucker thinks, what's he gonna do, advertise AMC shows at me?

But eh.

I had pretty high expectations going in and, to my surprise, every single one of them had been met. It's like someone saw Octopath Traveler's eight protags gimmick, said "we could do more, and better," and actually wrote a surprisingly tight story tying all of them together. Each protag sort of has an obvious premise or hook to their story that makes it look like they're going to be following some sci-fi trope or cliche, which is cute enough, but their stories don't rely on those tropes but rather use them as commentary about the characters themselves.

There's the amnesiac guy who was a hero from the future, but who can no longer fight. And who is the lynchpin of a whole lotta this poo poo, in ways that he might not want to know.

There's a friendly girl who falls for a mysterious and dangerous boy in over his head, but it's really loving weird that she looks exactly like the younger version of another character. And the older version of yet another, who has the same name as the older character. That's odd.

There's an atheltic girl who finds a little robot buddy and gets time shunted face first into witnessing the aftermath of the apocalypse.

There's the delinquent girl looking for her missing friend, who she doesn't know was time-shunted face first into witnessing the aftermath of the apocalypse. And she gets recruited by a shadowy conspiracy who are also looking for people. This can only end well.

There's the kid who lives alone in an apartment his family rents for him, who fell for the delinquent girl and has no idea he's about to end this city's entire career.

There's the delinquent boy who is locked in a time loop at the train station where he and the girl he likes are doomed to die when the kaiju attack, and he has to figure out how to break the loop and save them both.

There's the girl the delinquent boy likes, who is actually from 40 years in the future and is a survivor of another era that was destroyed by the kaiju, but she and her friend live in the 1980's now as refugees who are sworn to secrecy.

There's that girl's friend, who lives with the amnesiac hero and takes care of him. She's smitten with him, as he was the boy who nearly gave his life saving her and her friend, and she will do anything to be with him. Even making a deal with the devil.

There's not one, but two boys from WW2-era Japan. They're culture shocked by the fantastic food of 1980's Japan. One is a himbo who winds up questioning his sexuality.

The other one, a bit more of a nerd, has a hook that really takes you by surprise when you first start his story that spins even more mystery into the mix. You see a version of him in 2188, an engineer helping establishing a colony, and you see 2188 versions of two other protagonists working with him. Then you get shunted back to the WW2 perspective and are left wondering What The gently caress Is Going On.

There's the mysterious and dangerous boy mentioned above. Why does he have a future gun? Oh no, did he murder the school nurse? He's also got amnesia, gently caress. And now people are after him. The conspiracy that conscripted the delinquent girl!

Another member of the conspiracy is in a bad way, though. She's another hero from the future, but she's badly hurt and suffering from an even worse case of whatever's been giving these future people amnesia, and she's reliving the same day over and over again and oh god her story is so bleak

And then there's the rear end in a top hat who's less developed as a character and his job is mostly to investigate the truth behind what's really going on. He gets a few great moments with the other character who knows what's going on, and their final bet on the future of humankind was definitely a hype moment. But mostly, he's here to explain the truth to the players who might not realize how everything fits together.

But it does. It fits together so drat well, and there's only a couple of dropped plot threads out of a tapestry of dozens. And almost all of these stories don't end the way you'd expect them to, they do a great job mixing it up and revealing more information that both recontextualizes everything you've seen thus far, and sets up further mysteries for you to unravel. Until it all comes together into one big picture that left me awestruck.

This isn't just an intriguing multi-faceted mystery, it's just good sci-fi. I genuinely did not expect that, when everything started getting tied together and the truth became clear, that this game was going into honest-to-goodness Asimov territory.

Everything makes sense. Everything fits. Even the dropped stuff you can infer both why they were dropped in-text and figure out what happened in another plotline to make those concerns irrelevant and why the characters involved would switch gears and pursue other avenues of investigation. It's amazing how well written this story is given how complex and ambitious everything was from the off.

The ending was beautiful, hopeful, and intimidating in the scope of the universe it posed before me. And the special stinger added to the database after beating the game only drove that further home.

This game was an accomplishment.

Also, this game takes a swerve into Macross territory, too, and the nostalgia hit me like Yuki's flying gen4 sentinel spike kick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oq9utTsAMg

The rest of the battle music also slaps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDdJvfvdcUA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3wkbqDUpeE

The tower defense stuff is pretty okay too.

