​One of the most exciting announcements from the February 2022 Nintendo Direct was the announcement of the Booster Pass coming to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe which will double the number of tracks in the game by adding 48 tracks from past games across six waves. During the pandemic, I have been thoroughly enjoying playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with family and friends. While it is my favorite Mario Kart game by far, these 48 new tracks are incredibly welcome as I logged 71 hours into the Wii U version and I’ve crossed 260 hours with the Switch version. With the first eight tracks announced alongside the pass, trying to figure what should be the remaining forty is the immediate question. Even just accounting for the first seven games since I never enjoyed playing Mario Kart Tour, the mobile game, I found it impossible to come up with a balanced full list because I really haven’t revisited any of the Mario Kart games beyond Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 via their virtual console versions. After sitting on the Booster Pass news for a few days it became obvious it was finally time to revisit every game in the Mario Kart series.

The plan was simple. I would play on whatever the highest first available difficulty was for each game and claim the gold trophy in each original cup. Since I didn’t have a convenient save for Super Mario Kart, it ended up being the only game I raced in 100cc, whereas the others I ended up racing on the highest difficulty, 150cc. I planned just to do the original tracks in each game, though the moment I hit Mario Kart DS I did end up playing through all of the retro cups from then on anyway since I was having such a great time. Not counting the retro cups, I raced on 120 unique tracks over the course of five days! It was a very satisfying experience to be reacquainted with all of these games I grew up with and to see how the series evolved from game to game. I also had fun sharing my Mario Kart journey over Twitter which may just be my longest thread I’ve made there even edging out some of my lengthy RPG threads as I reviewed not just the games, but nearly every course as well. Since tweets and threads end up getting lost very quickly, I wanted to expand my thoughts and share them more permanently here on my blog. So here we are and here we go!

Super Mario Kart (SNES, I played on Nintendo Switch Online and raced as Yoshi)

I’ve been playing the Mario Kart series all of my life and I started with the very first game, Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo. Even from the start, Nintendo nailed the core of the franchise even though some of the details from what we see over the course of the series differ. There are four cups in Super Mario Kart, but unlike every other game there are five tracks in each course that you must complete five laps on compared to the now standard four tracks and three laps. There are eight racers to choose from, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi, Toad, Donkey Kong Jr., and Koopa Troopa. Driving over question blocks on the ground gives you random items influenced by your position, including shells to throw at opponents, mushrooms to boost your speed, and bananas you can lay as traps on the ground that will cause opponents to spin out. While they would disappear from the series for a while, the very first Mario Kart game also featured coins to pick up that boost your speed that were often laid out on the course in unique, creative layouts. The twenty courses here are divided into unique themes rather than the all unique courses of future games with the exception being the final course, Rainbow Road. Strangely then by modern Mario Kart standards, there are four Mario Circuits for example labeled simply Mario Circuit 1, Mario Circuit 2, Mario Circuit 3, and Mario Circuit 4. While sadly not a part of my replay series as I played the games alone, battle mode which pulls from these same themes first appeared in the original game though it was limited to being just a one-on-one battle.

I have fond memories of playing Super Mario Kart with my Mom and brother. My Mom doesn’t play a lot of video games, but we’ve enjoyed playing all of the Mario Karts throughout the years and have enjoyed playing a tremendous amount of Mario Kart 8 especially together throughout the pandemic. One of our favorite Mario Kart memories was of me telling her when I was very young to “stay out of the mud, Mom!” on the two Choco Island courses. As I revisited the game today, I was still impressed just how snappy the controls are even though drifting in particular is tough to take advantage of. There is a big focus on your lap times in Super Mario Kart that has vanished from the series today. It makes sense it would be such a big focus here given each course is five laps long and the difficulty is fairly strict. While there may only be a few themes, most of the courses have distinct ideas within them, such as jumping across the river from the broken bridge in Donut Plains 3, navigating the mud lake in Choco Island 2, and jumping over the track in Mario Circuit 2. Despite the chaos caused by items, there really is a core elegance to the game best exemplified in Rainbow Road. There aren’t a ton of obstacles on the final track, but the narrow road lacking guard rails keeps you incredibly focused on making precise movements to take tight corners and dodge rainbow thwomps. Super Mario Kart is thankfully widely available at the moment as anyone with a Nintendo Switch Online membership has access to the game via the Super Nintendo app. You’ll be in for some whiplash if you haven’t experienced it prior, but I really think it’s awesome to check out and see the humble origins of the series.

Mario Kart 64 (N64, I played on my Wii Virtual Console copy and raced as Wario)

Time and place, Mario Kart 64 is perhaps my favorite Mario Kart game and cemented my love for the series. I have fond memories growing up with Mario Kart 64 not just of playing the game with my Mom and brother, but also playing the game with my cousins in Virginia when I went to visit them over Summer breaks. The series transitioned wonderfully into 3D with Mario Kart 64 as you can now play with up to four people for the first time in splitscreen. The sixteen, all new tracks are legendary in the series as they are all exceptionally designed and offer exciting ideas and obstacles not really repeated amongst them. There is a lot of wonder to be had in Mario Kart 64 that’s actually rewarded since you can drive to Princess Peach’s Castle for example from Super Mario 64 in Royal Raceway or follow the train into the mountain in Kalimari Desert. As an early N64 game there are a lot of glitches easily possible to experience yourself if you’ve heard about them such as the ability to jump through a cave wall in DK Jungle Parkway to skip laps. While again sadly not a focus of this replay, Mario Kart 64 has the best battle mode in the series by far. Each arena feels incredibly inspired and lends itself to unique strategies, including the series standout, Block Fort. Once again there are eight characters available to choose from, though Donkey Kong Jr. has been replaced with regular Donkey Kong and Koopa Troopa with now series stalwart Wario. Each of the racers now brims with personality thanks to newly added voice clips (Wario’s laugh is so good!) and more pronounced, but still hidden statistical differences.

As I revisited Mario Kart 64 the excellent track design and overall vision hasn’t faded. Throwing shells at your rivals still feels more satisfying here than in future games thanks to the reliable physics and dramatic impact racers suffer when hit. Speaking of shells, you can have three circling you at once now and the dreaded blue shell is introduced! The biggest surprise I had revisiting Mario Kart 64 on 150cc is just how absurd the rubberbanding AI is. If you are unfamiliar, basically as you pull away from the computer opponents through good driving and item use, to keep the race competitive the AI will then burst forward as if releasing a rubber band to overtake you. The problem with MK64 is that the rubberbanding is out of control as you are constantly fending off your two closest rivals. It makes every race an exciting nailbiter, but it’s just too much. While you can’t restart a race in a grand prix, you can thankfully abuse the fact that you can restart a race an infinite amount of times if you place 5th or worse which is handy during last minute upsets. This is of course far less of an issue if you are playing with friends or family, but it is a bummer the AI is the way it is. Overall, I still had a blast revisiting Mario Kart 64. It is still available until March 2023 to purchase on Wii U or you can enjoy it as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass if you want to relive it yourself.

Mario Kart Super Circuit (GBA, I played on my 3DS ambassador version and raced as Yoshi)

Mario Kart Super Circuit was historically my least favorite Mario Kart game. It is the only return of the series to 2D and it looks sharp and colorful. There are five original cups that offer a total of twenty new courses and all twenty courses from the original Super Mario Kart are unlockable. This was by far the biggest Mario Kart until the DLC for the original Mario Kart 8 gradually raised its total number of courses from 32 to 48. The problem with Mario Kart Super Circuit is that it is absurdly hard before you even factor in the random elements that are inherent to Mario Kart. Super Circuit introduced a grading system to Mario Kart. No longer is it just enough to get the gold trophy, with the grading system in its harshest form you must also do as well as possible. Coins appear again in this installment and serve three purposes: boosting your top speed, increasing your grade, and are necessary to unlock the Super Nintendo courses. I’m a completionist at heart, especially for my favorite game series, so back in the day I especially struggled repeatedly trying to conquer Super Circuit’s mighty challenge. I know I persevered to at least unlock all of the retro courses, but I know I didn’t get the best rankings on every challenge before quitting in frustration.

Revisiting Super Circuit today was a far more pleasant experience because the goal I had set for my series replay was to just get gold trophies in every original cup on the highest difficulty so I could ignore the grading system. I cruised through the first four cups with relatively little resistance, but that final cup is still obscenely tough. The first course in the cup, Lakeside Park, is the toughest course in the series, not necessarily because of its turns which are tough to optimize, but due to its tricky coin and item box layouts and the fireballs that rain down from the sky with minimal warning from the nearby volcano, not to mention the other racers are at their most aggressive. Broken Pier and Rainbow Road in particular really speak to how technically demanding Super Circuit is. If you have a good handle on it, Broken Pier actually becomes the easiest course in the cup as you can take advantage of all the shortcuts in a way the AI would never do. For better or worse, the Mario Kart series has moved away from trying to cut down on your lap times as much as possible. While I’m glad there will never be another game as tough as Super Circuit, I was happy to revisit this game more prepared and less pressured to enjoy its uncompromising vision.

Mario Kart Double Dash (GameCube, my racing team was Yoshi and King Boo)

Mario Kart Double Dash is both the transition to the more modern Mario Kart games and also the black sheep of the series. I had mixed feelings from my original time with the game as I wasn’t sold on its signature element, racing as a team of two drivers. It’s an interesting idea for sure especially if you play as a group since one player controls the driving and the other has to deploy their items strategically. Due to how complex the core mechanic is, hopping and holding items behind you like bananas for defense aren’t present here. Drifting however finally becomes a regular, useful mechanic in turning. You have to slide the stick left and right to build up your mini turbo boost which adds more skill to the mechanic. Like Super Circuit with its punishing difficulty before it, I also rejected Double Dash’s vision for the series at the time because I just wanted to race as one driver on standard karts which are both absent here. I also wasn’t a fan of Double Dash’s unique power items for each character since they added even more chaos to an already chaotic game.

Revisiting Double Dash today though knowing it wasn’t the future of Mario Kart, I really began to appreciate what it did offer. First, I was really impressed by how good Double Dash looks still. I know I had it running via HD component cables on my Wii so it looked better than it did back in the day, but Nintendo really poured a lot of detail into Double Dash’s courses and lovingly crafted the character animation. While it is frustrating it slows down your Kart, my favorite detail is when the character in charge of items has fallen off and is struggling to get back up. It really sells just how frantic Double Dash’s chaotic races are. It is weird that getting hit by items is generally such a minor setback, but you get hit so often without the ability for proper defense it makes sense. While we are sadly back to sixteen tracks total, there are a lot of great tracks here including Peach Beach, Sherbet Land, Yoshi Circuit, and DK Mountain. Like Mario Kart 64 there are interesting areas to poke around on the tracks to find secrets like warp pipes and there are things you can do just because they’d be fun like driving along the top of the bridge in Mushroom Bridge. While originally one of my least favorite Mario Kart games, I really think Nintendo should bring Double Dash back with online play as it is a unique experience that stands distinctly apart from Mario Kart 8.

Mario Kart DS (I raced as ROB)

Mario Kart DS is another of my favorite Mario Kart games. Its vision of the series is essentially what we have today and smart, subtle decisions offer massive quality of life boosts. While the online mode, which I don’t believe is still active, was certainly the star attraction, the addition of drafting is a game changer for Mario Kart. By trailing behind someone, you’ll notice little wind streaks start to form around your racer and if you maintain it long enough, you’ll burst forward. This is a far more elegant solution than rubberbanding to overtake players (which is still present) considering there is of course a risk element since you are setting yourself up to get blasted by a shell or a banana from whoever is in front of you. I also did not revisit the mission mode for this replay, but it’s still the gold standard for single player content in Mario Kart as it offered tons of tough, varied challenges to overcome and perfect. I really hope it will return someday. While not a terribly important feature, I also miss being able to craft your own pixel art emblem that shows up next to your name and on your karts. I loved crafting a Crono from Chrono Trigger avatar which I still use today (see below). While emblems understandably shouldn’t be widely seen online due to nefarious people out there crafting inappropriate ones, I do think they should bring it back for racing with friends as it is cooler than just seeing their Miis today.

​Perhaps the biggest change in structure for the series is that Mario Kart DS established the number and divide of courses for the series for the next three games. In Mario Kart DS, there are eight cups, four with all new courses and four with retro courses for a total of 32 tracks. This is a very solid number of tracks that importantly you often won’t exhaust in one sitting and it is always so cool seeing the NES and GBA courses brought into 3D for the first time. Some of my favorite courses include Delfino Square, Desert Hills, Tick Tock Clock, and Airship Fortress. I like that these tracks and others broke away from the more classic themes explored in prior Mario Kart games like the standard grass, ice, and desert levels and instead leaned more heavily into Mario’s past adventures or had unique premises like Waluigi Pinball which takes place inside a pinball machine. I was having so much fun playing Mario Kart DS again that I also played through the retro cups and I knew I would then as well for Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7 for my series replay.

Mario Kart Wii (I raced as Rosalina)

Mario Kart Wii is my second favorite Mario Kart behind Mario Kart 8. I put a lot of time into Mario Kart Wii mastering every cup, playing locally with my friends and Mom, and also playing online. The number of racers participating in each race was bumped in Mario Kart Wii from 8 to 12 which makes every race even more wild. What I really appreciate though with this change, is that the online mode introduced the ability for two friends on the same couch and system to play splitscreen online together to take on the world. While guests didn’t get the same individual progression as the main player, just being able to play together was more than enough. Mechanically there isn’t too much difference between the Wii and DS versions however Mario Kart Wii did introduce half pipe segments to certain tracks that you could race up to get a burst of speed and introduced tricks that gave you boosts of speed off even seemingly tiny bumps in the road. There are of course new items here as is tradition. My favorite, which sadly remains exclusive to Mario Kart Wii, is the Thunder Cloud that first gives you a boost of speed, but will zap you with lightning if you don’t bump into someone to pass it off in time. There’s an awesome risk and reward dynamic as you try to maximize how much it can help without getting punished that is unique to the item.

I had a lot of fun revisiting Mario Kart Wii because it feels almost entirely in line with how the modern games control. Drifting in particular gets rid of the stick inputs to charge turbo boosts which is how Mario Kart controls today. The track design of Mario Kart Wii is excellent and includes some of my favorite tracks in the series including Koopa Cape, Rainbow Road Wii, and Grumble Volcano. Koopa Cape is my number one most wanted track to return in the Booster Pass. All the turns are exciting and the underwater section with the water pushing you forward as you dodge lightning rivals the excitement of the two F-Zero courses in Mario Kart 8. My one big complaint of the game is because there are so many power items, including the POW block exclusive to Wii, you really can just get wailed on from so many directions all at once. Thankfully it didn’t happen too frequently in this replay, but it did still happen once or twice when I’d get hit by the blue shell, lightning, red shells, a blooper, and a POW block all back to back. It’s absurd. Still even the nonsense can’t detract too much from what Mario Kart Wii excels at which made it very fun to revisit.

Mario Kart 7 (3DS, I raced as Rosalina)

The final game of my Mario Kart replay journey was Mario Kart 7, the direct predecessor of Mario Kart 8. While greatly overshadowed by Mario Kart 8, Mario Kart 7 is still an awesome game that laid the final foundation for Mario Kart 8 to perfect. The biggest changes are the addition of underwater and hang glider segments, the true return of coins which finally mitigates rubber banding AI, and finally the ability to feather the brake while accelerating which isn’t terribly important here, but is foundational for making Mario Kart 8’s 200cc mode work properly. Really the only things missing here from 8 are the antigravity segments, the double item storage from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and of course the unique items of Mario Kart 8 like the Super Horn. While not a game changer, Mario Kart 7 does of course have one unique feature over 8, its stereoscopic 3D effect which looks fantastic. The biggest jumps like the ones off Rock Rock Mountain and Maka Wuhu and particle effects like the falling cherry blossoms on Mario Kart 7’s Mario Circuit look spectacular in 3D. Speaking of courses, there’s a lot of excellent courses in Mario Kart 7. In addition to the three I mentioned I’d love to see Daisy Hills, Wario Shipyard, Rosalina’s Ice World, and Bowser’s Castle return in future games since they already chose four other great Mario Kart 7 courses for Mario Kart 8 already. I think if Mario Kart 7 had been on a home console and not so quickly replaced it would be more fondly remembered, but it is an excellent game well worth revisiting and I had a ton of fun doing so.

​I had a blast revisiting all seven Mario Karts prior to Mario Kart 8. It was a lot of fun to track the progression of the series and revisit all 120 unique tracks between the seven games. I hope you enjoyed reading my latest blog. I’ll be back pretty soon with another blog, so I hope you look forward to it! Be sure to share your fond Mario Kart memories with me on my Twitter @JustinMikos. Until next time!

​Our second year in the Covid-19 global pandemic is over. While I’m glad vaccines are reaching more people, it was once again a very tough year overall and I’m strongly concerned walking into 2022 as Omicron continues to rapidly spread and the government has seemingly given up. I don’t feel terribly safe yet given my own health, but I’m glad I was safely able to see friends a little more and continue to have great experiences with family and friends online.

Given I have spent so much more time at home as a result, I once again have been able to play an extraordinary number of games. While this year may have been short on huge blockbusters, there has been such an incredible variety of high quality games. It was very hard choosing what made the cut this year even though I’ve been playing with the order all year. As with every year, this blog is about my favorite games of the year, the ones that resonate with me the most, rather than a ranking of the highest quality. More than any prior year, I feel this focus has really impacted the rankings as some of the more tightly designed games of 2021, that I still love, didn’t impact me as much as usual.

Before we dive in, I want to share some honorable mentions. First is Gnosia, which is essentially a single player RPG version of Mafia or Among Us with a cool sci fi story. You can play it as just a Mafia game or try to advance through the story which will influence your decisions as you don’t always have to win a given game/loop to progress. The 14 distinct characters you square off against are interesting opponents you’ll want to get to know and the ending of the story is very satisfying. The second game I want to give a shout out to is Mario Golf Super Rush. I was so excited to finally have a new game on consoles and while I do prefer the old swinging method, the new one does encourage you to be bold and go with your gut which is cool. I had a ton of fun tackling all of the course, including the tougher free DLC courses, by myself and with my Mom. Finally, I also want to give an honorable mention to The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. It takes a long while to warm up, but eventually you start to get the kinds of tough cases and wild twists the series is known for. I especially enjoyed getting to know the main cast of four, Ryunosuke, Susato, Iris, and of course, Mr. Herlock Sholmes himself and I hope we will get another adventure with them.

Now then, here are my Top Ten Favorite Games of 2021!

10: Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139… (PS4, also on Xbox One and PC)

After thoroughly enjoying Nier Automata, I got a copy of the original Nier on PS3 and…never played it. Whoops…When the “version up” of Nier was announced that would bring Nier more in line with Automata and potentially add new content I knew this was the version I would play and I had a blast. The world Nier presents is intriguing with its large open spaces to wander through in between detailed towns. Every side quest, even the more mundane ones, pulled me in and helped connect me with Nier, the main character, his awesome traveling companion, Grimoire Weiss, and the greater, mysterious world. Throughout my journey, I enjoyed Nier’s simple, but very fun and satisfying combat, as well as fishing and gardening. Of course, the main attraction of Nier is the story. I became very attached to all of the characters, especially Emil and Kaine, and thoroughly enjoyed the dramatic ending. I was determined to get every ending, so that did mean replaying the ending sections of the game three times for bits of new content. It was interesting, but didn’t always work for me since I knew to an extent what to expect from its reputation. I didn’t expect walking in the smaller stories along the way, such as the Mermaid’s story and the story of the desert kingdom, to be so impactful so that was a nice surprise. Also, the new Ending E section is amazing and absolutely worth the effort to experience it. Overall, I had an awesome time with Nier Replicant. In many ways it was just as great if not better than Automata so I can’t wait for more Nier!

