My Top Ten Favorite Games Of 2018

​​2018 may not have been as strong a year for games as 2017, but when I look back on all the games I played, I’m still pleased with the year as a whole. I usually aim to beat 50 games a year, with roughly 75% from the current year, but this year I lowered my goal to 40 games. I managed to beat 42 games this year and the split just happened to be exactly 50/50 between new and old. I tend to gravitate towards longer games and I think lowering the goal helped me feel less pressured to rush through the games I did play.

While my blog today is mainly concerned with the best games of 2018, I do want to mention how happy I am that I was able to play through the six Ys games I had yet to play. I kept calling 2018 my “Year of Ys” and though I cut it close to the end, I managed to finish all of them. I’m planning to write about Ys in the near future so please look forward to it!

While this is my first game of the year blog on my new website, I’m using the same format and rules I’ve always used for my top ten favorite games of the year blogs. First and foremost, the game has to be new for 2018, so no basic ports or remakes. I excluded the 2018 Shadow of the Colossus PS4 remake for example since the changes are primarily graphical. The other major rule is that since this blog is for my favorite games of the year, they are not necessarily the best games of the year, but rather the ones that resonated with me the most. For the first time, I’ll also share the full list of games I beat in 2018 after the rankings since I know some of you will be interested.

Before I get into it, I want to give brief honorable mentions to Kemono Friends Picross and Celeste. Kemono Friends Picross was my first Picross game and I became thoroughly addicted to it. I especially enjoyed playing the co-op mode with a friend as it is fun to try to convince both yourself and another person that you are making legal moves on the larger, more complicated puzzles. The other game I loved was Celeste, an incredibly difficult 2D platformer that’s about battling depression. Celeste barely missed my top ten because I challenged the more difficult levels more than I should have, but I really enjoyed the main campaign.

With that said, here are my top ten favorite games of 2018! I hope you enjoy it!

10: Dragon Ball FighterZ (PS4, also on Switch, Xbox One, and PC)

I grew up watching and loving Dragon Ball Z, but by the end of the Buu arc and the start of Dragon Ball GT I had checked out. The villains and story became so dumb that I was actively repelled by it, but I always wanted an excuse to get back into Dragon Ball because I still loved the characters and concept. That excuse never came until the reveal of Dragon Ball FighterZ by Arc System Works. Attaching Arc System Works name to any project immediately garners my interest as they are my favorite fighting game developers in the world. One look at Dragon Ball FighterZ and you can tell Arc System Works was absolutely the perfect fit for FighterZ as it looks and sounds just like the anime and all the little details just further sell it. I appreciate that FighterZ is simpler than Arc System Works’ other fighting games especially as 3v3 tag battle games are inherently complicated as you manage your team and the fight directly in front of you. I’m glad Dragon Ball FighterZ reignited my love for Dragon Ball, but sadly I couldn’t play it with friends as much as I hoped so it fell out of rotation after a few months.

9: Xenoblade 2 Torna: The Golden Country (Switch)

While Xenoblade 2 made my list last year, it ridiculously took 30 of the 80 hours I sunk into it for all the various systems to properly gel together. Xenoblade 2 Torna shares a lot of similarities with Xenoblade 2, but most crucially its new combat system is a vast improvement. In Torna your party consists of three human Driver characters who are each accompanied by two Blades characters. In battle, as your team’s main green health depletes a red sliver remains that refills when you swap between Driver and Blade similar to a tag team fighting game. Since enemies hit hard and have a ton of health, there are constantly real decisions to make in every fight as you’ll be juggling the very real threat of defeat against properly executing combos. If you play as the main character, Lora, your roles in battle are clearly meaningful as you are directly responsible for Jin, the main damage dealer, and Haze, the party’s sole healer. By limiting your full party to nine characters, systems that were obfuscated in Xenoblade 2 such as driver and blade combos become easier to incorporate into your general strategy.