I know this gif gets a lot of play but it's a really badass moment

(double Ryoko sentry op, ~~pls nerf~~)

I think this is my only Platinum'd game on PSN to boot.

13 Sentinels probably would've been my GOTY if another game hadn't come by and, in a radical upset for the ages, won the coinflip I was using to determine the final two of my list.

So without further ado,

1 - Yakuza: Like A Dragon - Go forth and lead a wonderful life, Ichiban
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAFDPE-gDBg
The Dragon of Rock Bottom Rises to the Top!

(thanks for the steam store points y'all)
I chose my words for that steam review very carefully, despite it ignoring over half the characters in your party. Because it's technically correct. The best kind of correct.

A while ago, as an April Fool's joke the devs introduced a mockup of the game as a turn-based jrpg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noioqCv92hM
And then, while nobody was looking, continued making it. They made a full-length JRPG as a joke. They turned the entire game into a 50+ hour long JRPG because people thought the joke was funny.

And it's awesome.

Let's get it out of the way, I loving love this game. I loved playing it. I love watching streamers play it. After a somewhat disappointing Yakuza 6 and an outstanding but non-mainline Judgment, YLAD comes in like a wrecking ball and knocked me right off my feet. Thankfully, because I was already on the ground, it missed me on the backswing so I didn't take double damage from the attack.

Kasuga Ichiban stands in stark contrast to Kiryu Kazuma, the protagonist who the franchise has followed for almost two decades now. That's a long legacy to live up to. And by golly, I didn't think he was going to be able to but he does. Kiryu is a stoic, unflappable man who switches over to incredibly intense or comedically out of his depth depending on the context, a man whose unwavering values and unimpeachable sense of honor stand tall against unstoppable odds. How does a guy like Ichi follow that up?

It's going to sound weird that I'm saying this as a compliment but, Ichiban is fundamentally a good-hearted shonen protagonist. He's a power of friendship, hope, determination, and optimism guy. You may have seen dozens of this kind of protagonist before, it's pretty much a cliche at this point. So what makes Ichi special? Well, he's interesting in that he's not hamstrung by editorial mandate to only extend his kindness and goodness to what people would normally consider "decent" society, he's a grown man (with maybe an issue with regards to arrested development) who was born and raised in a soapland--a brothel--and who is unfazed by the underbelly of society. And who extends his helping hand to the people society tries to forget. The disenfranchised. The homeless. The sex worker. The illegal immigrant.

Kasuga Ichiban is a man with a deep wellspring of humanity in his heart and the balls to fight for the genuinely defenseless. The people who have no one else to turn to, for whom police are predators to be avoided, who society shuns and spits upon. Ichiban fights for them.

He's loyal, he's goofy, he's a bit thick-headed and out of touch with the modern world, being in the slammer for almost half his life, but he's an enthusiastic and earnest student. Sometimes being out of touch means he doesn't completely appreciate the struggles some people go through, but he's willing to shut up and learn. And he will help. He's a man thrown away by the family he swore loyalty to, but still believes in the father figure who left him for dead.

His grin is the biggest, poo poo-eatingest grin you'll ever see. Definitely gives the wrong first impression about him, but he'll ride that first impression all the way to the circus and introduce you to the animals there. Before the animals try to kick your rear end after an increasingly comical series of developments.

https://i.imgur.com/PfgWNBI.mp4

And then in an equally increasingly unlikely and comedic series of events, he becomes the president of a small confectionary store that under his leadership, if you do the management minigame, rises to become one of the biggest businesses in Yokohama. And you should do the management minigame, because beating it gives you the power to call down your company's Orbital Laser in battle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3wCZIUopgo
https://twitter.com/envinyon/status/1172033820851392517?s=20

Yeah, it's a Yakuza game alright.

This story is about a gangster from a small-time family in the Tojo Clan with a heart of gold and terminal, completely hopeless gamer brain who hits rock bottom, finds help in unlikely places, then decides to fight for the people at the bottom with him.