9: Bowser’s Fury (Switch)

Bowser’s Fury is an amazing experimental game from Nintendo that I wish we saw more of and is potentially an interesting peek into what may be the future of 3D Mario games. Bowser’s Fury is the first true open world 3D Mario game and it is tremendously fun from start to finish. After you ride Plessie across Lake Lapcat to find your next level, you simply have to walk up to a gate to have the next Cat Shine to claim queued up. The flow of the game feels so liberating even as the threat of Fury Bowser gradually builds in the background. During the day, you can see Fury Bowser slowly rising from the center of Lake Lapcat. When Fury Bowser awakens, dark storm clouds roll in, the rain picks up, and fire rains from the sky. While it sadly isn’t explored too much, Fury Bowser isn’t necessarily always an enemy as he can destroy Fury Blocks in each area which almost always hide another Cat Shine. You can engage Fury Bowser directly in battle once you claim a Giga Cat Bell power up to transform into Giga Cat Mario. In another interesting twist for a Nintendo game, Fury Bowser actually has an HP bar that you can deplete not only by throwing pillars at him, but also just by clawing at him. Its short length and awkward control scheme inherited from Mario 3D World that was never meant for open world gameplay holds Bowser’s Fury back from ascending higher on my list, but the quality of the journey is so high and the ending is so amazing, that I had to recognize it. While I never did sneak in a second playthrough this year, I’m very excited for all of my future replays.

8: Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights (Switch, also on PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PC)

I played many Metroidvanias this year and Ender Lilies was one of my favorites as it strongly matched challenging combat with rewarding exploration. The striking art direction and slick animations are an immediate draw. While most of the countryside in Ender Lilies lies in ruins due to a horrible blight ravaging the land and corrupting all it touches, the scenery is still arresting and pockets of it, often near save points, look especially stunning. What’s most interesting about Ender Lilies is how it shifts how it plays over the course of the adventure. The main character, a little girl named Lily, does not attack directly, instead she faces off hordes of monsters with the help of ghostly knights she recruits. In the beginning, there is a distinct lag between hitting the attack button and having the knight be summoned to swing his sword which forces you to commit to your attacks and be extra mindful of your limited resources. Exploration into unknown areas requires further caution beyond the dangers of combat as the map only shows how rooms are connected to each other, rather than the exact terrain. I really appreciate too that the map marks every room in which you are missing items and pathways, but its lack of detail means it’s not always obvious how to claim new items and upgrades as many require you to seek secret routes across multiple areas. As the game progresses, the speed of your attacks and the length of your basic combo increases, you acquire a powerful, aggressive counter move, and you can create a wide variety of potential builds as you collect more special attacks, abilities, and accessories. By the end of your journey Ender Lilies transitions fully into a traditional, speedy action game as attack lag is eliminated and the enemies become far more fast and violent. A final highlight of Ender Lilies is the challenging boss fights that put all of your skills to the test and are immensely satisfying to conquer.

7: Blue Reflection Second Light (PS4 and Switch, also on PC)

I don’t think any other game best exemplifies why I’ve always chosen to do a favorite game of the year list rather than a best game of the year list more than Blue Reflection: Second Light. There is a core flaw in the initial playthrough of Second Light, as you are limited to only swapping between Easy and Normal difficulty, while Hard and Deathwish are restricted to any New Game+ playthroughs. The problem here is that Normal is far too easy which limits a fascinating combat system and means you never have to engage in other cool mechanics like figuring out interesting mixes of accessories for every character and upgrading/managing all of the facilities you build. Despite this core flaw, I think Blue Reflection: Second Light had a decent shot of landing on my list regardless, but it ensured its spot after I completed a New Game+ playthrough. After 106 hours between two playthroughs, I walked away fully satisfied as I finally got to fully engage with combat and those upgrade systems, see all of the character stories through, and see the brief, but satisfying true ending.

So why do I love the game? Well, Blue Reflection: Second Light despite its main flaw is easily Gust’s best game yet. It offers an immediately satisfying gameplay loop as you bounce between exploring character themed dungeons and returning home to hang out with characters and craft upgrades and items. Most importantly, Second Light is also the game the first Blue Reflection should have been as it now actually feels like a proper magical girl game. Second Light thankfully drops more than 90% of the unwelcome fan service from the original’s Persona-like social sim, and is instead very focused on getting to know the characters you interact with and is far more interested in advancing its positive themes that it explores throughout both the main story and the character stories. My favorite character is the protagonist, Ao Hoshizaki, who all of her life has dreamed for something extraordinary and longs to feel special. She gets her wish when she is transported to another world, a school surrounded by water, that’s only occupied by three other girls who have lost their memories. They quickly discover another world connected to it, and while it is filled with monsters, it also may hold the answers to why they are in their situation. Over the course of the journey, more characters arrive at the school and nearly all of them, whether they are Reflectors who can engage in battle, or supporters who boost your stats, have character stories to advance by hanging out with them and clearing their side quests. Dates are perhaps the best version of a “social link” mechanic that I’ve seen yet in an RPG and I hope other developers take notice of what worked here. After you’ve decided to hang out with a character, you have to walk to your actual date location. Along the way, short conversations happen and small events are marked on the map. During the actual date, there are three sets of dialog prompts where you must choose between two options. This offers a surprising amount of role playing as you’ll often learn about Ao in addition to the character you are hanging out with. The bigger events in each character story often challenge Ao’s assumptions and are both well shot and fully voice acted. Over the course of the adventure, Ao learns from her interactions with her new friends to better treasure everyday life and grows as a person and leader because of it. In addition to Ao, who I haven’t mentioned has a fun personality to begin with, my other favorite characters include, Kokoro, Yuki, Shiho, Hinako (the original game’s protagonist), and Uta, the latter who returns from the anime in a surprising way.

I still have to mention when the combat system is working as it should, it truly is an engaging battle system. Essentially, you and your opponents are constantly building ether points that are used for attacks. Your characters level up as you use attacks, which lets you build ether faster and gives you access to more powerful abilities. You are also building a combo multiplier with every attack and damage grows dramatically as a fight drags on. Though rarely needed, there is also a support character on your team that provides buffs at set intervals and can use items so your attackers don’t have to waste ether. There’s a lot of interesting decisions and optimizations already possible as you exploit weaknesses, use buffs and debuffs regularly, and decide when to store ether and when to use it. If fights drag on you may also get to take advantage of knocking down opponents, engaging in 1 on 1 Punch-Out fights, and using ether tides/limit breaks. Again, it’s a really cool system, done a massive disservice from not being able to shift to higher difficulties from the start. I had such a feeling of unfinished business with the combat system, that I had to immediately start a New Game+ playthrough that I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m very passionate about Second Light because I ultimately walked away very happy and satisfied by it. I hope it finds an audience because I really think Gust largely nailed it.

6: Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (PS4 and Switch, also on PC)

Like Ys VIII before it, I had a tremendous amount of fun playing through Ys IX. Unlike Ys VIII, which took place on an island full of dinosaurs, Ys IX takes place in the prison city of Balduq in an area reminiscent of France. Most of the excellent systems from Ys VIII return in Ys IX though some don’t have quite the impact in a different setting. For example, because you are trapped in one city, there are magical barriers in place to prevent progression rather than primarily being gated by the abilities you gain. Instead of building up a village of castaways, you are instead establishing a bar in town. But while it suffers from small knocks, the general thrust of Ys IX always remains compelling and I had fun flashbacks to exploring towns in the old Assassin’s Creed games as I found treasure chests hidden throughout the town.

The biggest step up in Ys IX is definitely the characters and story. While Ys VIII had a very good cast, there were a few characters who felt they were just along for the ride. After being falsely accused and thrown in prison, Adol Christin mounts an escape, but is cursed into becoming a Monstrum. This gives him the powers of the Crimson King which lets him fight demons invading Balduq from another dimension. Adol is not the only Monstrum in town, as five other characters have been there struggling from the start. Over the course of the game, you’ll recruit them to your cause one by one after helping them with their own personal quests. Each Monstrum has their own unique combat styles that are all fun in their own right and their own unique skill such as wall running or flying that helps you explore the town and countryside. Those two abilities in particular make movement very fun in the more vertical environments. My favorite character is definitely Krysha, The White Cat, who has very speedy attacks that can melt health bars. The biggest mysteries of Ys IX are all tied to the prison and a second Adol who is still inside of it. I think Falcom did a great job of calling back to past games to increase the mystery and I was ultimately very satisfied how it played out. One final thing I want to touch on of course is the combat, which wisely remains mostly unchanged from Ys VIII. Again, there is weirdness with encounters inside the town setting as random battles you choose to engage in are over almost immediately, but the moment you hop in a dungeon and the rock music kicks in all is right with the world.

5: Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart (PS5)

It’s been a very long time since A Crack in Time, the last big Ratchet adventure on PS3, and while Ratchet and Clank haven’t changed too much since then, I’m more than fine with them returning with just their most refined adventure yet when it’s as fun and heartfelt as Rift Apart. Ratchet on PS3 was already being compared to Pixar movies and yes Ratchet looks even more stunning than ever on PS5 with a rock solid framerate in performance mode no matter how many explosions are on screen and as you smoothly teleport across dimensions. As the name suggests, Ratchet and Clank are once again ripped apart after Dr. Nefarious steals the Dimensionator, but this time they find their interdimensional counterparts Rivet and Kit to team up with. Ratchet and Rivet each have their own levels to explore, but play identically as they share the same growing arsenal of creative weapons and tools. I’m more than fine with this as the core gameplay is tighter and more satisfying than ever and you encounter a wide variety of different gameplay on each level from rocketing across vast plains on your jet boots to classic arena battles. My favorite area in the game involves an underwater station that is completely destroyed in one dimension save for a monster hunting you down while the other side is fully operational and staffed by Emperor Nefarious’ army. Neither dimension is great to be in, but that makes it so interesting to explore and conquer! The writing in Rift Apart is perhaps the best yet for Ratchet for both jokes and heartfelt moments. Ratchet in particular is plagued with doubt if he can still be a hero after being away for so long and Kit wonders if she can be a hero at all given her past as a weapon in Emperor Nefarious’ army. I especially enjoyed getting to know Rivet and I hope she will return in future games. Overall, I had an amazing time with Rift Apart and I didn’t want to put it down until I 100% completed the game to get the Platinum Trophy.

4: Lost Judgment (PS5, also on PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series)

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing all of the Yakuza and Judgment series these past few years since I first played Yakuza 0 more than four years ago. I didn’t expect it, but Lost Judgment has dethroned Yakuza Kiwami 2 as my favorite Ryu Ga Gotoku game to date. It has by far the most exciting action combat yet, the most awesome side content, and an exciting story full of twists that’s delivered by top notch cutscenes accentuated by a wonderful English dub. Lost Judgment once again stars detective Takayuki Yagami as he investigates the links between high school bullying in Yokohama, a groping incident on a train station, and a gruesome murder. Yagami’s friends from the first game all return to help him tackle these new mysteries and he makes a great new one along the way in the character ProZD voices. Early on I was very focused on side activities, but once the main story picked up, I couldn’t step away from it until it was done because it was so gripping. While the core gameplay remains mostly the same as past action Yakuza games and the first Judgment, Yagami now has access to a new third combat style, the Snake Style, that’s focused on stylish counter attacks. Most importantly, the combat in general feels just as exciting as Kiwami 2’s. You always feel satisfyingly in control whether you are fighting against swarms of goons or the dramatic one on one boss fights. Yagami also now has a wide array of new detective tools to aid his investigations including a sound sensor and a detective dog. Their uses are straightforward, but offer much needed variety that was missing from the first Judgment. My favorite addition to the basic formula is the skateboard that Yagami rides. For a series that’s so focused on reusing maps, the skateboard really is the most transformative addition here as it makes the vast expanse of Yokohama feel more personal.

What really pushes Lost Judgment to the top of the Ryu Ga Gotoku games, is the best side content in the series so far. In addition to the traditional side cases and a ton of awesome minigames, the biggest side content is all unified under School Stories. As part of his bullying investigation, Yagami finds himself becoming the adviser of the Mystery Research Club on campus. A nefarious criminal, named The Professor, seems to be corrupting the students with their influence and so Yagami must investigate school clubs and other outside groups in order to put a stop to their plans. For example, Yagami becomes the new instructor for the dance team and the new operator for the robotics club. Half of the ten school stories have exceptional production values for side content as they are fully voiced and have distinct minigames to work through. My favorite is definitely the Boxing Gym story which gave me huge Hajime No Ippo vibes as I dodged between opponents’ attacks to let loose a flurry of jabs. Even though not all of it works, the Biker Gang story is notably whatever, what makes the School Stories collectively so special is that they all come together to advance and ultimately complete the greater story of confronting The Professor. The School Stories absolutely raise the bar for what awesome side content in games can look like. What’s truly wild to me is that even then there is so much more to tackle such as perhaps the most interesting spread of classic Sega games being included (Motor Raid is the coolest!) and new minigames such as Aircelios, a twin stick Geometry Wars style game, being such an absolute delight. I have no idea how the Ryu Ga Gotoku team could ever top Lost Judgment, but I’m very excited to see them try and I’m also really looking forward to the Kaito DLC story they are putting out in early 2022.

3: Metroid Dread (Switch)

The most masterfully designed 2021 game in my book is definitely Metroid Dread. It had been over 14 years since Metroid Prime 3, the last amazing all new Metroid adventure, and nearly 19 years since the last mainline 2D Metroid so I was very excited to devour this long awaited sequel. The day I got it, I played through the full story and came back the next day to claim 100% completion. Both sittings were amazing as the main path forward is incredible and collecting all of the items means you get to contend with the most interesting and complex puzzles a 2D Metroid has yet featured that frequently utilize multiple abilities in quick succession. Aside from a minor criticism that the environments don’t seem terribly cohesive, an issue Samus Returns also had, and a weaker soundtrack, I thoroughly enjoy everything else Dread has to offer. Dread interestingly begins at the bottom of planet ZDR rather than its surface and your main goal is to return to the surface. Along the way, you’ll contend with massive, aggressive bosses and the E.M.M.I. research robots that have been turned against you. The E.M.M.I. encounters are the most interesting new element in Metroid Dread. While Fusion toyed with having a powerful enemy hunting you, it was only in small, set locations. The E.M.M.I. robots are confined to much larger sections of the map and will pursue you throughout them. They’ll track your sounds and if they spot you, it can be very hard to avoid them. When you are captured, you only have one brief, random window to counter them and avoid death which is obviously very unreliable. Since you can instantly restart if you are defeated, I never felt terrible dread as the game wants, but even so the encounters are a fun change of pace from the usual Metroid action and ultimately taking out the E.M.M.I. robots is very satisfying. I won’t get into details, but there is more story beyond the premise (including three of the coolest events in the series) and the depiction of Samus is finally fully back on track as a confident, compassionate badass.

There are three other major areas where Metroid Dread stands out from prior games. First are the controls feeling the absolute best they ever have. You can run and blast every enemy ahead of you in full confidence. The new dash move in particular is a game changer for Metroid as it helps you both navigate the environment and have a reliable way to dodge boss attacks. Speaking of bosses, they are another standout feature of Metroid Dread. These bosses are all credible threats and have well designed, aggressive attack patterns. The sole loading screen tip for boss battles is simply “every attack can be avoided” and truly that’s all you need, because Metroid Dread is a rare game these days that truly believes you can overcome its challenges. You get instant retries when you die and you always feel yourself getting better if you don’t just crush it on your second attempt. Finally, I love the way the world you explore guides you through it as it opens and closes paths around you. While Fusion toyed with the idea, in Dread certain actions of yours and events in the story cause the maps to change in subtle and radical ways. Oftentimes it is as simple as a pillar crumbling that seals off the way behind you or by flipping a switch to activate a machine. Ready or not then, you can be locked into confrontations with bosses which ups the tension considerably. Also, although I usually love going back to old areas in Metroidvania games to collect upgrades after getting a cool item, there is such an exciting forward momentum in Dread that I never wanted to get pulled too far off the main path. It does such a good job subtly guiding you forward that I only got lost once in part because I unintentionally brute forced myself further off the path. I’m glad we finally have another 2D Metroid game in the same league as Super Metroid and I’m looking forward to replaying Dread over and over again in the years to come. Metroid Dread was absolutely worth the wait.

2: Trails To Azure (Chinese PC, officially coming in 2023 to Switch, PS4, and PC)

Thanks again to the hard work of the Geofront fan translation group, I was able to play the Chinese Joyoland PC port of Trails To Azure on PC this year to finally complete the last missing gap in the Trails series in America and at the same time complete the Crossbell duology. Though it actually took way less time since I extensively used turbo mode, my 89 hours with Azure definitely affirmed to me why Azure is so beloved in the Trails fanbase. Without going into details, Azure plays for keeps in a way future Trails games don’t. Azure opens with wrapping up the loose ends of the SSS’ first big case. From there it becomes obvious that Crossbell is truly under external threat from both Erebonia to the West and Calvard to the East as both are using their visible and invisible forces to take more control of the state of Crossbell. Of course, the countries aren’t the only factions involved in Crossbell as Ouroboros, the Septian Church, and heroes from Trails in the Sky are all on the move. This is the Trails series at its most fascinating as you see first hand how the larger forces in the series affect the people stuck in the middle. By playing its predecessor, Trails From Zero, you already have a strong connection with Crossbell, its citizens, and the SSS who all have their own stories to advance. I was really happy the SSS gets new members in Azure with both Noel and Wazy becoming regular party members. While the core SSS was already great, these two characters make the group far more lively. The Geofront’s writing is absolutely wonderful throughout Azure and makes everyone truly come to life. Even though I really wish I could have played Azure first before Cold Steel since I knew the greater ending and the fates of some of the characters, I was so excited to see Lloyd’s story through to the end and seize the truth of the biggest mysteries.

While the story is far and away the biggest attraction of Azure, it’s also one of the best Trails games to play. Like Zero before it, Azure still gives you too much room to explore every chapter since all of Crossbell is regularly open to visit and Crossbell’s many citizens always have new things to say after every event, but thankfully you do get access to your own patrol car this time for easier fast travel. The side quests run the gamut from the mundane to more interesting detective work. The sharp writing of the greater story is also strongly present here and elevates some of the activities. Fishing and the casino games return from Zero and are also joined by fishing duels and the first appearance of Trails’ Puyo Puyo knockoff Pom Pom Party which is very fun. Azure is loaded with tons of missable quests and secrets, so I sadly did have to play with a guide ever handy, but seeing everything is worth it. Combat is another major pillar of Trails To Azure and it does not disappoint. Azure is the last Trails game with grid-based combat and the fundamentals are still rock solid as you manage the rise and fall of CP for special attacks, positioning, and by manipulating turn order to claim buffs and push debuffs on your enemies to emerge triumphant. Azure introduces both Master Quartz and Blitz to the series and although I have mixed feelings about how much you can abuse both of these features (Blitz gives you six to nine free turns!!), there are plenty of extra challenging fights in Azure.

One final area I have to touch on is Azure’s excellent soundtrack. There are a fun array of new battle tunes and I especially dig two remixes from Zero’s soundtrack featured in the game, Inevitable Struggle’s Super Arrange version and Get Over The Barrier’s Silent Devotion version. Both originate from Zero’s Super Arrange album and are used for spectacular effect in some of Azure’s biggest emotional moments. I actually know the names of many of the songs on the soundtrack, because the Geofront went above and beyond and added an optional feature that tells you the name of every song in Azure as it starts to play. I really wish this becomes a standard feature in every RPG going forward because Azure and the next game I’m about to talk about both wonderfully feature it. Overall, Trails To Azure is an amazing JRPG from top to bottom that I can’t recommend enough. I’m so excited the Geofront’s translation will soon become the basis of the official translations of Zero and Azure in 2022 and 2023 so more people can enjoy these amazing games. I also can’t wait for Trails Into Reverie to arrive in the US in 2023 because after ten years of playing the Trails series I finally have every Trails game so far under my belt. Thank you again Geofront!

1: Neo: The World Ends With You (Switch, also on PS4 and PC)

Fourteen years after the original The World Ends With You hit the DS and became one of my favorite games of all time, we finally have a sequel with Neo: The World Ends With You and it truly is the rare perfect sequel on virtually every front. Neo follows the story of Rindo and his friend Fret who get pulled into a new Reaper’s Game. Unlike the original game, with new people in charge the Reaper’s Game now features large teams competing against each other for points to claim the top spot on the leaderboard. Rindo and Fret thus soon team up with a fan favorite character from the first game, Sho Minamimoto, and another new character named Nagi to form the Wicked Twisters to try to win and escape the game. Compared to the first game’s story, Neo’s story is a slow burn by design that plays with your expectations and hopes walking into it. The script and translation are thoroughly excellent with very natural dialog and on point humor. I think Neo also strikes an excellent mix of new characters to old characters as it keeps the game accessible to newcomers, but also offers exciting closure and payoffs for fans. Once the story picks up, there are so many satisfying developments, awesome reunions, and cool showdowns that all build up to an epic climax.