The improved battle system pushes you to explore and take on quests and thankfully Torna lives up to the series’ high standards in map and world design. Gormott returns alongside the new Torna Titan that offers three new zones, a town, and a dungeon to explore. I was especially fond of the desert zone outside the Tornan Capital that features elevated rocky formations to climb and a small cave system to explore. The story may not have been as grand as I hoped aside from the epic conclusion, but I appreciated the air of tragedy that hung over the journey and that the party primarily consisted of adults around my age (Lora is an awesome protagonist). Although I was initially bitter about the two back to back side quest walls at the end of the adventure, I became invested enough in the world that I completed 100% of the side quests and defeated a majority of the optional bosses before I concluded my 29 hour playthrough.

8: Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (PS4)

With Yakuza 6 I finally felt myself falling more into the series’ groove. While the main story offers the most well-paced and exciting missions, I began to invest myself more in the side content. Yakuza 6 once again features Kamurocho to explore, a fictional version of Tokyo’s red light district, and a new town, Onomichi in Hiroshima. Onomichi stands in stark contrast to Kamurocho since it is a sleepy fishing town mostly occupied by an aging population. Like Kamurocho, by the end of the game you’ll know Onomichi like the back of your hand as you run back and forth solving problems. When I took a break from the main story, I enjoyed establishing my own street gang, going spear fishing, live chatting on the internet, playing Puyo Puyo at the arcade, and rescuing cats to build up my own cat café. I was most impressed with a completely missable activity where you can repeatedly visit a bar to become friends with everyone inside. By ordering drinks, talking with your friends, and singing karaoke you can slowly win over all of the regulars and take on individual quests to cement your friendship.

The core mysteries of the game held my interest more than the central characters: why was Haruka involved in a car accident, who was her child and who was the father, and ultimately just what was the secret to Onomichi? That said, I still enjoyed interacting with Kiryu’s new rival character, Takumi Someya, and Toru Hirose, a very laidback Onomichi yakuza patriarch. Each chapter of the game felt like an episode to a TV show and most cliffhangers were wilder than the last. Though I still need to play Yakuza 3, 4, and 5, I still enjoyed the end of Kazuma Kiryu’s story as it played with his origins in Yakuza Kiwami and offered him a satisfying send off.

7: BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (Switch and PS4, also on PC)

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle unites characters from BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena, French Bread’s Under Night In-Birth, and RWBY for a 2v2 fighting game. RWBY characters aside, Arc Systems Works had to reconcile the massive differences between three fighting game series while striving to make a simpler battle system on the surface that is still in-depth enough for their fans. Does it work? For the most part I’d say yes. I loved introducing people to BBTag because I’d hand them a Joy Con and they only had to deal with two attack buttons and a character swap button to compete. Like BlazBlue proper, it’s easy to learn mechanics one by one and incorporate them into your playstyle. From the 40 playable characters, Es and Gordeau form my main team, and I like dabbling with Makoto, Azrael, Yu, Chie, Kanji, Labrys, Linne, Yuzuriha, and Mika. Others like Platinum broke my heart because they are too far removed from how they play in their proper fighting games. Fights in BBTag are incredibly fast, because the characters are fragile, but good reads can save you from the brink of disaster. In my most memorable match, one of my friends put my partner character out of commission while his team had full health. As Ragna flew into battle he shouted “I’ll do it myself!” and well…he and I did which was astounding.

Thanks to the glorious return of the English dub cast I thoroughly enjoyed the story mode. The BlazBlue dub cast is a who’s who of voice actors and seeing them interact with the excellent Persona cast is a dream come true. Of the four campaigns, the BlazBlue campaign is my favorite since Patrick Seitz returns as Ragna and his line delivery truly elevates both the drama and absurd humor. My enthusiasm for BBTag cooled after the last DLC character packs dropped, but I can’t wait to see what the future is for the game. My personal hope is that Arcana Heart will be the new fifth universe to be introduced so we can get a wealth of new characters joining the fray.