And he's fighting against not just against unscrupulous fellow yakuza or exploitation from the criminal underworld, no. The Dark Lord he opposes is an rear end in a top hat named Ryo Aoki (the blue to his red), none other than the leader of a puritanical far-right anti-immigration movement called Bleach Japan, that has surged in popularity on a platform espousing Law and Justice, to "bleach" out the legal gray zones in which the most unfortunate of society are forced to operate, and who hypocritically are themselves backed by organized crime (the Omi Alliance, the Tojo Clan's biggest rival) and fueled by corruption in politics.

Did I mention he has terminal gamer brain? Well he does. Especially Dragon Quest. And because of this, he sees the entire world in terms of turn-based, jrpg combat. This is canon.

With a Job System

that you also use to change your costume

You can also take Exams to raise your personality stats, and some of them are actually pretty difficult!
https://i.imgur.com/thhKjQZ.mp4
(Especially the exam that's quizzing you about really obscure facts from past yakuza games. Also, Sega, I refuse to accept that Robo Pitcher was a console, your quiz is busted.)

But when you pass an exam, you get treated like a drat hero and I wish school was like that in real life.

You can also ~~play pacman~~ collect cans and turn them in for prizes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79xjig9DLaA

Or play Dragon Kart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8r5Npb-uAY

Also this is some detailed bread-eating, goddamn

Also, there are Heat Moves, which in this game are super spells that send your enemies to the Fiddy Zone.
I had some mp4s here but they were really much too big.

Also, apropos of nothing, David Hayter plays the Barkeep in the english dub. They don't confirm it but he's definitely Kashiwagi. Actually the entire english dub is really good. I recommend it! Though I played in japanese first, I've watched people play it in english and the dub cast really knocked it out of the park. Though hearing the series' classic karaoke songs in english is loving surreal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z5C621j6vY

The ending, in particular, was incredibly, emotionally raw and both the Japanese and English VAs for Ichiban poured their hearts into their performances. Don't sleep on the dub, even if you're a giant weeb like me.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon, is a love letter to the history of the franchise and an incredibly bold direction. It is also my favorite game in the series.

Now that I've said my words, I'm comfortable letting this youtube also say things, because it's funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmH9fj1r2sA

Also the battle theme here, too, is a bop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHuRaPrFozc

this dungeon theme also owns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yl9kpnQGNY

this is the job system theme, it's very heroic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf7FouazhJM

so's the school theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad5yKvNxlsE

Also this restaurant theme is incredible. Yes, it's a Chinese restaurant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbAcIqZNbCM

Play Yakuza 7, also upvote my steam review so I get more steam points I guess.

Runa fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Dec 31, 2020

# ¿ Dec 31, 2020 05:22

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Probably that dang shark tbh

E:

Regy Rusty posted:

Nothing like a good Yak 7 essay

thank you!

Runa fucked around with this message at 12:32 on Dec 31, 2020

# ¿ Dec 31, 2020 05:32

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Ibblebibble posted:

Man all this hype about LAD and I was very confused when I couldn't find it on Steam. Turns out that in Asia LAD is a PS4 timed exclusive Guess I'll have to wait a bit then.

Oh that's rude as hell, drat

# ¿ Dec 31, 2020 08:38

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

I haven't done a real count but eyeballing it, looks like Hades is gonna take it. And it's a drat fine game that got snubbed in favor of TLOU2 at the dewritos awards, an awards show so out of touch and bought that there wasn't a single vtuber in their Content Creator of the Year category, in 2020, the year where vtubers took the internet by storm. So seeing it win here feels like some kind of justice. For my part I'll just be glad if my vote helped put 13sen and YLAD into the top 5. I'm also super glad to see so many people repping FF14 in here.

Sakuna sure as heck isn't going to make it into the broader rankings but in a lot of ways it was, to me, what I thought Hades was going to be, so I'm proud to rep it even a little bit.

If I'd managed to get my list done earlier in the month I might've been able to convince more people to give YLAD a shot and put it on their lists, but if more people play it at all then I'll be happy. Ichibanka, the song at the top of my writeup, is such a drat good theme for a character and an ending theme for a game and I recommend listening to it while reading my rambling review.

Runa fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Dec 31, 2020

# ¿ Dec 31, 2020 12:22

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

There are merits to both jumping into YLAD blind and going in after experiencing the rest of the series, and any degree of experience in between.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2020 14:58

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

univbee posted:

I 100% agree with everything in this post, and this is also my #1 game.