The most interesting question walking into Neo was how combat would be addressed. The original DS game had an addictive, complex, and very unique combat system with a thematic purpose that could never be properly replicated on any future hardware as it heavily relied on the dual screens of the DS and inputs including the touch screen, buttons, and even the microphone. As Neo’s Reaper’s Game is now a team game, the solution is that everyone fights together in large, stylish 3D arenas and every character can hold one pin that grants a physic ability. Neo is focused on managing your cool downs and setting up big combos with regular timed assists. Until later in the game when you can double up, each character equips pins assigned to different buttons. For example, maybe Rindo has an X button pin that has rapid physical attacks while Minamimoto can charge up big launcher attacks by holding the R button. Whoever’s button you used last is swapped in as the main character you control and anyone whose attack button is still held is also active and vulnerable. While it harkens back to the complexity then of the original game, dodging attacks is intuitive to manage. I touched on it earlier, but the biggest goal of combat is to set up cool combos by following up attacks with proper timing to charge the groove meter and unleash huge team attacks that restore health. There are over 300 pins in the game to collect and master so there is a ton of variety in setting up your party and the amount of moves you have access to even though there is obviously only so many big ideas for pins. I love the way combat evolves in complexity over the course of the game because the farther you get the more exciting and addicting Neo’s combat becomes.

Like the first game, Neo is so driven by you the player pouring yourself into it and making it your own. In addition to cycling through pin layouts another area of focus is putting together outfits for your full crew. While you can always take advantage of the stat boosts of any equipped item, all threads have skills/buffs that activate if you have enough style points for that character. Eating food to boost your stats is thus even more important in Neo and is something you should be constantly doing as hunger is no longer locked by real world time. As your power grows, once again you can raise the difficulty not just by selecting Easy/Normal/Hard/Ultimate, but also by both lowering your level which reduces your HP and by chaining together multiple battles which together can wildly increase the drop rate to further fuel your growth. A new progression system is also introduced in Neo and is tied to meeting new characters and completing side objectives to grow your relationships in Shibuya. Some rewards are major, like unlocking Hard mode for example, while others are just special clothes/pins, but it is yet another compelling reason to do as much as possible in the game. I was having so much fun diving into all these systems that it became no question that I wanted to do a full New Game+ replay of the game on Ultimate immediately to collect all of the secret reports and to tackle the boss rush and super bosses in the post credits chapter.

One final area that I have to touch on is Neo’s outstanding soundtrack that truly is my favorite album of the year. Neo’s soundtrack is about 3 hours and 15 minutes of music spread across 51 main tracks and virtually all of it is glorious. There are remixes of songs from the first game, but the vast majority is brand new vocal heavy music with a harder rock edge. Whether you are running around town or fighting battles the soundtrack is proudly blaring in the background. Nearly every song is an earworm and has fun lyrics to sing along to. Once again you can set any song as your menu music once you purchase a CD at a store and you’ll actually be able to easily identify them as the game briefly displays the name of every song that plays. There’s also a rad new way to dash in Neo to the beat of the music which I love by itself and since it also gives you extra groove heading into fights. My favorite songs are definitely Last Call, World Is Yours, Breaking Free, and Kill The Itch.

Ever since I started writing my Game of the Year blogs, I’ve been lucky that every GOTY I’ve had not only reaffirms, but actually reignites my love of gaming, and Neo: The World Ends With You proudly carries on that tradition. Neo: The World Ends With You is my 2021 Game of the Year.

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That concludes my 2021 GOTY blog! I hope you enjoyed it! I always love hearing from you, so be sure to let me know what you thought of my list and the games you enjoyed this past year on Twitter @JustinMikos.

Listed below are all 66 games I beat last year in order. Until next time!

2021 Games I Beat

Ys IX Monstrum Nox (100% Hard)
Bowser’s Fury (100%)
Super Mario 3D World Switch (100%)
Love Live! School Idol Festival ~after school ACTIVITY~ WaiWai! Home Meeting!!
Nier Replicant (Ending E)
New Pokemon Snap
Re:Zero Prophecy of the Throne (100%)
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind
Guilty Gear Strive
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intermission
Idol Days
Trails To Azure
Kingdom Hearts Union Cross
Mario Golf Super Rush
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Platinum Trophy)
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights (100%)
Mushihimesama Switch
World’s End Club
Cotton Reboot
Pokemon Unite
Neo: The World Ends With You
The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures
CrossCode: A New Home
Axiom Verge 2
The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve
No More Heroes III
Ghost of Tsushima: Iki Island DLC
WarioWare: Get It Together!
Toem
Lost Judgment
Metroid Dread (100%)
Melty Blood: Type Lumina
Blue Reflection: Second Light (Platinum Trophy + True Ending)
Picross S6 (100%)
Gnosia (True Ending)
Cruis’n Blast (100%)

Old Games I Beat In 2021

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2
Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World The Game (Replay)
Ori and the Blind Forest (100%)
Super Mario 3D Land (100%)
Devil May Cry 4
Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition (DNV x2 + Vergil)
Captain Toad (Replay + DLC)
Super Mario Odyssey (100% Replay)
Yakuza 5
Yakuza Dead Souls
Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core
Picross S5 (100%)
Dreams
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered
Super Metroid (Replay)
Metroid Fusion (Replay)
Mighty Gunvolt
Metroid Zero Mission (Replay)
Metroid
Metroid II: Return of Samus (Replay)
Metroid Samus Returns (Replay)
Paper Mario Sticker Star
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Motor Raid
Crystar
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (100%)
Mario and Luigi Dream Team
Bayonetta 2 (Replay)

​One of my favorite announcements from E3 2021 was Metroid Dread, the first new mainline Metroid game in nearly 19 years. The same night Dread was announced, I immediately started a Super Metroid playthrough and very quickly decided it was time to finally replay every mainline Metroid game in preparation. Aside from Super Metroid, which I replay nearly every year, most of the Metroid games I’ve only played once despite my love for them and other games inspired by them. Between my Switch, 3DS, and Wii U I was able to play through the four mainline games and their two remakes and I’m excited to share my thoughts on revisiting the games on my blog. I played these games in an unusual order (Super, Fusion, Zero Mission, Metroid, Metroid II, and Samus Returns), though for the purpose of this blog I’ll cover each of them in release order. Let’s get right into it!

Metroid (NES 1986/87, also on GCN, GBA, Wii, Wii U, 3DS, And Switch)

The original Metroid has been made available on so many platforms, but it wasn’t until this year that I finally beat it for the first time with the help of a fresh playthrough of Zero Mission, save states, and most importantly strong determination. I first played Metroid on the Gamecube where it was included as a bonus in Metroid Prime if you linked it to your copy of Metroid Fusion. I know I got as far as finding the Ice Beam and at least seeing Kraid’s Lair and Norfair, though I never progressed far in either region. The original Metroid is incredibly influential and still an amazing foundation for the series as it established the basic loop of collecting items to allow more exploration of the world where you’ll find more new items to continue the process. While the worlds in Metroid games are increasingly treacherous the deeper you explore them, you too are becoming more and more powerful until you eventually surpass the increasing difficulty as you get closer to the end of the game.

The original Metroid game is in some ways the most difficult Metroid game because even though it is in color, many of the rooms in the first Metroid look very similar to each other and there is no map. Without consulting a guide or downloading a map (the latter I wisely did for my Metroid II replay) your best bet is to really memorize the large vertical shafts in the game as best as possible. While they too aren’t the best of landmarks, as vertical shafts in the same region share features, they are certainly more memorable than the horizontal rooms that often look completely identical to each other. Not only is it very easy to get lost, it’s often not clear where you should be going at any given moment. As the Metroid formula became more refined with Super Metroid in particular, the number of new areas you can reach at any given moment is never quite as large as in the original Metroid since items and abilities aren’t gating progression as much as later games. Early on when your max health is low, enemies deal a lot of damage and it isn’t easy to recover health (there are no dedicated energy and ammo recharge stations), but this time I played I fully internalized and felt comforted that there are still a few rooms that have respawning bug enemies at nests which throughout the series is a good way to farm health and ammo drops in dangerous territory. While I didn’t download a map, I’m glad I consulted a guide at parts, because while every subsequent Metroid game including Metroid II does a good job of suggesting when you should bomb walls, it is absolutely not intuitive here which can grind progression to a halt.

​While my patience was constantly tested, my determination this time helped me push through and finish Metroid for the first time and I’m glad I did. Grabbing the Varia Suit for the first time was huge as it drastically reduced damage from enemies, but what really gave me momentum to finish the game were the final two abilities, the Wave Beam and the Screw Attack, both of which completely change the game. Even with the Long Beam upgrade, which lets you shoot your power beam across the screen instead of barely a foot in front of you, it’s very hard to hit enemies as they zig and zag much faster than your bullets travel. The Wave Beam is a life saver as it weaves up and down as it rapidly travels across the screen and deals substantially more damage. The Screw Attack gives you immediate protection when jumping and is a powerful weapon as well as it rips enemies apart. Suddenly the oppressive world of Zebes feels under your control which gives you the confidence to take on Kraid and Ridley and their deadly lairs. The bosses themselves aren’t complicated, but they each offer good challenges different from the rest of the enemies. I also enjoyed finally playing through the original version of Tourian, the final area of the game and Mother Brain’s lair, as well as conquering the final escape sequence (which is thankfully and surprisingly very easy). Finally encountering and defeating the metroids as you approach Mother Brain feels novel as you need to re-fetch your Ice Beam to tackle them. Overall, while I don’t ever foresee myself replaying the original Metroid game as its punishing difficulty and lack of an in-game map and save points is off-putting, I’m so happy to finally have it under my belt to truly know the origins of the series and I did have fun finally conquering it.

Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy 1991, also on 3DS)

Growing up Metroid II was one of my favorite Game Boy games because it felt so smooth to play and it looked really good. I played through it at least twice, but it has been well over a decade since I last tried to beat it. Unless you were playing on the Super Game Boy or Game Boy Color, Metroid II like other Game Boy games is displayed in black and white and like the original Metroid it also does not have an in-game map. This is far less of a problem thankfully, because Metroid II has a unique structure compared to every other Metroid game. Samus is tasked by the Galactic Federation to wipe out every metroid on their homeworld, SR388, after realizing how much of a threat they posed to the universe following the events of the original Metroid. There is a counter constantly displayed on the bottom right corner of the screen of how many metroids remain, but more than that is how the game is built around this metroid hunt. There is a central shaft on SR388 where triumphant music plays that is filled with acid. Somehow, every time you eliminate all of the metroids in a given area the earth shakes and the acid level recedes to let you explore a new area and defeat more metroids. Essentially then, even if you do get lost in a given area, you know the moment the earth shakes you are good to exit out back to that main shaft and head to the next area. I’m still glad I downloaded a map because the rooms frustratingly don’t always map cleanly to a 2D grid, but I generally knew where I was at any given moment which makes the game flow much smoother.

Even with a cramped screen given how big Samus’ sprite is, Metroid II generally feels great to play and I love the items it introduced to the series. The biggest item that sets the game apart was the very powerful Spider Ball upgrade. Using the Spider Ball, Samus can literally roll up walls and travel across ceilings, provided there are no spikes in the way to block her progress. The Spider Ball makes you think about rooms differently as a result as you might be able to skip across deadly obstacles like lakes of acid and reach areas well beyond your sight. In that same vein, another power up I really love is the Space Jump which lets you infinitely jump in midair provided you don’t mess up the timing or collide into an enemy. Amazingly, both of these items are found fairly early on in the adventure despite how powerful they are which really opens up your ability to explore the much larger environments compared to the original Metroid. While the environments are harsher and more alien than the original Metroid since you are more powerful as a result, energy and ammo recharge stations and most importantly save points are thankfully all introduced in Metroid II which makes the journey far smoother.

​While I much prefer having all unique boss battles to overcome as I conquer Metroid games, Metroid II’s metroid hunt is made interesting in that the metroids you encounter are at different stages of evolution. The floating jellyfish larva metroids evolve into alpha, gamma, zeta, and ultimately omega metroids across their lifespan and the different types are spread throughout SR388’s cavernous depths. Each metroid type has different attack patterns and generally hit harder the more evolved they are. I appreciated too that even with types you become familiar with, the game makes fights more challenging as it mixes up the arenas where you confront them. One especially cool metroid fight takes place entirely in the sand it hides in. You have to blast away the sand with your power beam, but it refills if you look away which can trap you if you aren’t careful. Even though it is terrifying, my favorite moment of the game is still the final showdown with the queen metroid which is basically a giant alien dinosaur that can even swallow you whole. You have to pump a ton of missiles into it to defeat the queen metroid so it is a true test of endurance and skill. While I don’t want to revisit the original Metroid again, I can definitely see myself revisiting Metroid II in the future. Even though you can get easily lost, I was happy to find the game is generally very fun and satisfying to play to this day.

Super Metroid (Super Nintendo 1994, also on Wii, 3DS, Wii U, and Switch)

Super Metroid is in constant battle with Super Mario 64 as my favorite game of all time. I played through it a ton of times growing up and I still regularly replay it every year or so and I always find new things that impress me about it as I play. Replaying this year on Switch I impressed myself by finally beating Super Metroid in under 3 hours for the first time which seemed like an achievement forever out of reach. When I was little, I had the Super Nintendo strategy guide laying out how to beat Super Metroid in less than three hours to get the best ending, but I always love to collect items in Super Metroid and explore every room which was completely at odds with their strategy and any of the Games Done Quick Any % speedruns I’ve enjoyed over the years. I still did some dumb, fun stuff in my latest playthrough like jumping into and exploring the acid lake in Ridley’s Lair and stubbornly attempting a few tricky wall jumps over and over (I’m relatively good with wall jumps after playing the game so much), but those distractions still didn’t pull me too far off my otherwise very efficient playthrough where I grabbed 91% of the items in 2 hours and 55 minutes. I’ve gotten 100% items on every Metroid game before so this successful run here inspired how I played the other five Metroid games this time which worked well for revisiting them back to back. (Incidentally, I also finished Metroid II and Zero Mission in less than 3 hours, Fusion in just over 3 hours, and Samus Returns in under 8 hours. Metroid II was 2 hours and 51 minutes specifically and I even got 100% items which I’m happy about!)

​It may play only on a 2D plane, but Super Metroid channels a similar energy to Super Mario 64 in that there is so much room for expression. I really appreciate that Super Metroid’s jumps are far wilder and less tight than the rest of the Metroid games that follow as it takes skill to optimize and perfect. Even before you consider advanced speed tech seen in speedruns, wall jumping in particular, which is a tight input, can help you reach many items ahead of the intended ways to acquire them. For example, I always grab the Spazer Beam before getting the High Jump Boots and the Spring Ball without getting the Space Jump, but there are plenty of other awesome uses for wall jumping as well, such as directly jumping up to the Speed Booster early which I did in my latest playthrough. Aside from shooting for the best ending, which isn’t hinted at in the game, Super Metroid is just so fun to play efficiently that it just naturally pushes you into becoming a master of it and every upgrade just makes playing the game feel even better.

​One area I think Super Metroid excels the most at of the mainline Metroid games is in being a fully satisfying adventure. Planet Zebes offers incredibly distinct environments, from the oppressive lava filled Norfair to the peaceful, watery depths of Maridia. Every area is vividly brought to life with beautiful and evocative pixel art that sparks the imagination. The music is appropriately moody throughout and excitedly ramps up for the epic boss battles against terrifying monsters like the towering two screen tall Kraid and Samus’ eternal nemesis Ridley. The items you acquire over your journey constantly expand your options in exploration and often in combat as well (the power beam upgrades in particular stacking on top of each other was a cool and elegant addition). The world feels increasingly like your own more than other Metroid games as a result. There are also so many genuine moments that seem effortless in how well they are executed from Samus’ ship quietly touching down on Zebes in the rain, the surprising end to the battle with Crocomire, and of course the dramatic final showdown with Mother Brain.

There are few games that are just so joyous and satisfying to engage with as Super Metroid. I think I’ll always keep finding new things to appreciate about it and enjoy having new goals to shoot for as I play Super Metroid which is astounding. I didn’t need this particular replay to better inform how I feel about Metroid as I look forward to Dread, but all the same I’m so glad Dread’s announcement sparked my annual desire to replay Super Metroid because I finally accomplished beating the game under 3 hours and had an absolute blast as always.

Metroid Fusion (GBA 2002, also on 3DS and Wii U)

I never expected when I first played Metroid Fusion in 2002 on the same day as Metroid Prime (the most glorious day to ever be a Metroid fan) that it would have to stand nearly 19 years as the final mainline Metroid game. I didn’t like Fusion nearly as much as Super at the time of release because some of the key differentiators between it and Super, a heavier emphasis on story and a more linear mission structure, felt like steps back for the franchise and ultimately did lead to the absolutely dreadful low point of the entire franchise, Other M. As the years passed with no Metroid V in sight, my feelings on the game remained relatively harsh even though I still liked it. I tried a few times to do a replay on my 3DS, but always abandoned them for whatever reason. When Dread was finally announced, I had to know how I feel about Fusion today as I have more years of gaming and Metroid experience and with Fusion no longer having the burden of being the end of the mainline franchise.

When you start Fusion the most notable changes are that the jumping is far snappier and for the first time you can grab onto ledges. While it takes some of the finesse out of the game, the more precise gameplay is fun in its own right and feels good. I also appreciate, unlike Super which has two dedicated buttons for looking diagonally up and down, Fusion defaults the initial look to diagonally up when holding down the L button (which is where the majority of enemies will be) and by pressing down you switch to looking diagonally down. It can lead to some awkwardness at times during the intense boss battles, but it is a clever solution as less buttons are available on the GBA compared to the SNES controller. Another interesting gameplay change here is that missiles get upgrades that stack on top of each other like beams do. I like that missiles eventually handle the Ice Beam functionality from prior games for example because it is a useful tool to freeze enemies in the air, but it is much more satisfying to regularly be blasting enemies away with your default beam.

While I remain very down on the introduction of Adam, the new AI in Samus’ ship who will annoyingly lock her in the newly introduced navigation rooms until he gives her orders on what to do next (we never needed him before!!), and the more restricted linear nature of the game as a result, I did appreciate the moment to moment gameplay much more than I remembered. Metroid Fusion takes place entirely on a Galactic Federation research station in space rather than an alien planet. You arrive on the main deck area of the station and eventually reach a collection of elevators that lead to six different research sectors that are uniquely themed from a recreation of SR388’s main surface to more standard fire and ice levels. The station has been overrun with the X parasite that began to overwhelm SR388 after you wiped out the metroids in Metroid II (whoops) and each section of the game has you investigating or stopping them from spreading further or causing damage to the research station. When you enter a sector for the first time Adam will give you a basic map of the area and my favorite part of Fusion is that in all seven areas of the game you’ll begin to break out of the maps he gives you (noted by green tiles on the map) as you pursue your objectives. Venturing into uncharted territory is one of my favorite elements of Metroid games and given that some of the uncharted areas can easily be twice as big or more of the provided map of a given area and how breaking out is usually a puzzle in and of itself, I really connected this time with how it works. My favorite moments of Fusion are all tied to breaking out of the map including how it factors into a big story beat at the end.

When I originally played Fusion nearly 19 years ago, I wasn’t a fan of Metroid Fusion’s notably higher difficulty, but I definitely appreciate it now. Many of the bosses hit like trucks and a few bad moves can easily send you into a panic as huge chunks of your health are ripped away. While the designs of the bosses don’t speak to me the way Super Metroid or its same day contemporary Metroid Prime did, the boss fights themselves are engaging and require you to learn their aggressive, but usually sneakily simple patterns. Perhaps the coolest boss in the game is Nightmare who can enable a gravity device to have the missiles you shoot at him fall to the ground. Breaking away its mask reveals a goopy gross face that looks worse as the fight drags on. There are two fights though that are massive disappointments, a Ridley clone and the SA-X that is the reanimated remains of Samus’ original power suit by the X parasite that had infected her. While the game makes a big deal of the SA-X hunting Samus down, the few sections it appears often end quickly when you hide behind cover, and the final showdown is super easy as its patterns are just too simple. Ultimately, I had a much better time playing Metroid Fusion than I did during my initial playthrough. While there are parts of Fusion I just won’t ever fully agree with, namely Adam’s role in the story and gameplay, I think it’s ultimately still a fun game.