6: Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion (Switch)

I adore the all too brief Splatoon campaigns since they marry third person shooter mechanics with the inventiveness and design philosophies of the Mario Galaxy games. When I learned Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion DLC would be a tough 80+ level gauntlet (more than twice as long as the main game!) I was ecstatic and the final experience exceeded my expectations. Throughout the Octo Expansion, Nintendo constantly finds new twists on existing obstacles and they get a ton of mileage from the new 8-Balls you’ll frequently be guiding through levels. Most interestingly, many levels have a choice of difficulty determined by what weapon you select at the start. Other levels restrict you to particular weapons including normally special skills like the jet pack. The main 80 levels channel Mario Galaxy and Portal levels in tone and in their absurdly high quality, while the final linear multilevel gauntlet reminded me of Wily’s Castle in a Megaman game as the difficulty ramps further up to build a satisfying, epic conclusion.

5: Valkyria Chronicles IV (Switch, also on PS4, Xbox One, and PC)

I adored the original Valkryia Chronicles and it was a shame it took over a decade for a proper sequel to be realized. After a brief tutorial mission, Valkyria Chronicles IV quickly gets down to business on the strategy front as it tasks you with assaulting a fortress. What appears to be a hopeless battle is quickly turned around by the introduction of the new grenadier class that uses mortars to strike at great distance from above. For a majority of the levels, I loved how objectives and tactics would change midbattle as seemingly simple situations became far more involved. One of my favorite levels has your squad parachute into a sea fortress and you have to regroup under the cover of fog, sabotage two cannons under a strict time limit, and then safely escape as reinforcements constantly appear to thwart you. While normal missions are awesome, a not insignificant amount of levels feature boss fights and most of them are lame bullet sponges with wildly unfair abilities. I often wasted a turn abusing orders and pouring explosives into them because it wasn’t worth the headache of letting them act properly.

While the core strategy gameplay is excellent from the start, the story takes about four or five chapters to get going. There is an abrupt tonal shift here as the war becomes far more desperate and traumatic and the characters are constantly forced to make tough choices on how to proceed. I spent ten minutes myself agonizing over one particular choice I had to make. Speaking of characters, my favorites are definitely Claude, Riley, and Kai. Claude is an especially endearing protagonist as he leads his squad as best he can while maintaining his humanity in the horrors of war. Compared to the original Valkyria Chronicles, I felt a greater connection to my squad mates in Valkyria Chronicles IV. As before, every character has their quirks. Some are positive like getting a buff when surrounded by friends while others are negative like a character abruptly ending their turn if too many enemies are looking at them. This time though, if you deploy with the same characters multiple times you’ll eventually unlock a squad story that features three characters struggling to get along. When you complete the bonus mission (some of which are just as well as thought out as the ones in the main campaign) all three characters who bonded together will have one of their negative quirks transform into a very positive one. Overall, Valkyria Chronicles IV is an incredibly unique strategy game with a ton of heart poured into it and I couldn’t walk away until I obtained the true ending after 50 hours. I hope the series will one day return just as strong.

4: Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] (PS4 and Vita, also on PS3)

I enjoyed the first Under Night In-Birth game, but it was missing key features that would have given it greater staying power. Under Night In Birth Exe:Late[st] (aka UNIST) thoroughly addresses these short comings. First, there are four new unique characters in UNIST to bring the total character count up to 20. Mika is my favorite newcomer as she constantly exudes enthusiasm and is equipped with over-sized rocket powered gauntlets to bash and grapple foes. Secondly, UNIST adds a proper visual novel story mode that features every playable character (aside from the two guest characters) and chapters for prominent NPCs as well. This story mode is incredibly uneven. It starts with the most boring chapter following a dramatically indecisive Orie and immediately peaks with Mika’s hilariously wild journey to Japan where she breaks out of her organization’s jail, attempts to stowaway on a plane, and becomes trapped on a deserted island. Sadly, no chapter is remotely as excellent as Mika’s, but I did enjoy Gordeau’s, Byakuya’s, Nanase’s, and Merkava’s. I’m glad the story mode decently paints a picture of who these characters actually are which helped me better connect with them.