Have almost 100%ed the game on PC. There are two post-game dungeons and the last one is quite the challenge.

Started replaying it on PS4 in French, even live-translated it on stream for a bit. The French version (text only) is also very good and I think the same is true for all the other languages the game is officially available in, so absolutely give it a go if you're stronger in one of those languages than English (the four Asian versions are PlayStation-only).

I will absolutely day one the next game in the series, this one to me is nearly perfect and they could easily fix the few rough edges now that they've had some experience with making an RPG like this. The only gotcha is that the storyline pretty exhaustively covers Ichiban's past and they'd have to go somewhere new with a new series entry, probably, which might have less going for it.

#2 for me, since I didn't really get this game going until late, is Death Stranding. I completely understand the polarizing nature of the game but if you treat it as the world's most advanced walking simulator it's incredible. Just an absolutely grandiose sensation of looking out to the horizon at a mountain or other landscape and working out how you will reach your next objective, and a surprisingly hopeful and pleasant game for one that hits so close to the current situation of the world. Play it on PC if you can, the game is surprisingly light on system requirements and you get an extra difficulty as well as excellent usage of DLSS and unlocked framerates (although cutscenes are capped at 60fps).

I'd put three other games in your goty list so your votes get counted in the final tally. Your No.1 gets 10 points, your No.2 gets 9, and so on till 10, though you need a minimum of five games on your list to get any voting power at all.

I am mainly saying this because I want YLAD to do well (lol)

ketchup vs catsup posted:

how much better will Yakuza: LaD be if I've played Yakuza 0-6 vs not?

Two of the final chapters will resonate much harder and it makes one particular plot point very bittersweet if you have. Also you'll catch the cameos and references. How much that adds to the experience is up to you, but the devs did design the bulk of this game, like 0, to be a potential launching point for new players. All that other stuff is mainly a reward for old fans.

FlowerRhythmREMIX posted:

Oh boy, does 13 Sentinels have some bad news for you.

Don't toy with my heart like this

# ¿ Dec 31, 2020 23:38

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

BeanpolePeckerwood posted:

lol i'm amused that it seems like people are competing to see who can play the most amount of games for 5 minutes each

I mean there's only like 8 more hours left gotta be economic

# ¿ Jan 1, 2021 00:23

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Happy New Year!

🎉

🎊

# ¿ Jan 1, 2021 09:31

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Yeah people still wanna see your thoughts about games.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2021 23:45

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

That was my first instinct too and I beat the game in Japanese. That said, the dub really grew on me after watching other people play it in English and it was a pretty smooth transition for my brain to start associating the characters with their English voices.

It's actually really well done and I'm glad the series broadened it's appeal with a dub, to maybe help counteract how drat niche it is to be a full-on JRPG now.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2021 15:16

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

I liked reading the your list anyway!

# ¿ Jan 3, 2021 15:31

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Oh it's an egs exclusive on pc, explains why I hadn't heard of it till this thread

# ¿ Jan 6, 2021 00:06

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Yeah I can respect that list.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2021 06:41

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

BeanpolePeckerwood posted:

Inclusion of Titanfall 2 is a pro move.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2021 06:50

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Hades should get a Golden Dusie

# ¿ Jan 7, 2021 22:09

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

oof

# ¿ Jan 7, 2021 23:25

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Relax Or DIE posted:

it couldn't beat cyberpunk for that category anyway

I still can't believe they nerfed the hang dong with fly open bug

# ¿ Jan 8, 2021 05:05

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

The Dragoon eating poo poo in the trailer was a clear giveaway that it was a Yoshi-P game.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2021 10:17

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

VideoGames posted:

Just so you are aware, I had everyone's lists attached to their name in my spreadsheet and accidentally erased the links.

No matter, I thought. I will just use the SA search function to locate the posts with the names of the games I want in them.

OH HO HO HO NO! Says the search function when it refuses to show me any entries for Factorio for some reason.

Pouring out a 40 for those choice links

# ¿ Jan 9, 2021 22:28

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

I'm glad PoE2 got some love, its a lot better than the first game but basically got no attention. Probably because the first game was weak enough the IP had basically no momentum outside of the first game's KS and release.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2021 22:35