Metroid Zero Mission (GBA 2004, also on Wii U)

Zero Mission is a remake of the original Metroid and is an astronomical improvement over the original game even if the new epilogue scenario is very weak. The differences are subtle, but Zero Mission refines Fusion’s controls and movement to upgrade them from feeling good for what they are into something that just feels immediately excellent. Its values are different, but Zero Mission rivals Super Metroid for the best feeling game to play in the franchise. While the game begins with the rough layout of Zebes unchanged aside from the addition of Crateria, all of the rooms are substantially more designed and are littered with new puzzles and items to find. While you still have to take out Kraid and Ridley (now designed like their Super Metroid incarnations) before taking on an unaltered Mother Brain, there are many new mini bosses to overcome that are well designed and satisfying to conquer.

I had mixed feelings on the new epilogue content in Zero Mission back in 2004 and I still do today. Following Mother Brain’s defeat, Samus’ ship is shot down back to the planet and for some reason her power suit is damaged or destroyed leaving her stripped down to her skin tight Zero Suit and a gun that can only paralyze the space pirates. Through a combination of stealth and outmaneuvering them in their space ship and nearby Chozo Ruins, you’ll fight a lame Chozo ghost boss to restore all of your abilities and activate some new ones. This half of the new content just isn’t very fun despite the designers’ best efforts of creating unique paths to run and evade the space pirates through and I’ve always been conflicted on the sexualized design of the Zero Suit and its impact on the perception of Samus as a character (Smash Bros made Zero Suit Samus cool at least). Once your abilities return, you do get an awesome power trip as all of the space pirates that were hunting you down crumple under your full might. The final showdown with a Ridley robot is sadly another low point in this section as the battle is never interesting and you had a proper Ridley showdown in the game already.

For two hours or so then as it reimagines the original Metroid adventure, Zero Mission is on top of the world, but the new forty minutes of new epilogue content is honestly just subpar. I wish there was a hard break between the two sections of the game for this reason, but if you did want to go for 100% item completion like I did back in 2004 it is neat that you have all new abilities to use as you return to the rest of Zebes to clean up items. Despite its flaws, Zero Mission is a journey well worth taking as the main portion of the game is just that great.

Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS 2017)

Like Zero Mission before it, Samus Returns is such a substantial reimagining of the game it is remaking, in this case Metroid II, that it might as well be considered a new game entirely. Even though I enjoyed it so recently, I was very interested in replaying Samus Returns before Dread because the same developer is handling both and they are clearly building off of their foundation here. The most controversial new change is the addition of a new melee counter ability for Samus that helps her repel charging foes. Since the screen real estate is so tight (a problem shared by the original Metroid II!) you have to be even more careful traversing SR388 as enemies hit very hard and have substantially more health in order for the melee counter to be necessary. While my other Metroid playthroughs were all finished around the three hour mark, I was just shy of taking eight hours to finish Samus Returns in large part due to this impact on pacing which is somewhat relatively exhausting.

The longer journey is absolutely worth taking though, because overall Samus Returns feels great to play. For the first time in a mainline Metroid game, holding the L button makes Samus stand in place to enter a free aim state where you can shoot at whatever angle you are tilting the circle pad in. Precision aiming can make the game both easier and harder depending on the enemy you are facing, especially so when you are aiming for moving metroids and their weak spots. As you get used to moving the circle pad and learn their patterns, metroid fights switch from being a good challenge to becoming substantially easier when every missile you fire lands even as they introduce new moves and modify old ones. My one complaint is that the developers did completely run out of buttons as specific functions are mapped to every face button, the shoulder buttons, the d-pad (for swapping between the cool, new Aeion abilities), and most annoyingly the touch screen which you might need to hit in the heat of battle. Experiencing this control bottleneck again does make me very curious how Dread will play as Metroid developers for the very first time will have access to two control sticks, with clickable sticks, and four shoulder buttons.

​While Samus Returns keeps the general structure of the game, defeating metroids to lower the acid level in the central shift to reach a new area to repeat the process, the remake eventually substantially diverges from the original game in how you navigate the world and the obstacles within it. I mentioned in my Metroid II section I was surprised you get the Space Jump so early on in the adventure because the environment basically never is an obstacle again even though the terrain becomes more treacherous. At the same spot you would collect the Space Jump in Metroid II, you instead collect the Grapple Beam in Samus Returns which keeps Samus grounded much longer. I was more than fine with this, because Samus Returns is impeccably designed and offers a good challenge between navigating the world and solving puzzles that take advantage of all of Samus’ abilities. There are a few new boss battles in Samus Returns and all of the returning ones have new attacks and patterns which make them satisfying to overcome. I also really appreciate the presentation boost as well as the world suddenly has fully 3D backgrounds in color that offer an impressive sense of depth if you slide up the 3DS’ 3D slider. My only complaint is that the various backgrounds don’t really seem to gel together (is the cool water area with green grass everywhere really below a lot of lava zones?) and even though it’s still a super cool area which is what ultimately matters I was slightly bummed the most oppressively alien area in Metroid II was transformed into an abandoned Chozo base. I do have to give a shout out to the music in the game as the soundtrack reuses a lot of classic Metroid themes like Magmoor Caverns’ and Maridia’s themes to great effect.

Samus Returns is an excellent game and my second favorite mainline game overall despite my small complaints. It really captures what makes the Metroid games so fun and provides interesting new ideas like the melee counter and Aeion abilities that might be further developed in Dread at the least. While it seems like it will be locked to the 3DS given how it takes advantage of both screens and every possible input, I really hope Samus Returns will one day make its way to Switch as I think many missed out on it as one of the final 3DS games.

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That concludes my latest blog! I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on all of the mainline Metroid games. I had an absolute blast revisiting them and feel so satisfied to finally have finished the original Metroid. I always enjoy hearing your thoughts and feedback, so be sure to reach out to me on Twitter @JustinMikos to share your Metroid thoughts and favorite memories as we get closer to Metroid Dread! Until next time!

​After replaying every 3D Mario platformer and playing through Mario’s newest adventure, Bowser’s Fury, I knew I wanted to write a blog covering my thoughts on every 3D Mario game. Since I haven’t written about many of these games in detail, I decided to split this blog into two parts so I could properly cover each game. I posted Part 1 already covering Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Mario Galaxy 2. I’m back now with Part 2 which will cover Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Odyssey, and Bowser’s Fury. I have a lot to share, so let’s dive right in!

Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)

Like Super Mario Galaxy 2, my thoughts on Super Mario 3D Land have not terribly shifted with my latest playthrough. While Super Mario 3D Land wasn’t the first time a 3D Mario game arrived on one of Nintendo’s handhelds, it was the first uncompromised and unique 3D Mario experience on a handheld. 3D Land attempts to merge the 2D and 3D styles of Mario while being a showcase for stereoscopic 3D. While Nintendo has abandoned the technology for better or worse, Super Mario 3D Land still looks impressive on the 3DS as you can peer into Mario’s world to get an even better sense for Mario’s place in it which makes movement and jumps easier.

​Like the original 2D Super Mario games, Super Mario 3D Land is divided into eight worlds with a fairly linear progression of levels. Classic Mario enemies and power-ups are the focus here, rather than the anything goes drive of the Galaxy games. Perhaps part of the decision behind that focus is due to the smaller screen, which doesn’t lend itself to more elaborate platforming. While that is a disappointment, the core running and jumping feel good and the three star coins in each level present at least three secrets/challenges for players to pursue. There are interesting levels here as well including a deep descent through the clouds with the help of the Tanooki suit (which makes its first appearance in a 3D Mario game), some tricky ghost house levels, and a level based on the top down Legend of Zelda games. Another interesting idea are the Bowser showdowns, which essentially adapt the 2D fights into 3D. The final showdown is essentially just an intense platforming level with crumbling platforms and Bowser harassing you with fireballs which works out really well.

There is an impressive post game for Super Mario 3D Land as an extra eight worlds open up after the credits roll. Many of these levels are welcomely brand new, but there is a good deal that function like the comet levels in the Galaxy games that tack on a modifier to an existing level. Like Galaxy, the very last level is locked behind a complete Luigi playthrough (ugh) and a new goal to hit the top of the flagpole in every level. Like Galaxy 2, this final level is a new gauntlet for the toughest players. I reloaded my original save and had a great time tackling this challenge level. While you do have more than one hit, it actually asks a great deal from you including chaining long jumps across single block platforms, conquering two minibosses at their most aggressive, and dodging/kicking parachuting Bomb-Ombs off a switchboard platform. While I consider it unlikely, I really hope one day Nintendo will remake/port Super Mario 3D Land to other platforms because it is still an excellent game from start to finish.

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U, Switch)

I have mixed feelings walking away from my latest playthrough of Super Mario 3D World due to a seemingly minor, but ultimately disruptive change to the Switch port. When it first launched on Wii U, it was confidently my 2013 game of the year. I absolutely adored playing through all of the levels by myself as they brought so much more creativity and challenge to Super Mario 3D Land’s already tight design. While I didn’t get to do it too often, I had a blast playing the game in co-op too as multiplayer Mario works better in a 3D space and the five unique characters made 3D World lovingly chaotic. I came away on Switch still happy I replayed it, but I think the increased movement speed that actually makes the game more accessible, does dilute the difficulty for single player. At first blush it is a fun modifier as you really can tear through levels and you might even have trouble staying on the course. After a little while though, it’s obvious it makes jumps way easier and cheapens every level as you just don’t exist in them for as long. Another negative change in my view is that if you die mid-level, but start over from the start or a checkpoint flag, any green stars you had grabbed (the star coins of this game) remain collected which again cheapens the difficulty since you don’t need to survive collecting green stars from platforming challenges anymore. These changes make the game more accessible and potentially less frustrating (especially for online play), but both really should be modifiers you flip on and off to preserve the original vision. Like the Mario 3D All-Stars Collection, the changes just seem to be uncharacteristically less thought out by Nintendo which is disappointing to see. I wish I could say I’ll just play future replays on the Wii U as a result, but sadly I know my Wii U Gamepad’s batteries are on their last legs which will make replays impossible.

Despite my frustrations, there is still an excellent game at the heart of the experience. All of the levels are much more distinct than in 3D Land with many of them offering unique challenges and obstacles at the core of them. One of my favorite levels, Piranha Creeper Creek, is a jungle level infested with the new Piranha Creeper enemies and poisonous, purple waters. The way the Piranha Creepers wrap around the 3D space, especially as they cover tight and moving platforms, is engaging and stomping them out requires proper timing and patience. Two other especially cool levels are Shadow Play Alley, which plays around with silhouettes in both 3D and 2D spaces, and Mount Must Dash, which is essentially a delightfully, speedy Mario Kart themed sprint. The bosses in the game are sadly too easy, but there is an especially memorable one with Hisstocrat, a giant snake king. Hisstocrat summons snakes to burst through his sandy arena and with the use of the new Cat Mario powerup you can scale up the snakes to get enough height to jump on Hisstocrat’s head. While it doesn’t offer an additional eight worlds, the post game for Super Mario 3D World is impressive as truly fantastic levels populate it. Many of my favorites are in the early stretch that incorporate Mario Galaxy elements into 3D World and one of those surprisingly turns the game into a top down, auto-scrolling shmup. You unlock the fifth character, Rosalina, in this stretch of the game who has access to the spin jump / spin attack from Mario Galaxy which is especially useful as the difficulty ramps up and culminates in Champion’s Road which is the hardest Mario level to date. While significantly easier with the speed increase, it is still an awesome challenge to conquer as it tests all of your platforming skills across its many challenges.

One final element that I do want to touch on is the introduction of Captain Toad levels, which were so good that they eventually spawned their own game. I actually replayed Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker as part of my 3D Mario replays, but my opinion largely remains unshifted and it isn’t a 3D platformer so I didn’t want to talk about it in a dedicated section of my blog. It’s still fun to spin the camera around as you explore each diorama-like level and search for secrets. I barely remembered the game (which is unusual for me), so it felt like I was mostly playing it for the first time which was cool. I played Captain Toad’s DLC for the first time following my replay and sadly I highly recommend avoiding it. While the new levels are awesome, the DLC is disappointingly mostly remixes of old levels you will have played multiple times already if you 100% completed the game.

Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)

My final Mario replay, which concluded my journey for the 35th anniversary, was of Super Mario Odyssey. While I loved the game at launch and it was my fourth favorite game in 2017, at the time I considered it the weakest 3D Mario game. I know why I felt that way at the time as the insanely large number of unique moons, 880(!!), ultimately means a good deal of activities aren’t always the most compelling and a lot of the best challenges in the game don’t feature Mario himself. While those complaints still stand, I was wrong overall, because on replay, I truly began to feel Super Mario Odyssey is one of Mario’s finest adventures and is closer in spirit to Mario 64 than I first gave it credit for.

​Super Mario Odyssey begins with Mario failing to rescue Peach from Bowser’s clutches when he decides to kidnap her so he can forcefully have her marry him. When Mario is thrown off Bowser’s airship, his hat gets torn to shreds in the propellors. Thankfully, Mario teams up with a new character named Cappy, who replaces his old hat and grants Mario the ability to “Capture” enemies, animals, and objects. An astounding amount of variety comes from this as it dramatically increases the number of playable characters and increases the amount of variety in the game substantially. I think why I turned around on Odyssey so much was due to the knowledge I gained from my initial playthrough. I felt way more comfortable taking advantage of Mario’s moveset here, which evokes Mario 64’s feel and Sunshine’s versatility and depth. There are four new moves here that I finally made full use of from the start: rolling (so you can speed along the ground), throwing Cappy to attack (which lets you attack without stopping or jumping), the ability to bounce off Cappy if you let him linger in the air, and the Cap Dive which lets you alter your direction midair when you throw Cappy and use a dive to reach and bounce off him. These four moves, together with my knowledge of where, how, and why moons and purple coins were hidden, helped me more confidently and efficiently conquer each kingdom which dramatically improved the pacing. I enjoyed playing Odyssey far more on a moment to moment basis as a result since I wasn’t wasting as much time as I moved from objective to objective. Furthermore, I began to appreciate the variety in tasks more and noticed there actually is a substantial amount of platforming that still revolves around Mario instead of the captured creatures.

There’s a lot of awesome kingdoms to visit in Mario Odyssey and also a lot of cool Captures to play as across your journey. My favorite kingdom by far is definitely the Metro Kingdom. All the kingdoms in Mario Odyssey have distinct world states locked behind a main quest of sorts and the Metro Kingdom certainly has the most interesting. You first enter the Metro Kingdom at night during a fierce storm. From a distance you can see Bowser’s army has locked down the streets and a giant Mecha-Wiggler is wrapped around New Donk City Hall (the biggest skyscraper in the city). After you free the city, the sun shines again and you are told the town is going to hold a festival, so you need to recruit musicians to perform in it and fully restore the city’s power. At this point you are given free reign to explore the city and Mario’s platforming skills are well suited to scale skyscrapers and jump across rooftops. Tons of collectibles are tucked away in this dense area as well as hidden levels to explore. When the festival itself begins, the wonderful vocal theme song Jump Up Super Star begins playing and you hop in a pipe and play a handful of Donkey Kong themed 2D levels before squaring off with Donkey Kong himself! Some other standout kingdoms in the game are the Wooded Kingdom (which plays my favorite instrumental song in the game, Steamed Gardens), Bowser’s Kingdom (which is themed like a Japanese castle instead of his traditional Western ones), and the Moon Kingdom. What makes a lot of these levels especially memorable are the Captures in each one. My favorite Capture in Odyssey is still the Pokio that is primarily found in Bowser’s Kingdom. It is a small, round bird that can scale walls and attack enemies by extending its beak. Playing as the Pokio is so much fun and the challenges that require them are so clever and well designed that I want a spinoff starring one in the same way Captain Toad got his own game. Other awesome Captures are the Sherm tanks, the stretchy Uproots and Tropical Wigglers, the Gushens, and of course the T-Rex.

As I blasted my way through each story mission, I made sure to thoroughly explore each kingdom. With my knowledge from my first playthrough, I knew what to look for to find Moons hidden across the land. For example, if I didn’t know it my first time through, I internalized for sure this time that the levels hidden behind doors and moon rock passages always have two moons to find within. While a few moons still don’t feel special, I think far more than I first gave credit for are proper rewards for poking around for secrets and solving puzzles (they are also better rewards than the 1-ups of old Mario games). At the end of my big sweep through a level, I appreciated that there are two separate in-game hint systems you can take advantage of for the final clean up. One gives the title of the Moon which can help direct your search, while another points you to its location even if it doesn’t help you claim it. There’s a substantial amount of Moons to claim on your first visit to each kingdom and I was impressed how many more there are to claim in the post game which also opens up new areas to explore in each level. I ended my Mario Odyssey journey this time by claiming the final multi-moon on the Darker Side of the Moon. This final gauntlet is nowhere near as hard as the other post game gauntlets since I actually beat it on my first try in this replay, but its still so cool how it incorporates so many of the best Captures in the game. It truly feels like the culmination of the journey and that final climb of New Donk City Hall as Cappy reflects on everything so far is still a cool moment. Ultimately, I’m so glad I replayed Mario Odyssey. My opinion of Odyssey has only soared now that I’m more in sync with the game’s flow. I’m excited to one day play it again.

​Bowser’s Fury (Switch)

The latest 3D Mario game, Bowser’s Fury, came bundled with the Switch port of Super Mario 3D World and is a significantly different experience than every other 3D Mario thus far. Bowser’s Fury repurposes the controls, obstacles, and graphical style of Super Mario 3D World into a fully open world adventure. Bowser’s Fury takes place in Lake Lapcat and the various islands within it. All you have to do is walk up to an area/level and you are instantly ready to collect the current Cat Shine available until you have collected them all. When you complete or get bored of one island, you can hop on Plessie to ride across the lake in search of new islands and levels. That would already be interesting, but the biggest change is the introduction of Fury Bowser. During the day, a resting Fury Bowser is slowly rising from the center of Lake Lapcat. After a few minutes pass, a dark rain storm rolls in, and Fury Bowser awakens. At this point you can either try to avoid him until his fury subsides, collect a cat shine while dealing with his chaotic havoc, or use a Giga Bell to transform into Giga Cat Mario to engage Fury Bowser directly in battle. While I wish this idea was explored further, across the various islands of Lake Lapcat, are Fury Blocks that can only be destroyed if you lure Fury Bowser over to them so his presence isn’t always an obstacle to overcome.

Bowser’s Fury not being a standalone adventure and its short length (three hours to beat, maybe five or six hours to collect all 100 cat shines) gives it an experimental feel, but all of the levels and challenges are fantastic and make interesting use of the space they occupy. The regular threat of Fury Bowser keeps you driven to tackle goals efficiently and informs how you’ll tackle goals. I often kept an eye out for Fury Blocks for example, so I’d know where to rush to the moment Fury Bowser would awaken. Other times I’d glance over to Fury Bowser and check his state before claiming a Cat Shine so I could dismiss him quickly if I wanted to. My biggest complaint about Bowser’s Fury is the lack of control customization. Like 3D World, there’s a run button in Bowser’s Fury that you’ll always want held down. Unlike 3D World, since you actually need to manipulate the camera regularly, the control scheme becomes incredibly uncomfortable as three things constantly ask for your right hand's thumb all at once. I tried a variety of “claw” grips, until I settled on resting my index finger on the X button perpetually which is awkward. I didn’t think there’d be a third instance of Nintendo being uncharacteristically sloppy with their Mario games for the 35th anniversary back to back, but here we are!

​All of the levels in Bowser’s Fury are largely excellent, but I do have a few favorites. Pounce Bounce Isle is littered with bounce pads and bullet bills, while Trickity Tower is an invisible climb save for the ground surrounding Mario’s feet. I also really enjoyed Mount Magmeow as you use Switchboard platforms to ascend it as well as Roiling Roller Isle which is probably Bowser’s Fury trickiest level. The Fury Bowser showdowns when you power up as Giga Cat Mario are a lot of fun as well. They amusingly all directly take place on Lake Lapcat and oddly for a Nintendo game Fury Bowser has a health bar and you can actually swipe and damage him directly as Giga Cat Mario. The most effective way to take him down is to counter his attacks and throwing the pillars he rains down from the sky to open him up to a ground pound attack. The spectacular final showdown with Fury Bowser is definitely my favorite part of the game as he temporarily loses the ability to be driven away by cat shines, his attacks become the most varied and fully aggressive, and he has one extra phase to the battle that ends on an incredible note. While I had an amazing time with Bowser’s Fury and it is one of my favorite experiences in 2021 thus far, I’m not sure just yet where it totally fits in relation to the other Mario games. Regardless, I’m looking forward to replaying Bowser’s Fury eventually. It’s a short, but sweet experience that stands out among the 3D Mario games. I hope it is pointing towards a full open world Mario game, because Bowser’s Fury teases the amazing potential that idea has.