Finally, I’m glad UNIST introduces an extensive tutorial that is amazingly an encyclopedia on not just itself, but 2D fighting games as a whole. Each individual character has tons of combos to practice and general tips for how they should be played. Smash Bros aside, UNIST is easily my favorite fighting game this year. I dove in deep, thanks to all of the new features, and also because I had two friends who played alongside me. I learned how to better play my three favorite characters, Linne, Mika, and Nanase, and more of the advanced mechanics that I can now regularly take advantage of in battle. UNIST will prominently be in my fighting game rotation for years to come and I’ll happily keep improving as I battle away.

3: Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4)

My favorite moment in Yakuza Kiwami 2 happens countless times throughout the adventure as every time you walk into a fight Kiryu confidently closes his fingers into a fist and assumes a fighting stance. That attitude permeates Kiwami 2, my favorite Yakuza game to date. In addition to the standard mystery and drama, Kiwami 2 is driven by Kiryu’s rivalry with Ryuji Goda, a young and brash yakuza who hits like a truck. You’ll square off with him a few times in Kiwami 2 with ever rising stakes. From cutscenes to combat, everything feels quicker and more elegant in Kiwami 2. While I still prefer to tackle street brawls with my fists, I enjoyed now having quick access to three weapons for more flexibility in normal encounters and difficult bosses.

For the first time in a Yakuza game, I actually 100% completed all of the substories. A substory typically features you interacting with people you meet on the street, but they are also tied to the game’s larger activities. The biggest in Kiwami 2 is the return of managing a cabaret club alongside Yuki from Yakuza 0. You have to train your team, match them with the right customers, and offer assistance when they need help. Outside of it, you’ll recruit more employees by clearing quests and can boost business by advertising in local stores. As you progress deeper into the storyline, you’ll join your team for after parties and can go on dates with a few of them. Besides the cabaret sim, I also really enjoyed the new golfing activity. While I had the most fun with bingo golf, I also liked the ludicrously obstacle filled courses. In going for 100% sub story completion, I experienced almost everything Kiwami 2 had to offer and I enjoyed the vast majority of it.

​2: Spider-Man (PS4)

Insomiac’s Spider-Man is a potent mixture of Spider-Man 2 back on the Gamecube and the Batman Arkham Asylum games. After an entertaining prologue, you are soon set free to web sling across a gorgeous recreation of Manhattan. To most effectively swing through the city, you’ll occasionally need to manually aim your webs. The game strikes the impossible balance of guiding you through enough of it to never make it feel like a chore, but instead to feel empowering when you take advantage of the extra precision. I had so much fun web swinging that even when fast travel became available, I hardly ever used it.

Nailing the swinging was most crucial, but what elevated Spider-Man so high on my list was the combat and the story. Spider-Man is very frail, but very nimble, and thanks to your Spidey-Sense you’ll know when you are going to be attacked. When I first started, I was decimated over and over by the same pack of thugs, but by the end I felt confident enough to take on an army. I loved walking into fights by launching a web bomb, using the heavier webbing to disable anyone with a gun, and then bouncing between the remaining enemies to disable them with web slingers. The side activities in Spider-Man are basic such as stopping random crimes (stopping a speeding car is super cool) and taking down enemy hideouts, but because the combat is so excellent, I rushed to do all of them on the map and ultimately claimed the Platinum Trophy.