​That concludes Part 2 of my 3D Mario blog and I hope you enjoyed it! Every 3D Mario game is truly an incredible experience and I’m so glad I finally replayed all of them back to back. I definitely need to replay these games more often as they are all delightful and satisfying to conquer. I always enjoy hearing your comments and feedback, so feel free to reach out to me @JustinMikos. Until next time!

When I turned 25, I wrote a blog covering my top 25 games of all time. My number one game at 25 was Super Mario 64 and I would likely still choose it today as it forever cemented my love of gaming. While I’ve regularly replayed Mario 64 over the years, I can’t say the same for the rest of the 3D Mario games even though they are thoroughly excellent and some of my favorite games of all time. While Mario 64 has made regular appearances on multiple Nintendo platforms, the same cannot be said about every other game which has made replays less convenient.

As part of Nintendo’s plans for the 35th anniversary of Mario, Nintendo put out a collection on the Switch that contained Mario’s first three 3D platformers, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy, and separately they ported Super Mario 3D World with a new game included, Bowser’s Fury. The Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection bizarrely omits the superior Mario Galaxy game, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and I was determined to fully replay it with my digital copy on the Wii U if I was going to enjoy all the prior games. I realized then that the 35th anniversary was a perfect opportunity to replay every 3D Mario game as I would only have to dig out my 3DS to replay Super Mario 3D Land and then just replay Super Mario Odyssey again on the Switch.

From September 2020 to March 2021, I played all eight 3D Mario games to 100% completion and I’m excited to share my fresh impressions of every replay and my thoughts on the new Bowser’s Fury. My thoughts on some of the games have definitely shifted with these fresh back to back playthroughs and they helped shape how I feel about Bowser’s Fury. I haven’t written about many of these games at length so I have decided to divide this blog into two parts. Part 1, which you are reading now, will cover Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Mario Galaxy 2, while Part 2 will cover, Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Odyssey, and Bowser’s Fury. I have a lot of thoughts I’m excited to share, so let’s get to it!

Super Mario 64 (1996: N64, Wii, Wii U, Switch)

Super Mario 64 is the game that truly cemented why I love video games. While I grew up enjoying amazing games on the Super Nintendo, seeing gaming jump to 3D with Mario 64 was a magical, transformative moment that proved video game’s endless potential for evolution and their ability to offer truly personal experiences beyond what other media can offer. While the Mario games that succeeded it have stronger designed levels, the original Mario 64 remains unmatched in celebrating the joy of movement in a 3D space as the simpler objectives and more open levels pair with an elegant move set to allow you to most easily and confidently express yourself.

I’ve played Mario 64 many times over the years. In general, I seem to replay it every other year or so. As a result, playing Super Mario 64 on the Switch was mostly a smooth experience that once again reaffirmed my core opinion of it. However, at launch when I played it, Nintendo made the baffling decision to un-invert the camera. Thankfully I could get used to it because my preferred option for a double inverted camera isn’t always supported in other video games, but it was disappointing since Super Mario 64 first taught me how to manipulate a camera in a 3D space! Mario 64 actually explains why the camera performs as it does because from the start it is presented as Lakitu hovering behind Mario to document the action with his camera. When you move the camera in Mario 64 you are actually controlling the cameraman himself! If he moves left behind Mario the screen itself shifts right and similarly when Lakitu moves backward the view expands which made perfect sense to me. An options menu was patched in to correct this flaw, but it was very frustrating that Nintendo backtracked on its own legacy here when the rest of the package barely features any updates for better or worse. 

Quality of the port aside, I had an absolute blast once again playing Super Mario 64 and my latest playthrough became the first time I ever claimed all 120 stars in one sitting. I’ve always had a great memory for maps and directions and this skill translates to games as I know all of the Mario 64 maps, including coins and enemies, like the back of my hand. While I’m not a speedrunner, I enjoy tackling the objectives efficiently and always try to make wild long jumps and wall jumps to skip past obstacles. The middle of the game, including Big Boo’s Haunt and the basement levels, prove the most satisfying to me now as they strike an interesting mix of deadly obstacles and open world spaces. In Big Boo’s Haunt for example, with clever wall jumping you can easily reach the second floor at any time and skip navigating the library entirely. Lethal Lava Land and Bowser In The Fire Sea on the other hand can offer a true rush if you long jump and speed through the limited platforms separated by a sea of lava that makes mistakes costly, but not necessarily fatal. While I used to dread the 100 coin stars because they are the increasingly toughest stars in the game to claim (especially Rainbow Ride’s), I think they are now some of my favorites as most of the levels are open ended enough that you have flexibility in not just choosing your route, but which coins to grab entirely. It’s a shame then that aside from Sunshine which also features 100 coin stars, no other Mario game features objectives that function like them.

When I replay Mario 64, I’m always amazed that I still discover new things when I play it. My big discovery in this playthrough was learning there is actually a reward for taking out the seemingly endlessly respawning Monty Moles that appear in a few levels starting with Hazy Maze Cave as they eventually drop a 1-Up Mushroom if you take enough out. A separate thing I’m continuing to discover is just how useful the “Mario camera” can be. The camera in Mario 64 is especially wily by today’s standards, but I appreciate that you do have a lot of control over it by swapping between two different modes, a “Lakitu camera” that gives a large view of the action and a “Mario camera” that is placed right behind Mario. The Lakitu camera definitely covers 95% of the action with minimal fuss especially if it is zoomed out, but the Mario camera definitely has its uses. The very top of Big Boo’s Haunt for example is too zoomed out in the Lakitu camera, but is simple enough to navigate with the Mario camera. That prominent example I knew prior, but I definitely felt more comfortable and more successful swapping between the two cameras in this playthrough when I felt it might help and it often did.

I came away from my latest playthrough still in awe of Super Mario 64. It’s still my favorite 3D Mario game and my favorite game of all time and I’m looking forward to the day I inevitably feel it’s time to replay it again.

Super Mario Sunshine (2002: GameCube, Switch)

The game I was most looking forward to replaying on the 3D All-Stars Collection was Super Mario Sunshine. It had been well over 10 years since I last played it at any length and I was really looking forward to finally 100% complete Sunshine for the first time. My GameCube copy of Sunshine was one of the ones that sadly suffered from a glitch that would crash the game whenever you tried to grab a specific blue coin in Nokia Bay (it’s in that square cut out of the cliff face pictured above). The glitched coin prevented me from achieving 100% completion and ever since my last GameCube memory card died I sadly had even less incentive to revisit Sunshine. The Switch version at launch suffered from the same un-inversion issue as Mario 64, including aiming the FLUDD, and also suffered from the lack of Gamecube Controller support since the Switch controller lacks analog triggers. This removes the ability to finely adjust FLUDD usage depending on how fully you pressed down the trigger so instead FLUDD’s functions are awkwardly split across two buttons. Thankfully the patch for 64 fixed both issues in Sunshine and most importantly for me the infamous blue coin glitch was absent from the start.

I’ve always held Sunshine in high regard especially because Mario’s move set in Sunshine is the most advanced across the 3D Mario games thanks to the introduction of Tornado Jumps combined with the fun possibilities offered by each FLUDD module. The standout abilities of the FLUDD are hovering, rocket jumps, and rocket dashes, but its primary ability to spray water ahead of you can be used to zip around environments as you can rapidly slide forward on wet surfaces which is super fun. I obviously thus disagreed with the relentless discourse against Sunshine, that it is the black sheep of the 3D Mario games, but it still weighed on me so I was very eager to see how it held up myself. After this replay I actually came away even more fond of Sunshine.

​There are roughly two types of 3D Mario games, those that are more open and those that are more structured, and like Mario 64, Sunshine is more open in structure. It doesn’t really matter in my case since I always aim for 100% when I play Mario games, but Sunshine has the strictest requirements in playing levels in set orders. You can’t necessarily grab the sixth Shine in a level when you are in the episode for the first shine in a level and more frustratingly certain blue coins are unavailable to collect as well because each episode is actually a distinct world state. There are advantages to this approach as enemies and obstacles change between episodes and most amusingly NPC’s have unique dialog to each episode which offers evolving insights and stories. Since you can see other levels from a distance and NPCs occasionally travel between locations, Delfino Island becomes the most realized setting in a 3D Mario game which is super cool and something not seen again until Mario Odyssey. Incidentally, a further comparison arises between the two games with the new addition of Blue Coins. There are usually 30 in each level, spread across episodes in sometimes interesting and other times frustrating ways. Like Odyssey’s moons, the Blue Coins offer rewards for more thorough exploration. I wasn’t afraid to dig out my old strategy guide when I almost exhausted an area, but I found it satisfying now to rediscover and finally claim every Blue Coin.

There are some rough levels in Sunshine, no question, alongside the majority of great ones. One in Pianta Village where you are encouraged to navigate the grates on the underside of the city without the FLUDD was incredibly frustrating as Mario feels locked to grates when trying to transfer between them yet can comically easily be knocked off grates by enemies. Still, I found a majority of the most infamous levels discussed online and ones I had struggled with in the past to not be anywhere near as bad as I remembered. I don’t believe it was cleaned up in any way, so I was surprised the clay boat and lilly pad levels where you shoot the FLUDD to ride them across dangerous waters didn’t give me any grief this time for example. I also successfully navigated the big water melon down to the shack in Gelato Beach on my first try. The hotel levels, which I’d still consider the weakest overall aside from the awesome Manta Ray showdown, proved more enjoyable to me this time as a unique change of pace. My favorite levels are definitely the more open ones including Delfino Plaza (which is my favorite Mario hub world), Bianco Hills, Rico Harbor, and Nokia Bay. These levels are especially fun to navigate with Tornado Jumps and the FLUDD especially as they remix the environments in interesting ways across episodes. Another standout are the FLUDD-less challenge levels which put your platforming skills to the test. I like how they point to the creativity in linear challenges that the 3D Mario team will spend time refining in future games.

I had a blast tearing through Sunshine in three days and finally achieving 100% completion which had eluded me for 18 years. Its well realized setting and awesome move set for Mario help it stand out from the rest of the 3D Mario games in a positive way. I’m so glad I finally replayed it and solidified my opinion on the game.

Super Mario Galaxy (2007: Wii, Wii U, Switch)

Across my seven replays, I definitely found elements I appreciated more and elements I appreciated less in each of the 3D Mario games. My Super Mario Galaxy replay, has the unfortunate distinction of being the only one that lowered my opinion of a still relatively amazing game. Super Mario Galaxy is the first of the four more linear 3D Mario games and sees Mario venture into space to rescue Peach from Bowser’s clutches. The glorious outer space setting frees the level designers to basically make whatever they wanted across planets both big and small. The atmosphere of Mario Galaxy is amazing in large part due to my favorite Mario soundtrack that introduces grand and beautifully orchestrated pieces to the series. The song “Super Mario Galaxy” aka, Credits Roll, is my favorite track in the soundtrack alongside the wonderful Gusty Garden Galaxy theme that was later remixed as Champion’s Road in Super Mario 3D World. Galaxy still looks excellent on the Switch thanks to stellar art direction and an increase in resolution. Unfortunately, the Switch version does have one compromise to the experience that can’t be fixed with a patch as the slick IR pointer of the Wii version, primarily used to collect star bits, is replaced with the incredibly unreliable Gyro sensor that loses calibration after maybe a second of serious use. While forever frustrating, thankfully it is a minor annoyance overall.

Part of my disappointment in Mario Galaxy in this replay was further realizing just how much my previous criticism actually held it back. Mario Galaxy makes a strong first impression as Mario rockets into space and then has a comfortably laid back beginning for his adventure. The problem is that Mario Galaxy never properly ramps up in difficulty and it doesn’t ever ask you to make serious use of Mario’s move set. While Galaxy significantly simplifies Mario’s move set compared to Mario 64 and Sunshine (no dives or tornado jumps here :/ ) it does introduce one of my favorite mechanics for an extra jump to adjust your trajectory. Previously activated with a satisfying shake of the Wii controllers, on the Switch the spin jump / spin attack is simply activated with a more reliable button press. This simple addition is wonderful as it gives you so much added control in the air even if the actual increase to the height and distance of your jump is minimal. The attack portion of the move is also welcome as it introduces a simple way to give Mario a melee attack that doesn’t slow down the action. I’m happy this ability not only returned in Super Mario Galaxy 2 and as a move for Rosalina in 3D World, but an altered version that nixes the attack property crossed over into the 2D Mario games as well starting with New Super Mario Bros Wii. While I always knocked Mario Galaxy for being too easy, something I didn’t comprehensively notice in my original playthroughs is that you virtually never need to take advantage of this move or the returning long jump move from Mario 64 as a standard jump helps you leap across essentially every obstacle and gap. While the spin jump still has a place in the game, I wouldn’t adore it otherwise, the long jump in particular sadly serves little purpose which is a shame because it is normally such a fun form of movement.

One other issue stood out to me in this playthrough and that is how often Galaxy reuses content. While the previous 3D Mario games reused their big open worlds as they spread collectibles through them, Galaxy is significantly worse about it as a linear game. While the comets in the game contribute to this issue as they repeat challenges with a simple modifier, like a timer or one HP runs, I began to notice how certain planets are just straight up reused in different levels with minimal to no adjustments. The most egregious example is a robot top boss that no joke you actually fight four times with no relevant changes to his moves and both the arena and area leading up to him. I forgot too Galaxy is the first 3D game to force you to refight the final boss fight in order to keep unlocking new content. There are no notable changes to this fight and the language of what you’ll get when you recomplete it is blatantly misleading as it sounds like you’ll get to play a new level, but really you just unlock Luigi. In order to play the final level (which isn’t even cool), you’ll have had to fight Bowser four times! It’s an awesome fight to be sure (especially with the epic soundtrack) and leaves a great impression the first time, but it’s less awesome four times back to back. Incidentally, I did skip the Luigi playthrough this time.

I know I have been super down on Galaxy so far, but I swear I still do really like the game for what it is! Jumping between planets to advance through levels is a wonderous idea that I hope will one day return. While Mario is less satisfying to control due to the simpler controls, it is still super fun to navigate him through the world and is relatively painless to do so since the camera is well equipped to handle itself for the first time. While I like a lot of my favorite levels because of the distinct moods they invoke, like the Gusty Garden Galaxy and the Space Junk Galaxy, there are still some standout levels for platforming including the Freezeflame Galaxy (which has slick ice-skating controls) and the delightful Toy Time Galaxy. The Bowser levels are also very fun and satisfying to conquer. The Bowser showdowns that conclude them are easy, but they are my favorite showdowns in a 3D Mario right alongside Mario 64’s since it is one of the rare times you can directly strike Bowser himself. One last addition I have to mention from Mario Galaxy is the introduction of Rosalina to the series. Rosalina is special for being essentially the only major addition to the Mario cast in the last twenty years and she is one of the only ones to have a backstory (it’s tragic even!). She made a strong first impression and became cemented as one of my favorite Mario characters in later appearances in Super Mario 3D World and Super Smash Bros. As a result, she became my favorite racer in Mario Kart 7 and 8.

Super Mario Galaxy may have lost some of its luster over the years, but it is still a fantastic game that made wonderful contributions to the series with the unique planet hopping gameplay, a simple, but powerful new move with the spin jump, a cool new character with Rosalina, and the most glorious soundtrack in the series. I’m happy I played it again and even though I imagine it won’t be for a long a while, I’m looking forward to the day I’ll play it again.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010: Wii, Wii U)

I’m more than happy to report, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is still just as awesome today as it was when it came out and remains my second favorite 3D Mario game just behind Super Mario 64. Galaxy 2 offers an even more focused experience than the first Galaxy and is all the better for it. I’m still amazed how it regularly presents distinct ideas and jumps right to the core of what makes them fun, before moving on to the next great idea to repeat the process. Astoundingly, it often repeats this process multiple times per level! There are far more galaxies in general and every star inside of them (aside from hidden stars) are collected through unique paths in each galaxy which keeps Galaxy 2 feeling fresh throughout. The levels themselves are longer, far more complex, and thankfully more difficult than in the first Galaxy as well (long jumps matter again!) which makes the journey much more satisfying. While Galaxy 2 does reuse a few levels (and features a few classic courses/challenges), it does so with far more purpose and never more than twice until the Green Star post game victory lap that sticks new stars in hidden and hard to reach locations. I played Galaxy 2 with my digital Wii U copy which of course requires Wii Remotes. While I couldn’t enjoy the resolution bump, Galaxy 2 still looked great and I did get to use all of the original motion controls (including the rad IR pointer controls) which are more involved and more fun to use than in the first Galaxy.

Beyond just the general excellence across the board, there a few elements that further help Galaxy 2 really stand out. The most prominent addition over the first Galaxy game is Yoshi who lets you clear out enemies with his powerful, lengthy tongue, and cross tricky gaps with his powerful flutter jump. Most interestingly, by eating specific fruit Yoshi gains access to his own specific set of power ups including ballooning up to reach tall heights and a red pepper dash that lets him scale up sloped walls. The more traditional power ups introduced in Galaxy 2 for Mario don’t disappoint either. The new drill item for example forces you to think about the full shape of the planet you are standing on as it lets you drill through the ground to pop out on the other side. My favorite new power up in Galaxy 2 and my favorite Mario power up of all time is Cloud Mario which lets you create three platforms anywhere in the world. Provided you don’t come into contact with water which disables your power up, you can spawn one cloud platform at a time whenever you decide to shake either Wii controller. It’s a lot of fun to plan your route carefully through a level and decide where those extra cloud platforms will be of most use whether it’s to reach otherwise out of place areas, to help cut across giant gaps, or for something else entirely.

A second element that helps Galaxy 2 standout is its absolutely fantastic bosses. The kid gloves from the first Galaxy come off again here as these bosses are generally more aggressive and require a little more thought and timing to conquer especially since you frequently need to use power ups to triumph. While the Bowser fights are a bit of a letdown in comparison, Bowser Jr. especially brings exciting colossal robots to dismantle including a tank that keeps increasing in height as you damage it so you’ll eventually need Cloud Mario to reach the top. One final element I want to discuss is that Galaxy 2 was the first Mario game to introduce a final extra challenging level for people who aimed for 100% completion. The Perfect Run is a gauntlet of challenging new level sections that test all of your skills including Yoshi and Cloud Mario. Taking one hit forces you to start over so it is a true test of endurance. My muscle memory carried me well so I didn’t have to try too much, but man it is still such a blast to conquer!

I had an awesome time once again claiming all 242 stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2. I definitely need to make it a habit to replay it more often because it is such a joyful game that keeps a smile on my face from beginning to end. Even though it will lose the wonderful IR controls, I hope Nintendo ports Super Mario Galaxy 2 to Switch so more people can play one of Mario’s absolute best adventures.

…

That concludes the first part of my 3D Mario blog. I will return with Part 2 soon so please look forward to it! I always love hearing comments and feedback, so if you have any fond 3D Mario memories or enjoyed a recent replay yourself be sure to share with me on Twitter @JustinMikos. Until next time!

This blog was originally posted on my Game Informer Online Blog on my 25th birthday in September 2017. As of this reposting, it is still the only time I have written and shared a list of my all time favorite games. Although it is an old blog, I hope you will enjoy it! The text is unaltered from its original posting. 

I've been playing games for nearly 25 years and there is one question that I've routinely found difficult to answer even though it sounds so simple: "what is your favorite game of all time?" I often answer that question by listing a handful of my favorite games and leave it at that since the games I hold in the highest regard are so outstanding that ranking them doesn't always make sense. Regardless, I've always wanted to share a ranking of my favorite games of all time so I decided I'd try to make one for a list for a major milestone. If you ask me about this list in the future I'm not sure how fully I'd stand by it, but at this moment, as I just turned 25, here are my top 25 favorite games I've played to date!

25: Fortune Street (Wii)

Fortune Street is essentially Monopoly with the stock market, and there is nothing else quite like building up your properties while battling both luck and your opponents. Matches always become especially heated if you are playing with a competitive crowd and everyone knows when the big plays or fatal errors are made. I think Fortune Street narrowly edged out the runner ups due to all my fond memories of playing with friends whether it was coining the Birdoverse, when Birdo became trapped on an island and slowly built up a dangerous monopoly, or the time my best friend, my brother, and I were all late to dinner at Phil's BBQ when we just couldn't leave a game unfinished.

24: Guitar Hero / Rock Band (PS2, Xbox 360, Xbox One for me)

I'm already cheating at #24, but that's ok! I'm a huge fan of rhythm games so when I saw videos of Guitar Hero on G4's X-Play I knew I had to get my hands on it as soon as possible. My favorite games between the series are Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III (which introduced me to my favorite band Muse), and Rock Band 2 as they had my favorite soundtracks and featured the tightest guitar gameplay. I loved playing alongside my friends in these games and competing on the leaderboards, something I still occasionally do today with Rock Band 4. Whenever I hear songs that appeared on those games, all the warm memories come rushing back.

23: Mario Kart 8 (Wii U and Switch)

I grew up with Mario Kart so I've always had a lot of love for the series. While I have the most fond memories of Mario Kart 64 playing with my brother, cousins, and friends, Mario Kart 8 is my favorite game in the series without question. I've always preferred racing to battling and Mario Kart 8 has the tightest mechanics and stages after being refined through patches and DLC. The two F-Zero courses are highlights of the whole series, but there are plenty of other standout courses such as Cloudtop Cruise and Mount Wario. The online mode is a total blast, especially since you can play splitscreen with a friend, and I also appreciate the intense 200cc mode which requires an entirely separate approach to racing.

22: Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

Halo 3 is my favorite modern shooter to this day. While I enjoyed playing multiplayer with friends and occasionally online, my favorite part of the game is undoubtedly the campaign which is excellent both alone and in splitscreen co-op. The pacing is incredible and each area offers interesting sandbox battles and environments such that I can largely recall the entire campaign from start to finish. Skulls and campaign scoring both add a lot of replay value as I frequently enjoy making it even tougher than Legendary. Ultimately though, Halo 3 is just incredibly fun and satisfying to play which keeps me coming back every few years to play it again.

21: Perfect Dark (N64 and Xbox 360)

Perfect Dark is an incredibly rich package that offers so much single player, co-op, and competitive content. While it looks primitive today, it truly was cutting edge at the time on consoles and all the little animation touches still look great today. I'll never forget the campaign because I played levels over and over again to unlock all the hidden levels and cheats. Not every level holds up, but I enjoy all the approaches you can take to each objective. The best part of Perfect Dark is the combat simulator which features 30 missions that scale in difficulty depending on how many friends you are playing with and gives you full access to all the amazing weapons in custom games. I still can't get over how many weapons there are like the Super Dragon and the Laptop Gun and how nearly all of them have secondary functions that keep them fun and versatile. I love that Perfect Dark was granted a second lease on life with the fantastic Xbox 360 remake since it has kept it relevant for me ever since.

20: Cave Story (WiiWare, PC, DS/3DS)

Cave Story is basically a lost Super Nintendo classic and I loved it to death when I first played it. I beat it roughly six or seven times after it came to WiiWare. Most of those playthroughs were on the original PC version as I was able to download a copy of it to my computer account in high school and play it on any computer in the school. I frequently hung out with my friends in the newspaper room in high school during breaks so I had plenty of time to play it over and over again once all my work was done. I loved Cave Story so much that when I got to college I made a Cave Story-like game demo with some of my friends. If I had to pick one thing I especially love about it besides its amazing music and graphics, it has to be the weapon upgrade system that ensures a fantastic pull and push dynamic to combat.

19: Kirby Super Star (SNES)

I inherited most of my Super Nintendo games from my brother, but Kirby Super Star however I encountered in Kindergarten (no I don't know why mine had an SNES). Kirby exuded personality in Super Star and was armed with his most versatile movesets (I especially love Mirror and Plasma). While combat was easy aside from the awesome boss fights, it was all about efficiency and looking and feeling cool. The level design in Super Star is very clever as it hides tons of secrets and has some legitimately tricky puzzles especially in the fantastic Great Cave Offensive. I still love tackling Super Star with a friend as virtually the entire game supports co-op.

18: Xenoblade (Wii, New 3DS)

The moment I saw the wonderful exploration trailer for Xenoblade I knew I needed it as it was the evolution of Final Fantasy XII I desperately wanted. When it looked like America was about to miss out on Xenoblade, even though it was announced in LA at E3, I participated in Operation Rainfall's letter writing campaign and even heard back from Nintendo! From that alone it will always hold a special place in my heart and thankfully the game was well worth all the drama, as it struck an engaging mix between story and gameplay. I especially enjoyed exploring every inch of its beautiful world in search of adventure, treasure, and cool enemies to fight while listening to its phenomenal soundtrack and the endless banter of its endearing English voice cast.

17: Super Smash Bros Brawl / Smash 4 (Wii, Wii U)

I enjoyed Smash Bros from the start of the franchise with the N64 version and even more with Melee such that I even played in a local tournament with friends once, but it never quite clicked with me as much as I wanted it to until Brawl. I adored the lead up to Brawl with the daily Smash Bros Dojo updates and when it was finally mine I found Brawl was more of my pace, had a fantastic roster, and offered even more content to sink my teeth into including a Kirby Super Star style campaign and a level editor. Brawl is still my favorite, but through patches and DLC Smash 4 has become my new go to Smash game. I'm fairly competitive, so I always enjoy how my friends and I would all push ourselves to be better players in our regular first to five matches.

16: Super Mario RPG (SNES)

Super Mario RPG is the first of the big three SNES RPGs I love dearly. The combat system was so far ahead of its time especially with the action commands that encouraged you to be more involved in the turn based combat. My favorite part of Super Mario RPG was its emphasis on platforming and exploration. There were a lot of secrets to uncover such as hidden weapons, cameo characters, and a strange Final Fantasy style boss named Culex. I loved the writing in the game, which confidently took Mario on a unique adventure and made Bowser a hero. One of the original characters, Geno, remains one my favorite RPG party members of all time.

15: The World Ends With You (DS)

I love Square Enix and when they are on the top of their game they are untouchable. The World Ends With You is a bold game that oozes with style and creativity. The main character Neku begins the game thoroughly unlikeable, but over the course of the story became one of my favorite heroes of all time. The supporting cast is well utilized throughout and even works well in the bizarre post game level where the writing is just top notch. The unique combat system is hectic at first, but very engaging, and I love all the thought and care that went into the pin system as it empowers you to constantly try new abilities. I adore the excellent soundtrack full of catchy vocal songs and I still often listen to it while writing or driving.

14: Metroid Prime (Gamecube, Wii)

I distinctly remember being blown away by Metroid Prime when first booting it up. The leap from Super Nintendo to Gamecube is massive to begin with, but Prime was one of the most beautiful games of the generation. Its world was richly detailed and I made sure to savor every step of the journey. Prime stands out to me for its sophistication, how it built its world through its creatures and environments and through the lore waiting to be uncovered. It remains deeply satisfying to play and is still the ultimate successor to Super Metroid.

13: Kingdom Hearts II (PS2, PS3)

Kingdom Hearts II immediately gripped me right from the start. After a beautiful opening movie, Kingdom Hearts II puts you in control of Roxas as he completes the last days of his summer vacation. I quickly became attached to him and exploring his town so I didn't want his journey to end, but the journey that follows was equally unforgettable and incredibly fun thanks to the rock solid action gameplay. At the time I hadn't completed the original Kingdom Hearts, so this was the journey that made me attached to all of the characters and made me start to care about Disney films beyond my favorites. If Kingdom Hearts had ended here I would have been fully satisfied as Square made such a substantial experience from top to bottom.

12: Uncharted 2 / Uncharted 3 (PS3, PS4)

I knew I would always one day have a PS3 thanks to Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Kingdom Hearts III on the horizon (whoops...), but it was Uncharted that pushed me to secure mine earlier after reading its Game Informer cover story. The approach to realizing its core concept fascinated me and I was a huge fan of the original Jak and Daxter so I was eager to get my hands on the game. While I adored the first Uncharted, I knew Naughty Dog just needed to work the kinks out to make it even more special. My first PS3 literally died the day Uncharted 2 came out, but after that issue was resolved I plunged right into Uncharted 2 and finished it that first weekend. Uncharted 2 to me is still the pinnacle of the franchise as it struck the perfect balance between gameplay and story. The addition of stealth added needed variety to each encounter, but once the bullets started flying you were in total control of every situation due to how perfect the controls and systems were. While Uncharted 2 remains my favorite campaign, Uncharted 3 is the complete package as it gloriously fleshed out the underrated multiplayer modes.

11 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, GBA, Wii, Wii U, 3DS)

A Link to the Past is one of the essential games from my childhood and is one I consider virtually perfect. Unlike other Zelda games, I think what makes A Link To The Past so special is that while it does feature an overworld it is often an extension of the dungeon gameplay I love the most. What you learn in the light world directly influences how you have to think about the dark world as it is literally layered on top of it. When you enter the proper dungeons though, you are treated to some of the finest puzzles in the entire series and unique gauntlets of enemies and obstacles that established all the tropes that other Zeldas have riffed off. I love the progression of the game as you build up your health, armor, and weapons, and acquire a variety of interesting tools. By the end you have a tool for every occasion and more importantly a good handful that are just for fun. Few games effortlessly capture the spirit of adventure and trust you to solve every challenge before you as absolutely as a Link to the Past, which is why I revere it so much.

10: StarCraft / StarCraft II (PC)

I was very young when I first played StarCraft on my family's first computer. While I was fascinated by the core concept, building up a base and an army to take out your opponents, I wasn't proficient enough with a mouse and keyboard to really play it. Until I could type them down reliably myself, I often asked my Mom to type in the cheat codes I knew including the invincibility code "power overwhelming." RTS games became my favorite computer games thanks to StarCraft and over the years I became increasingly better at it such that I became confident enough to play online. There I found all the wonderful custom games, which encouraged me to make my own maps with the level editor. My gamertag Ghost777 came from StarCraft as I was always fond of the ghost units and, well, I needed some good luck online. When I went to college StarCraft II had just come out and I made most of my best friends in the dorms in part to it. Something I always appreciated about StarCraft is its obscene amount of depth and skill, which means I can always keep learning and improving. While I've taken a break from StarCraft since Legacy of the Void concluded the trilogy, I know one day I'll dive back into StarCraft. It's timeless.

9: BlazBlue (Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, PSP, 3DS, Vita)

I'm forever glad I took a chance on BlazBlue. Right before launch I saw some videos of a few matches online and was intrigued by its aesthetic and unique characters. Calamity Trigger was the humble beginning of the series and I was there day one. It featured 12 characters and a story mode that was a giant mess, but thankfully the strengths of the series were already apparent. Though the roster was small every character played vastly differently from each other and each one had wild personalities accentuated by awesome theme songs and a stellar English voice cast (RIP). Unlike other fighting games, the story took its time to truly develop its characters since it let them interact in lengthy scenarios that frequently didn't involve fighting. I played Calamity Trigger every morning before walking to high school because I was absolutely hooked. Continuum Shift, the first sequel, cemented my love for BlazBlue. It's story mode was far more cohesive and dramatic and gave everyone a chance to shine. Through DLC it introduced my favorite character Makoto and another one of my favorites with Platinum. Thanks to good enough PSP and 3DS ports and eventually fully up to snuff Vita ports, I could play BlazBlue on my bus rides to and from college. I still can't believe how much the series has grown since I first started playing as it is now up to 36 playable characters in Central Fiction. I can't wait to see where BlazBlue goes from here.

8: Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, PS3)

When I beat Shadow of the Colossus all I wanted was more. I loved the core loop of scouring the land on horseback in search of my next boss fight with a spectacular monster. Thankfully the game was very accommodating as it featured a Time Attack mode that rewarded unique items like explosive arrows and a parachute and had some fascinating secrets like climbing to the top of the castle and walking along the long bridge that is the only entrance and exit to the world. When I read a rumor online that there was a 17th colossus hidden in the world after beating the game four times I jumped at the chance to keep playing. I beat it four times on normal and four times on hard while beating Time Attack fresh each time and I can assure you there is no 17th fight. Along the way though I found even more secrets and quirks of the game. I especially latched onto making Wander perform backflips when leaping off his horse and skipping sections of climbing Colossi through carefully timed jumps. Wander is an especially lame hero at times with his awkward animations and relatively stiff/heavy controls so any action that made him more awesome always felt like a truly impressive feat that you earned. So while there wasn't "more" Shadow of the Colossus per se, I thoroughly enjoyed all of my time with Shadow of the Colossus.

7: Odin Sphere (PS2, PS3, PS4, Vita)

Odin Sphere is my favorite PS2 game of all time. I prefer fantasy to science fiction, so Odin Sphere's mix of knights, fairies, and dragons was always up my alley. While the gorgeous 2D graphics welcomed me in, it was the confident blend of story and gameplay that hooked me through five campaigns and the dramatic boss rush finale. Odin Sphere is framed with a little girl reading books in her attic and like a great book it restricts your freedom to playing each character's campaign in order to pace out its dramatic reveals and to flip your understanding of the story. Odin Sphere originally had some performance problems, but I found the slowdown in the original PS2 version gave the combat an unintended layer of strategy as it made you commit to each of your actions and let you easily survey the battlefield during the most hectic moments. I also appreciated that you were constantly juggling limited inventory space alongside the need to make the most of the photons produced from each battle. You needed photons to get stronger and power up your special attacks, but they also could be used to grow food needed to boost your health. Making constant decisions for the short and long term is what made me so invested in all of my characters and the game as a whole.

6: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, Wii U)

I'll cut to the chase, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of my favorite games of all time because it is so incredibly fun to play. Mario's moveset is highly tuned and ready for the seemingly endless variety of challenges he encounters across 242 stars. Galaxy 2 is Nintendo at the top of its game, it introduces mechanics and enemies, quickly explores and arrives at the essence of each of them, before moving on to the next and hardly ever looking back. Each level is thus incredibly satisfying and you are always looking forward to how the designers will surprise you next. Unlike Galaxy which was far too breezy, Galaxy 2 is unafraid to ramp up the difficulty which lets it ascend to even greater heights and makes conquering each challenge even more fulfilling.

5: The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (PSP/Vita, PC)

My favorite modern RPG is without a doubt Trails in the Sky. It captures everything I love about the RPGs I played growing up and integrates plenty of modernizations on the side. The three main pillars of Trails, combat, characters, and the world, are all in perfect sync with each other. The combat is an always intriguing mix of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy X as it mixes careful positioning with the ability to see and alter turn order. In addition to physical attacks and magic, there are CP skills which are charged by dealing or taking damage in battle. When you have at least 100 CP, you can interrupt turn order to strategically deal a devastating special attack which further expands your varied options. While the combat is always compelling, the characters are the true highlight of Trails in the Sky, especially the main protagonist, Estelle Bright, who is my favorite RPG protagonist of all time. She is so much fun to follow as she always exudes personality and grows into a leader who inspires others over the course of two games. Falcom takes the time necessary to develop the world of Trails through an intense attention to detail that has easily supported eight lengthy RPGs to date.

4: Chrono Trigger (SNES, PS1, DS, Wii)

It's hardly a secret that I love Chrono Trigger. Crono has been my icon online since I first made an account on Game Informer and carries over to any other public account I make like my Twitter. Chrono Trigger is a fantastic adventure and serves as an excellent introduction to RPGs in general. The mechanics of combat are sound thanks to it copying the ever reliable ATB system and I always appreciate that it lets you battle enemies in the world without transitioning to a separate area as it makes the whole experience more cohesive. Chrono Trigger focuses on a time traveling adventure as you gather allies across the ages to battle a planet devouring alien named Lavos. What really caused Chrono Trigger to stick with me all these years was its innovative New Game+ mode which allows you to carry all of your items and levels across a new playthrough. This lets you end the story whenever you want and have access to a dozen alternate endings. Not all of them are substantial, but it is enough to spark the imagination and asks you to more deeply engage its plot and characters.

3: Final Fantasy VI (SNES, GBA, Wii)

Final Fantasy VI is a master class RPG that offers a perfect mix of story and gameplay. I love assembling the full party of 14 characters in FFVI as they each offer exciting, unique abilities like Sabin's Blitz moves that are triggered by fighting game inputs or Cyan's Sword Tech skills. You are granted a powerful amount of customization through the use of relics (accessories) and later in the game you can teach any character magic by equipping them with magicite. I love how the story of FFVI is structured, it begins as a focused journey to aid a resistance opposing an evil empire until halfway through when the game's unforgettable villain Kefka succeeds in destroying the world. At this point you are given free rein in an airship to explore the world, right wrongs, and find your friends until you want to approach Kefka's Tower for a final showdown. There are many memorable events throughout the game such as the Opera House and the Phantom Train, but what pushes it over the edge is the often subtle writing that fleshes out the characters.

2: Super Metroid (SNES, Wii, Wii U, 3DS)

Super Metroid is a perfect game as far as I'm concerned. After an exciting prologue, you land on planet Zebes to find the last Metroid that was kidnapped by Space Pirates. As you explore Zebes you acquire new tools, weapons, and upgrades that help you explore and conquer more of the beautiful, hostile, alien world. The pacing is unbelievable as it constantly rewards experimentation by gradually upgrading your character. I always held Super Metroid in deep regard, but my respect for it has only grown over the years. One of my favorite memories of playing and beating the game countless times is how I've eventually mastered wall jumping. If you explore a certain corner of Brinstar you might find yourself trapped in a vertical corridor with three little aliens who wordlessly teach you how to wall jump. It's incredibly tricky to perform as the window for success is so small, but it's deeply satisfying to truly master as it lets you significantly sequence break the game and acquire some of the best power ups far earlier than intended. I love how Super Metroid respects, challenges, and rewards you as a player. Super Metroid is a shining example of excellent game design which is why I can't help but replay and enjoy it over and over again.

1: Super Mario 64 (N64, Wii, Wii U)

I distinctly remember the feeling of playing Super Mario 64 for the first time. I already established my love for gaming with my brother's Super Nintendo collection, but when I took control of Mario and just played around outside Peach's Castle, running, jumping, climbing up trees, and swimming, my love for games was fully cemented. Mario 64 celebrates the joy of movement in a 3D space and confidently pushed games into 3D. Like Super Metroid, I frequently replay Super Mario 64 every year or so and always have an absolute blast every time as Mario is just so much fun to control. Super Mario 64's levels are often simple once you know what you are doing, but how you achieve each objective is always fully up to you. It can be an absolute rush to take the most dangerous jumps possible and figure out how to make the most of your wall jumps and triple jumps. Super Mario 64 reminds me how games are always evolving and of their limitless potential to offer truly personal experiences you cannot have with other media. At 25 years old, Super Mario 64 confidently stands as my favorite game I've played to date.

​Last month I shared My Top Ten Favorite Games Of 2020 blog. Through my annual blogs, I love talking about which new games made each year special to me and this year was no different. By nature, my GOTY blogs exclude games from prior years and straightforward remasters from consideration and discussion. One game excluded last year was the excellent Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. The remaster enhanced the same core Xenoblade experience with welcome quality of life updates, new graphics, a rearranged soundtrack (though I stuck with the original), and added a new epilogue story, Future Connected, that was eligible for my GOTY blog. Before I let this chance escape me, I wanted to share my experience revisiting Xenoblade Chronicles in 2020, one of my favorite games of all time, and discuss how it has held up more than eight years later as well as share my thoughts on Future Connected.

​I’ve discussed this before so I’ll keep it brief here, I have extensive history with Xenoblade Chronicles. When it appeared Xenoblade was destined not to come out in America, I participated in a letter writing fan campaign, Operation Rainfall, and I actually received a letter back from Nintendo in response which was cool. When it eventually released in America, I reviewed Xenoblade for my college newspaper in my column, The Gamer’s Corner. At the end of the year on my personal blog, it was obvious Xenoblade towered over the competition and I confidently declared it my 2012 Game of the Year.

A few years later, I revisited the original Xenoblade in a cool way as I played it on Game Informer’s RPG Grind Time livestream when I interned there in early 2015. It was awesome to be able to chat about the game with the editors and the community watching the stream live. This episode of Grind Time occurred around the release of the New 3DS version of Xenoblade Chronicles, which I ultimately didn’t get too far in as I’ve had less obvious time for handheld gaming ever since I graduated from college.