As for the story, first and foremost Yuri Lowenthal’s Spider-Man is my favorite take on Peter Parker and Spider-Man to date. He’s immediately relatable and his constant quips are funny more often than not. The characters around him are also very well brought to life, including Aunt May, Miles Morales (my first real introduction to the character) and Laura Bailey’s Mary Jane. My favorites were probably Otto Octavius who is Peter’s boss and a character I wasn’t familiar with previously called Mister Negative. I haven’t played the DLC yet, but I’m so excited to see where the story will head in a sequel.

1: Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch)

I felt Spider-Man would surely be my game of the year because I was fully engrossed in it, but then Super Smash Bros Ultimate came out and changed everything. Once my digital copy of Smash Bros unlocked following the shocking reveal that Joker would be the first DLC character, I dug out my Gamecube Controller adapter, unboxed a new Gamecube controller, and then I played it for eight hours. I primarily stuck to the main Smash mode to see what was new and I slowly, but steadily started unlocking 66 characters. I was fully free the next day and once again all I did was play Smash. I was playing because I loved it, but I also wanted to unlock everyone before I had my first Smash party on that Saturday afternoon. While I was bitter about the unlock process on paper, it afforded me the opportunity to get a good feel for the roster, and thankfully I unlocked my last character early Saturday morning at the dentist. Ever since, I’ve been playing the game constantly and trying to do so with friends as much as possible.

Every time I enter the character select screen and I’m greeted by 74 characters I’m always gripped with indecision. I still can’t believe “Everyone Is Here” (which incidentally was the most emotional trailer of the year) in addition to eleven new characters even if five of them are echo fighters/clones. Although Lucas is still my main and he’s better than ever (PK Fire and PK Freeze can kill!), I’m enjoying dabbling with a ton of characters new and old. Of the newcomers, Ridley is my favorite. He feels brutal, especially with his side B attack that drags characters along the ground before he hurls them in the air. More than individual characters what really strikes me about Smash Ultimate is the game’s speed. It’s a touch out of control, which works better than I would have expected. Everyone is always in your face in Ultimate and one glance away can spell disaster, but it’s never overwhelming either like Melee. In other words, you always have to be engaged with Smash Ultimate in order to succeed and that’s a great thing. Since your characters are so responsive it feels so good to play and all of the new effects, especially the zoomed in final blow, make it feel all the more personal and dynamic.

It’s odd how many of the single player modes are gone but I honestly don’t really miss them outside of the Home-Run Contest since I only want to spend all of my time in the main Smash mode. I can’t wait to see how this game will expand over the next year and I personally hope the DLC will extend beyond the Fighter Pass. Regardless, what we have already is so comprehensive and exudes so much quality that it has thoroughly captured my interest and imagination. It’s no question Super Smash Bros Ultimate is my 2018 game of the year.

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Thank you for reading my latest blog, I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @JustinMikos to share your thoughts and what games you most enjoyed this year as well as what games you are looking forward to in 2019. Also, as promised, below is the full list of games I beat last year. Until next time!

2018 Games I Beat

Celeste
DJMAX Respect
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Kirby Star Allies
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle
Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion
Mario Tennis Aces
Mario And Rabbids: Donkey Kong Expansion
Warioware Gold
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy
Yakuza Kiwami 2
Spider-Man (Platinum Trophy)
Kemono Friends Picross (100%)
Taiko Drum Master Drum Session
Taiko Drum Master Drum And Fun
Valkyria Chronicles IV (True Ending)
Xenoblade 2 Torna: The Golden Country
Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Tetris Effect

Old Games I Beat in 2018

Xenoblade 2
VVVVVV
Ys PSP
Downwell
Ys Origin (Yunica Replay, Hugo, Toal)
Gravity Rush 2
Shadow of the Colossus PS4
Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD
Geometry Wars III
Virtua Fighter 5 Arcade
Fire Emblem Warriors
Golf Story
Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King
Rogue Legacy
Actual Sunlight
Ys II
Ys: The Oath In Felghana
Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Picross
Ys Seven
Velocity 2X