Aside from the first five hours or so, it’s been a long eight years since I’ve really played the original Xenoblade, so I was glad the new Definitive Edition gave me an awesome excuse to do so. While it took me roughly 80 hours to finish the original version of Xenoblade Chronicles when it released on the Wii in 2012, I decided I would try to achieve close to 100% completion this time. It took me 93.5 hours to play through the main game and an extra 12.5 hours to play through Future Connected. With the exception of the new Expert Mode which I used throughout my latest playthrough, the core experience of the Definitive Edition largely remains the same from the 2012 original Wii game. So how does Xenoblade hold up?

​After sinking more than 106 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, it’s obvious to me why Xenoblade connected with me so strongly in 2012 as all of the elements that define it, the wonderful characters and story, amazing setting, incredible music, and engaging combat and exploration, synergize together to elevate the experience as a whole. The journey feels so grand, yet so personal every step of the way in a way that feels effortless. While the effect remains, I think what’s interesting and why I’m here today writing this blog is that I feel differently about the individual elements of Xenoblade in isolation and in relation to the Xenoblade games that followed including Future Connected. While my enthusiasm has dimmed for certain elements of the game, I found greater appreciation elsewhere and ultimately overall.  

If there is one element that I feel the most differently about it is definitely the story and characters. Xenoblade Chronicles takes place on the remains of two robotic titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis. The opening cutscene, set hundreds of years prior to the start of the main story, depicts their duel to the death. It then cuts to a scene of war between humans and an army of robots called the Mechon. This war is revealed to be waged on the sword of the Mechonis that remains lodged above the waist of the Bionis and thus connects the two titans. The tide of battle begins to turn in favor of the humans when a hero named Dunban arrives on the battlefield wielding a sword of light called the Monado. The blade grants him exceptional strength, but seems to be wreaking havoc on his body as well, especially as he is not fully in control of it. Dunban is able to gain a decisive victory for the current battle, before he loses the use of his right arm. One year later, the main story begins on Colony 9 following a young man named Shulk and his friends Reyn and Fiora. The peace of the last year won by Dunban is abruptly shattered as a fresh wave of Mechon launch a surprise attack on Colony 9. In the chaos, Shulk comes to wield the Monado himself and begins to see visions of the future, but even with a vision warning him, Shulk is unable to save Fiora before she is killed by the Mechon leader, Metal Face. Shulk vows to avenge Fiora and sets off with Reyn on his journey to destroy the Mechon.

I still love the premise and setting of Xenoblade. It sets the stage early for an epic adventure by showing you both Titans so you’ll know you’ll eventually explore both of them thoroughly. The first area of the game, Colony 9, is expansive, especially for a Wii game, but Xenoblade really comes alive the moment you visit the Gaur Plains that cover the Bionis’ Leg. This area is exceptionally vast and has wonderous terrain to explore only possible in a fantasy game. The way the rocks overhang over the valley is so visually interesting, it’s no wonder Monolith reused the idea and executed it on an even grander scale in Xenoblade X. I love the way the valley progresses from open plains, to a lake you can cross at three different elevations (swimming across the water, walking atop the mushrooms growing out of it, or by crossing the large stone bridge above), and finally to the rocky caves that lead to perilous cliffsides. The most fascinating view is the constant view of the Mechonis’ sword that looms and blots out the sky overhead since it remains firmly lodged into the Bionis above. Monsters range in level on the Gaur Plains from the level 10 enemies that you’ll fight as you first arrive to the level 75+ monsters that you can only defeat towards the end of your journey. The Gaur Plains theme that accompanies your exploration is appropriately bombastic at the start, but becomes introspective if you hear it play long enough. These larger outdoor environments, including Satorl Marsh, The Eryth Sea, Valak Mountain, and the Fallen Arm, are my favorite parts of Xenoblade by far as they offer so much to explore, discover, and conquer.

I loved the main party of Xenoblade the first time I played it and I have an even greater appreciation for them now as I decided in this playthrough I would include everyone enough to max out their affinity with Shulk. The characters are developed across the many voiced cutscenes (some of which contain super exciting developments and action), Heart To Heart events between individual pairs of characters, and through the extensive amount of repeated voiced dialogue in battle that will stick in your head long after you’ve finished the game. I never actually engaged much in the Heart To Heart events originally since I didn’t shuffle my characters around too much, but I was really happy to experience them in the Definitive Edition. On replay, I was surprised to discover just how story focused most of the story cutscenes are as many primarily introduce new areas and objectives. The Heart To Heart events meanwhile are essentially role-playing exercises as they are two question dialog trees. The two answers to the first question of the Heart To Heart will lead to separate second questions being asked and every answer will either boost or lower affinity between the characters. While I don’t like that you frequently have to guess the right responses to questions in the Heart To Hearts when they ask you to recall events and what they meant to each character that you’ve never seen, overall they do round out the personalities that otherwise shine through in the repeated battle dialog. I especially appreciate that a lot of the questions in Heart To Hearts ask the characters how they’d respond to certain dilemmas and inquire about their plans for the future since they each prompt you, the player, something to think about as well. As for the repeated battle dialog, my long time favorites all hold up including Shulk’s “I’m really feeling it!” and Reyn’s “Now it’s Reyn Time!” and “Man, what a bunch of jokers!” I think my new favorite during this playthrough was Reyn’s “OH YEAH BABY!”

The characters in the party that I liked in my initial playthrough I still like today. My favorite character is the main protagonist Shulk who is older and more mature than most RPG protagonists. While he can be a bit dense at times, he is kind and caring, and works especially hard to do the right thing even during his quest for revenge. My second favorite character is Melia, who is quickly revealed as the princess of the High Entia. She receives a ton of character development throughout the journey as she opens up to the party and various dramatic developments happen in regards to the High Entia that affect her role as a leader. I was especially pleased to check in with her as the main character in Future Connected and I’ll cover that in detail later. As for the rest, my next favorite is definitely Reyn who you can tell from his battle quotes is bursting with infectious enthusiasm. I am a little bummed still that he doesn’t get too many moments to shine in the story cutscenes, but overall I like him a lot. I also appreciate both Dunban and Fiora who are brother and sister. Dunban is wiser and more mature than the rest of the group and he shines best in action scenes. His sister, Fiora, makes the most of her screen time with her upbeat personality.

The big turnaround I had in this playthrough was of Riki, the Nopon. He’s an odd, goofy character who became the Heropon in his village to pay off his debts accrued by having too many children. He feels ill-fitting for the main quest because he is barely in any of the cutscenes after his introduction and has less personal stake in the journey. I really changed my opinion of him when I played through Future Connected in the middle of my playthrough (my curiosity of what it was made me not want to wait to the end of my replay of the original adventure) and I saw the positive impact Riki had on two of his children, Kino and Nene. Afterwards, I started experiencing more of Riki’s Heart To Hearts and dedicated sidequests in the main game and by the end I was really won over as you can see how much he tries to do his best and cares for others. Aside from potentially his children, there is no question Riki is the best Nopon in the Xenoblade series.

I am a little bit more down on the main story overall, but I still absolutely love the journey. I can’t quite recall the initial impact of every cutscene, but even though I was disappointed the voiced cutscenes were more story focused than I remember, they do a better job at foreshadowing the big reveals in the story and the big action scenes when the music swells still have impact (I always love when Engage The Enemy plays!). I appreciated discovering in my second playthrough that you actually can directly visit many of the areas shown in cutscenes with characters outside your main party if you are thorough enough. While I love the reveals and twists in the narrative, I didn’t appreciate the big villain position shuffling too much. Metal Face is the best villain as he loudly remains selfishly evil and underhanded to the bitter end, but the later ones like Egil despite having grander ambitions and impact on the greater story don’t feel as interesting to confront. There are a few characters that betray the group and one in particular given great focus is just so goofy that I couldn’t take them seriously in my replay. 

While I did have new feelings and insights for the story and characters on replay, the combat and exploration, the main gameplay elements of Xenoblade, remain as excellent and forward thinking as ever. The combat is modeled after traditional MMO combat and puts Xenoblade and its sequels in the rare “Offline MMORPG” genre shared with Final Fantasy XII which preceded it. In Xenoblade, as you explore large zones you’ll encounter enemies of varying danger. Without proper set up, enemies too far above your level can’t even be hit by your party members let alone how most of them would probably wipe you out anyway. When you enter a fight with multiple enemies, managing their aggro/aggression is important to survival. The roles of your party members are roughly divided into the three main archetypes in MMOs, DPS, Tank, and Healer. I had heard about it and learned it myself playing the Definitive Edition, you can interestingly forgo the dedicated healer, Sharla, with proper set up and still triumph.

When you are fighting foes your characters automatically perform basic attacks (auto attacks) against the enemies you are fighting. You are directly in charge of positioning your characters and choosing when to use your Arts that are displayed on a palette at the bottom of the screen. With the exception of Shulk who has access to a second palette dedicated to his Monado skills, every character has one unique special skill and eight slots to fill from the growing pool of Arts that you have learned which gives you plenty of possibilities to approach battles. While I was sad to realize I had misremembered that the terrain doesn’t terribly matter outside of the tighter battlefields, the importance of your position relative to your enemies still very much does. Certain arts, like Shulk’s Backslash, deal bonus damage if you are in proper position. In Backslash’s case, you obviously deal more damage to enemies if you are behind them. Here’s where you need to pay attention to enemy aggro, because if the enemy’s aggro is directed at Shulk he’ll be unable to sneak behind the enemy to deal immense damage. When you are in the heat of battle, you can only control the character you had selected as your leader walking in, but you can still direct your characters to help you by expending bars from your chain attack gauge. This especially comes into play when Shulk sees visions of the future in battle, typically when an especially nasty or fatal attack will strike your party, because you can activate a specific skill to prevent or lessen the damage. The AI still does a good job of working with your leader undirected, as they regularly participate in setting up basic combos (inflicting Break, then Topple, then Daze) to effectively dispatch foes. Altogether, these various elements all keep combat engaging over the course of the roughly 80 hour journey and is further accentuated by the awesome music and lively battle dialog.

Building your characters off the battlefield is fairly laid back, but it can still have a good impact on your performance. You’ll collect a lot of different items over the course of your journey and all of them have different appearances and stats. Armor is divided into three categories, light, medium, and heavy, and often has slots where you can set stat enhancing gems in while some come locked in. If you choose to engage with it, gem crafting is a fairly simple minigame to play with and can reliably yield powerful gems. While you have to fast travel back to the forge early on, there soon is a quest that conveniently grants you a portable forge to forge gems whenever you want. Two other systems you can invest in are leveling up arts which is fairly straightforward (it yields faster cooldowns for art usage and more damage/buffs/healing etc.) and leveling up your skill trees. The latter is very straightforward as you choose to linearly level up one of the three to five available trees per character at a time, but where it becomes interesting is that you can share skills with your party members based on their shared affinity rank (level 2 affinity for example in one pair gives you two slots to share skills for each character). There are limitations of course as each skill on the tree is shaped like a geometric shape and can only be shared into matching shapes on the paired character’s tree provided you have enough skill points. You can easily re-spec and it’s cool to shore up weaknesses and make strengths even stronger.

I think my favorite part of Xenoblade remains Exploration in general. All of Xenoblade’s various zones are vast and vertically oriented. Raised paths and cave networks elaborately wrap around and connect these various spaces which keeps exploration interesting. Often you can see elevated areas in a distance and it is not always obvious how you’ll reach there. I described the Gaur Plains earlier, but I’d also like to discuss a few other areas. Satorl Marsh for example offers a mostly straightforward path to the next area, but it contains various lakes, mountain paths, and even a small fortress to explore just off the main road. It’s easy to be pulled off the path because while it looks drab and dreary during the day as you’d expect from swamplands, at night all of the plant life begins to glow in the dark and offers a spectacular light show. The Eryth Sea is another fantastic location to explore as a series of islands are suspended over a vast sea with tropical vibes. All of the crystals that dot the landscape glow in the dark and on certain nights an amazing meteor shower fills the sky.

​Even with an 80 hour playthrough back on the Wii there were still areas I hadn’t fully explored in the game. In my playthrough in the Definitive Edition I made sure to explore 100% of every map and I paid more attention when I was exploring because I was determined to chart a course through all of the postgame content when the time came. For example, it was awesome finally exploring the full Tephra Cave to see what horrors lurked in its darkest depths and to discover how the uncharted areas would surprisingly connect with the areas I was familiar with. Another amusing detail I noticed in this playthrough, was that I realized the map of the whole Eryth Sea area is actually shaped like a fish! In my Definitive Edition playthrough I discovered so many more optional bosses to fight because I found all of their hidden hiding places. Incidentally, discovering a boss is always an event that brings immense hype not only for the challenge, but because the glorious boss battle theme You Will Know Our Names blares out and gets your blood pumping.

There are some benefits from scoping out every area in its entirety beyond the immense satisfaction of doing so because they can add landmarks to your map for fast travel and you can become familiar where monsters and the respawning collectibles are. There’s a lot of nice QOL features in Xenoblade and landmarks are one of the main ones. When you die in Xenoblade you merely get sent back to the nearest landmark which was far less punishing than most RPGs at the time which usually sent you back to your last save or would rob you of items and money. Incidentally, you can save anywhere in Xenoblade so you can jump right back to where you left off. One final note about landmarks beyond fast travel and respawn purposes, you actually gain a hefty amount of experience just for discovering them which is pretty neat.

The monster and collectible knowledge you gain from exploring is most useful when tackling side quests in Xenoblade. There are a handful of different side quest types in Xenoblade even if they aren’t marked as such. First off are the basic quests that actually auto-turn themselves in (another forward looking idea in Xenoblade) that revolve around slaying a certain number of monsters and collecting a certain number of collectibles. In the Definitive Edition you actually can track a lot of these on the minimap which makes it easier to complete basic quests alongside other quests that require more attention. I do want to mention, I enjoy picking up the collectibles in Xenoblade since they are presented as little blue fire orbs scattered across each area. Some of them are situated in unusual locations and because there are so many the hunt for them can be evocative of collecting coins in a 3D Mario game.

A second kind of quest are the Affinity Chart quests that have named characters as the quest givers. After completing your objective (usually collecting materials, killing monsters, or talking with another NPC) you need to check back in with quest givers for these since they have a story to tell. Not every character is interesting, but you start to get to know some of the NPCs who inhabit the world with you to the extent you begin to feel a sense of community especially as you begin to track their schedules in your head (thankfully you can alter the time of day at any time to warp characters to locations you are familiar with). Some of these Affinity Chart quests have actual roleplaying involved and puzzles to figure out with Shulk’s visions of the future and completing quests in certain ways can lead to unique follow up quests. I think the most interesting way the sense of community manifests is there is a destroyed colony of humans called Colony 6 that you are tasked with optionally rebuilding. In addition to providing the colony with funds and supplies, you’ll eventually be asked to invite people across races that you have met from your affinity chart to move to Colony 6 where their stories often continue as they meet their new neighbors. While rebuilding Colony 6 with your own hands is neat and satisfying, finding the supplies they need can be a nightmare as the items and monster drops are not tracked like the basic quests. I highly recommend looking up the information for some of the especially rare drops and collectibles because it is otherwise looking for needles in a haystack big enough to contain 80+ hours of adventure and even worse they never consistently appear which obviously sucks. The new and fun Time Attack / Combat Challenge Arena Area in the Definitive Edition is very welcome here as you can put your rewards points from clearing challenges to collect some of the hardest to find items in addition to new outfits for the characters.

That covers the majority of the Xenoblade experience, but I do want to briefly discuss some of the new additions to the Definitive Edition. I’ve mentioned many of the new QOL improvements along the way and I just mentioned the Combat Arena so I’ll skip over those. The new graphics and arranged music are the most immediate changes here. I love the new graphics overall even if it makes the characters look a bit less mature. The environments always looked amazing, but the character models just looked so primitive by comparison and could never fully emote the way the newer models can. I also highly appreciate the new Vanity Gear option that lets you don the appearance of any gear you have come across because the tone of cutscenes (which are virtually all in-engine) can be wildly ruined when you equip the weird scraps of clothing that have the best stats. While most of the outfits look fine and cohesive when all the pieces match, it’d always be bizarre when you were wearing full armor for pants for example paired with a bathing suit top. I mentioned at the start of this blog the Definitive Edition does include a new arranged soundtrack, but I stuck with the punchier original soundtrack. I absolutely could not listen to the more muted You Will Know Our Names when the bombastic, blood pumping original is right there. Some of my other favorite tracks on the soundtrack are the Gaur Plains theme, Engage The Enemy, and Mechanical Rhythm. Perhaps the most impactful addition to the Definitive Edition that I highly recommend for thorough RPG players is the new Expert Mode which takes all of the bonus experience you get from discovering landmarks and completing quests and stores them aside for you. In other words, you only get experience from fighting monsters which is ideal if you want to keep zones more balanced/relevant to you for a longer time especially if you want to explore everything and clear every quest. I enjoyed applying that bonus XP during my final stretch leveling up to 99 to tackle all of the postgame content immediately.

Finally, I do want to discuss the new Future Connected epilogue set one year after Xenoblade’s ending. Melia and Shulk use their airship to explore the previously unexplored Bionis Shoulder that looms in the sky above. Two of Riki’s children, Kino and Nene, had stowed away on their airship and join the two on their latest quest. The Bionis Shoulder was apparently a repurposed test map for Xenoblade, but you would hardly know that from looking at it. There are wonderous sights to see and elaborate mountains with winding paths to explore that are even more twisty than the ones in the base game which makes them even more satisfying to explore and conquer. While monsters dominate the landscape, there are two towns filled with characters to meet, and most interestingly numerous lost Nopon to rescue who are part of the Ponspector explorers. The combat of Future Connected largely resembles the main game, especially as Kino and Nene essentially just fill the roles of Sharla and Reyn respectively. However, one key difference is the absence of visions and the chain attack gauge. Instead of the latter, you can team up with the Ponspectors you rescue for a devastating super attack. The more you have rescued, the more powerful your attack is, so it is very worthwhile to seek the little guys out (also it’s silly to see them all march in a growing line behind you).

That engaging mix of elements that define Xenoblade, the awesome exploration, combat, characters, music, etc., all work together again just as well here in this smaller 12 hour adventure. One standout element of the experience is the new story of Future Connected. The name of the epilogue might lead you to believe the adventure is hinting at Xenoblade 3, but it is actually the epilogue’s theme as various characters in conflict need to unite to reach a better future and stave off new threats. At the center of this is Melia who stands uncertain of her new role in the world following the dramatic story of Xenoblade. She interacts with her people here who have conflicting desires of where their future lies and what they must stand together to protect. I really appreciate Melia gets more time to interact with not just Shulk, but her sister Tyrea as well with whom she has a strained relationship to put it mildly. I mentioned it earlier, but I really came to love the new characters Kino and Nene and seeing what a positive influence Riki had on them when he raised them as their father since it really gave me such a great new perspective on him. Nene in particular is my favorite and she is especially fitting as the Reyn stand in, as she is bursting with confidence and has many of the best new battle dialog quotes. I also appreciate that she can offer surprisingly poignant insight as she assists Melia on her journey as a friend. My favorite improvement over the base game is that all of the Heart To Heart Scenes in Future Connected all feature voice acting which helps everyone’s personalities shine through even with limited screen time.

I’m happy that as I replayed Xenoblade last year with the Definitive Edition I came to appreciate all over again how amazing it is and just how much it still means to me. After a rougher, but still fun journey in Xenoblade 2, both Torna and Future Connected give me such optimism for the future of Xenoblade and I can’t wait to see what Monolith will make next.

I hope you enjoyed reading my latest blog! I do have a separate blog on my website dedicated to Xenoblade Chronicles X to read if you are interested which is a much messier, but still very interesting, fun, and worthwhile game. Also, I always love discussing Xenoblade, so if you do too or if you have any comments and feedback, I’d love to hear from you on Twitter @JustinMikos. Until next time!

​One of my favorite blogs I’ve written was “Why I Love Falcom’s Trails Series” and I’ve always wanted to write a follow up. With Ys IX Monstrum Nox releasing this week in English, now seemed like an ideal time to finally finish and share this blog with you about why I love the Ys series. While the Trails series remains my favorite Falcom RPG series, the action RPG Ys series holds another fond place in my heart. Through this blog, I’ll explain the three major types of Ys games, discuss some of the common elements between them, and delve deeper into my favorite Ys games, Ys Origin and Ys VIII, which I think are two of the best entry points into the series.

The Ys series began with two PC games first released in 1987 and 1988. These first two Ys games, Ys I and Ys II, were originally envisioned as one game, which makes sense since Ys II picks up right after the conclusion of Ys I. These two games introduce the core mythology of the land of Ys and Adol Christin, the primary protagonist of the Ys series, and his best friend Dogi. Adol Christin is an Adventurer and every time he finds himself in a new land he records the details of his journey in a new journal. For the most part, the Ys series is framed as you reading Adol’s journals. In practice, each game sees Adol exploring and fighting his way through new lands while awesome rock music blares in the background.

Despite there being an overarching lore and Ys I and II being directly connected, you actually can largely play the Ys games in any order. In each game there are passing references to Adol’s past accomplishments to help you piece together a timeline and, more rarely, reoccurring characters, but these elements are always relatively minor in significance as the current adventure is always clearly the focus. I appreciate the impact of the light lore across games, because it really increases the accessibility of the series.

I’ll go further to say, I’d actually discourage you from trying to play the games in numbered order as the availability of the series is kind of all over the place especially in English and due to the presence of remakes that are radically different from their original forms. Aside from Ys V, which is not available in English, I’ve played every other Ys game in some form. In general, there are three types of Ys games, the Bump games, the Solo games, and the Party games. All three styles offer wildly different action RPG gameplay so for convenience let me list them below, with each section being in release order:

Bump – Ys I and II Chronicles
Solo – Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, Ys: The Oath In Felghana (a remake of Ys III), Ys Origin
Party – Ys Seven, Ys: Memories of Celceta (a remake of Ys IV), Ys VIII: The Lacrimosa of Dana, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

As you’ll notice in both the Solo and Party Ys games list, the first game in each style of game is followed by a remake of an earlier Ys game. These remakes are not only massively improved over their original forms, but they also significantly evolve and advance the ideas introduced in the last mainline game. Ys VI for example, a Solo Ys game, features Adol directly attacking enemies with his sword, but you must regularly pull up his inventory screen to set items to keep his health up. The Oath In Felghana introduces pick up drops that compel you to always keep pressing forward to build and maintain buff multipliers. These drops further help keep you in the action as some directly restore health.

I’d like to dive into more detail now about each type of Ys game so you can have a greater sense of what these games actually are. Let’s start with the Bump games since they are the most primitive by far. As you might imagine from a series over 30 years old, the original games do not meet today’s standards for action games and even though you can best experience the first two games in the Ys I and II Chronicles collection, make no mistake the Bump games are solely for super fans like myself at this point. In the Bump games, Adol does not swing his sword by pressing a button, instead you literally have to bump into enemies in order for him to do so. Adol moves very quickly and you need to circle around enemies to hit them from the side or behind otherwise there is a very good chance they will swing back at you which is bad since Adol is fairly fragile.

In Ys II, the system becomes significantly more forgiving and more interesting since sliding diagonally into enemies is enough to always trigger a safe bump and Adol learns fire ball magic that eventually directly homes in on enemies. While the boss fights in the first game were all melee only, many of the bosses in Ys II are only vulnerable to fireballs, and thus the game shifts during boss fights into light bullet hell fights (an element that somewhat carries over into the Solo Ys games, especially so in Ys Origin). Despite the added complexity, some RPG and action game fans could find the Bump gameplay charmingly quaint, but it’s certainly not something most would want to return to. While Ys I is fairly breezy at roughly five hours long, Ys II can take you a good twelve hours and I’ll readily admit to using a guide for it since the levels are significantly larger and lack good landmarks. If you do decide to play these games you will see Adol’s altogether brief first meeting with Dogi and get to explore the land of Ys, but Ys Origin, the final Solo Ys game, works as another great introduction to the core lore so it’s not as clutch to play Ys I and II Chronicles as it might seem.

The next style of Ys game I’d like to discuss is the Solo Ys games, which are represented by Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, Ys: The Oath In Felghana, and Ys Origin. Like the Bump games, you are only controlling one character throughout your entire adventure, but this time you have direct control of your sword swings. These three games are all very short and sweet. Napishtim tasks you with exploring a set of islands, Felghana has you explore a small nation, and Origin simply tasks you with scaling a large tower filled with demons. The tightness of these worlds, Felghana and Origin especially, is refreshing compared to some of the vast, but often empty worlds of RPGs of today. This elegance extends to the light number of upgrades in each game and the lack of menu managing you have to do.

As I mentioned earlier, Felghana introduced item drops to the Solo Ys formula that keeps you focused on the battles at hand. Origin further reinforces this by having an EXP multiplier that you can grow and maintain with every hit against enemies. Of course, these systems wouldn’t mean anything if the actual sword play wasn’t engaging and thankfully it’s rock solid. Every quick hit has satisfying impact and there is good strategy at play when you choose to dodge by jumping and then stunning foes with a downward thrust. Each game has its own quirks to mix up the combat, whether it’s the three different swords in Ys VI, the magic accessories in Felghana, and the magic abilities you swap between in Origin. Ys Origin, which I’ll delve into later, actually has three different characters who each play radically differently from each other, one of which is uniquely a purely ranged warrior. All three games feature some light platforming to mix up the action as well as classic dungeon traps like spikes to avoid.

The final type of Ys games are the Party Ys games, represented by Ys Seven, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Ys VIII: The Lacrimosa of Dana, and Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (which I haven’t played yet at the time of this writing). In these games, Adol is joined by two other characters in battle that are pulled from your growing party. Each character has one of three damage types, slash, pierce, and strike, and you’ll constantly swap between characters midbattle to exploit enemy weaknesses. The party games also feature a dedicated dodge button and a unique magic/ability system. Each character can bring four of their special attacks into battle, each mapped to a face button, and by using them, each move gains experience and dramatically levels up in range, effects, and damage. There is an interesting push/pull dynamic in place to manage your special attacks in battle as you quickly restore MP by using normal attacks.

As you might expect, one of the biggest differences here is a much greater emphasis on story. While the larger stories aren’t as compelling as other RPGs like the other Ys games (Ys VIII and hopefully IX being exceptions), the characters in your party are fun to be around and they usually have small fun arcs that find their place in the greater story. Celceta and VIII each feature light Metroidvania / Zelda elements which pair super well with an emphasis on mapping the uncharted lands Adol is exploring. Again, these Metroidvania / Zelda elements are super light, but it’s fun finding items in dungeons and knowing you can head back into the greater world to open up and explore new areas.

​That essentially covers what Ys is, but to really get at why I love the franchise so much, I’d like to cover in more detail my two favorite games in the series: Ys Origin and Ys VIII. Let’s start with Ys Origin, the second Ys game I played that’s available on PC, PS4, Vita, Xbox One, and Switch. Ys Origin is set hundreds of years before the main series begins so it understandably does not feature Adol Christin as the protagonist. Instead, Ys Origin features three playable characters that each must climb the same demon infested tower. The two characters available to choose from the start are Yunica and Hugo. They are part of a search party from the land of Ys to locate the missing twin goddesses and the Black Pearl that have protected Ys and granted its people access to magical powers. Yunica wields an axe and at first closely resembles Adol in combat while Hugo is armed with a staff and floating artifacts that help him rapidly shoot magical energy balls at everything that opposes him.

Of the two, Yunica is by far my favorite. Unlike Adol who is a silent protagonist, Yunica has a strong personality and a lot to prove to her companions as her father was a legendary hero who sacrificed himself to save all of Ys. Her arc is straightforward, but it is handled confidently and the big moments have impact. Yunica’s combat style is immediately approachable and engaging, but mastering it so you can maintain a perfect flow of demolishing demon hordes and maintaining your EXP multiplier is what makes it so truly satisfying.

​Every element of the game is in perfect sync to deliver a tight, rich experience. Like Felghana before it, Origin’s combat is silky smooth and always encourages you to dive straight into the heart of battle and to always keep pushing forward. Making use of special moves, which you do frequently thanks to a rapidly recharging meter, and jumping to dodge is crucial to interrupt enemy attacks and maintain your momentum. I mentioned this earlier in my blog, but not only is pushing forward satisfying in itself, all the drops in combat reward you for doing so through restoring health and granting multipliers to attack and defense stats as well as to money drops and experience gained. While the core gameplay loop is my favorite part of the game, I also really enjoy the frequent tough boss fights in Ys Origin. All the boss fights put your skills and dexterity to the test whether they are against human opponents or colossal monsters as they frequently feature bullet hell elements and multiple phases.

​One other element that strongly contributes to Ys Origin’s particular flavor, is the premise of the game itself. Ys Origin begins at the base of a demonic tower that is a stronghold for the demonic forces attempting to invade Ys and while the characters may not expect at the start to have to scale the full tower, you as the player know you inevitably will. The tower is the full extent of the game and lends Ys Origin a very intimate feel. The tower is loaded with classic dungeon traps like spikes and disappearing platforms that you have to time your approach and platforming skills to successfully navigate. You very rarely have to backtrack far throughout the tower and each time you do it is painless thanks to fast travel points you liberate as you scale the tower. If you do play Origin with the other characters or on higher difficulties, the layout of the tower never changes so you’ll become very familiar with its layout. Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention each section of the tower has its own fantastic rock music theme accompanying it which sets the triumphant tone of your journey appropriately.

​That essentially covers Ys Origin, so let’s shift gears to talk about my favorite Ys game, Ys VIII, which is available on PS4, Vita, PC, and Switch. While I have both the PS4 and Switch versions of Ys VIII, I’ve only played the PS4 version which is the better performing console version. As you can see from the screenshots, Ys VIII is a wildly different game than Ys Origin, as it is the first Ys game to take place in a full 3D environment and features a behind the shoulder camera instead of the traditional top-down view of the action of other Ys games. Ys VIII is also a Party Ys game which means Adol is accompanied by other characters on his journey and you’ll need to swap between them during combat in order to succeed. 

Like Ys Origin, Ys VIII’s premise is very strong and is a guiding force for what the game is. At the start, Adol is working on a cruise ship called the Lombardia alongside his best friend Dogi which eventually comes under attack by a giant sea monster. Adol finds himself stranded on the deserted Island of Seiren and quickly comes to realize it is mysteriously infested with vicious dinosaurs. Adol begins searching for other castaways and together they establish a village that serves as their base of operations for surviving and exploring the island. It becomes apparent very quickly that the dinosaur threat isn’t the only mystery of the island and the castaways led by Adol will have to work together to conquer all the obstacles standing between them and their ultimate goal to build a boat and escape. Over the course of the journey, five more characters join Adol in actively exploring the island and I enjoyed spending time with them and unraveling the many mysteries of the island together.

​Multiple game systems all gel together very well under the base premise. The primary activity is exploring every inch of the island and here classic Ys action gameplay reigns. With your party of three you slay countless monsters that block your path as awesome rock music roars in the background. Like the other Party Ys games, special attacks can be used with high frequency as they are tied to a gauge that is easily and rapidly refilled by mixing in normal attacks. Special attacks level up with use and not only deal more damage, but also expand in range and effects. A very appreciated amount of depth in combat comes from two bonuses conferred from perfectly dodging and perfectly parrying enemy attacks. Executing a Flash Move (perfect dodge) slows down time and allows you to freely get more hits in (like in Bayonetta) while executing a Flash Guard (perfect parrying) offers a short window of constant critical damage. Amazingly, both of the effects from Flash Move and Flash Guard can stack at once to deal immense damage. The fundamentals of combat are thus rock solid and offer exciting bonuses for those who master it. Even better each of the six characters play differently and my favorite is the deuteragonist, Dana. In the flashbacks to the past, Dana is the only playable character which calls back to the Solo Ys games and she can swap between three different combat stances/weapons to effectively tackle foes. My favorite move of hers though is shared between the past and present where she enters an enhanced state at the cost of a constantly draining SP gauge to just utterly decimate enemies.

​Beyond the thrill of combat, it’s fun and satisfying to explore the Island of Seiren as there are plenty of rewards to discover including new tools that help you reach new locations sort of like a Metroidvania or Zelda game. In addition to solving the many mysteries of the island, one of the primary objectives is locating your fellow castaways and amusingly many of them come to take up distinct roles back at camp like opening a new shop or running the farm. Others are useful when it comes time to defend your camp from monsters. The villagers directly fight monsters on a second front from the area your team defends and grant powerful buffs to your team as they begin to triumph. I mentioned shopping earlier and one of the interesting features of Ys VIII is that there is no currency in the game considering the setting. Instead, all of the monster drops and collectibles you find on the island can be traded back at camp for items, weapon upgrades, and other services. All of these systems thus feed back into each other as you want to thoroughly explore the island to expand the town and shopping options which of course further opens up your exploration possibilities and makes it easier to triumph. One final activity I want to give a quick shoutout to is fishing which is delightfully given a dedicated button on the controller for whenever you see a body of water teaming with fish and want to take a break from the action.

Overall, I think what I appreciate the most about the Ys series in general is its focus on delivering tight adventures with fast paced action combat. The story of each game is usually not a huge focus, but that’s fine as the action drives the excitement and makes every adventure approachable. The awesome rock music always sets the mood and tempo of the adventure and elevates the gameplay as a result. I think Ys Origin and Ys VIII are must plays, but really overall the quality of all the games is consistently good. I’m always going to be looking forward to new adventures with Adol as long as Falcom maintains the foundations of what makes the series fun.

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I hope you enjoyed reading my latest blog! I’m curious what your experience with the Ys series is so please let me know on Twitter @JustinMikos. Also feel free to reach out if you have any other questions about the series! It’s one of my favorites so I’d love to help more people discover and enjoy Ys. Until next time!

2020 was a relentless nightmare primarily due to the completely botched response to a worldwide pandemic. I was stuck at home for the vast majority of 2020 once the lockdowns began in March and I still am as of this writing in January as the painfully slow rollout of the vaccines continues. A primary bright spot of 2020 as a result was that I was able to spend much more time playing video games and enjoying them together with my friends and family. As I have done for ten years now, I’m excited to once again share my top ten favorite games of the year on my blog.

In 2019, I exactly reached my goal of finishing at least 40 games before the end of the year. When 2020 started, I set out to clear 40 games again, but I ended up smashing that goal by beating 64 games! To be an eligible game for my list the general rule is that it had to come out in 2020, so no straight remakes or simple remasters were considered. The majority of the games eligible were excellent which made deciding what would make the cut and ultimately the final order all the more challenging. As usual, this list is for my favorite games of the year, not necessarily the best, so this blog is about the games that resonated with me the most this year.

Before I dive in, I do want to share some honorable mentions. First is for Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon, which took the series in a new turn based RPG direction instead of the brawler action RPGs of past games. I loved the new hero, Ichiban Kasuga, his party of friends, the excellent story and substories, and the fun minigames, but ultimately, I just never fully enjoyed the tedious and simplistic Dragon Quest inspired combat. I do hope the Yakuza team takes one more stab at making an RPG, because I think with some careful revisions to the combat and other RPG systems it could be the best Yakuza yet.

My second honorable mention is for Among Us which didn’t first release in 2020, but blew up to become a huge part of it. Among Us is basically Mafia in space and a lot of my favorite memories with friends this year were tied to playing the game together. Finally, since I had so much more time for games this year my favorite genre, RPGs, dominated my list like never before. My favorite shorter games lost out, so I want to give a final shoutout to some of my favorites indie games this year including: Murder By Numbers, What The Golf?, A Short Hike, Hades, Part Time UFO, and Touhou Luna Nights.

Now let’s dive into my Top Ten Favorite Games of 2020!

10: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

Animal Crossing came out right at the start of the pandemic and gave me something comforting and regular to latch onto in a time I needed it most. In a normal year I don’t think New Horizons would have gotten its hooks in me since the real time clock often prevented me from properly enjoying the series, but since I was stuck at home I could freely check in while the stores were open and I could catch both the afternoon and evening fish and bugs easily in the same session. While the constantly breaking tools are frustrating, I appreciate the new DIY creations in general as well as the Nook Miles system that gave more structure to a series that ostensibly lacks it beyond filling up the museum (which looks especially awesome in New Horizons). Compared to past games what kept me more engaged was the ability to place furniture not just in your house, but across your whole island. While I left good chunks of my island undeveloped since I like having some nature to wander around in, New Horizons became far more personal and freeing as you decorated and landscaped your island. As a result, I have a clear picture in my head of not just my house, but my entire island, Aqours (I had recently enjoyed a Love Live concert and wanted a water-themed name lol.)

While developing my island and enjoying fishing were my primary objectives, I really enjoyed getting to know my island residents (pictured above) and sharing the game with friends. I lucked out with my two initial residents as both Iggly and Hazel are my two favorites (Iggly in particular is the ultimate bro). My most infamous villager is definitely Prince the frog who gave me a tombstone grave as his first gift to me to cement our friendship which was super weird and defined our relationship ever since. I eventually used the grave as the centerpiece of a dark shrine I built on the northern cliffs of my island (incidentally all my villagers are absolute trolls when it comes to gift giving). What gave New Horizons extra staying power beyond the regular updates throughout the year was being able to easily play it with a lot of friends and family since so many of them picked it up. Animal Crossing is just a generally pleasant world to hang out in and I enjoyed seeing everyone’s personal islands. Their islands being so cool definitely inspired me to keep developing my own. I sunk 220+ hours into New Horizons, and while my fever for it has died down, I’ll always enjoy all the memories.

9: Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

The Origami King takes a new fourth distinct approach to what Paper Mario is and, despite my skepticism walking in, absolutely knocks it out of the park with confidence. Origami King is more of an adventure game than an RPG. You typically enter an area, throw confetti everywhere, and whack anything suspicious with your hammer to rescue Toads hidden in the environment while figuring out how to solve the area’s larger puzzles. Although The Origami King is once again frustratingly restricted from using original character designs, the world of the game is closer in spirit to the first two Paper Mario games which makes it satisfying to explore. Areas flow into each other again and aren’t afraid to be unique like a ninja themed Universal Studios style amusement park or a hot springs paradise in the clouds. One especially amazing chapter recreates the structure of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and is awesome to explore and conquer. The game’s writing is hilarious from top to bottom and I greatly appreciate the return of partner characters in the story. My favorite character is an amnesiac Bomb-Omb named Bobby who steals every scene he is in. I also appreciated the new combat system that has you sliding around panels on a circular grid to line up regular enemies and create paths to attack bosses. Both styles surprisingly remained interesting throughout the adventure. Finally, I have to say The Origami King’s soundtrack is both delightful and bold and is incorporated in such fun and surprising ways throughout the adventure. The big musical numbers are awesome and the cheery songs always made me smile.

8: Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)

Ghost of Tsushima is an odd game for me. I’ve always wanted an open world samurai/ninja game and gameplay-wise I love Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch regularly delivered awesome open world games with the Infamous series that prioritized fun. Sucker Punch with Ghost of Tsushima is once again very thoughtful in smoothing out the open world experience and makes their drop-dead gorgeous world a joy to explore. It’s such a small thing, but being able to direct the wind to reach your destination and avoid fiddling with distracting maps and icons is super welcome. Combat is simple, but very fun and satisfying as you switch to specific stances to tear through guys or use stealth and tools to silently pick enemy camps apart. I loved slowly developing Jin into an unstoppable force over the course of the forty hours to claim the Platinum Trophy as I systematically tackled every activity available. While I generally liked the major characters, I have to knock the game for the story and how it depicts the era. Some elements depicted are blatantly inaccurate (haikus!) and the dialogue and themes of the main story path regarding the samurai just read like what people think they were about from watching a few movies while barely paying attention. It gives off major “Japanese Culture Expert” vibes where “honor and shame are huge parts of it” and sometimes the story even clumsily becomes unintentionally nationalistic which further makes me think less of it. There are parts of Ghost of Tsushima that are stylishly fantastic and there are many unfulfilled teases of actual fantastic elements (“Yo Jin I think a ghost/kappa/yokai/etc. killed my dad! Actually, it was just some dude.”). I wish they leaned into those ideas rather than pretending and failing to be authentic. Hopefully a sequel can do some course correction, because Ghost of Tsushima was otherwise a blast.

7: Spider-Man Miles Morales (PS5, also on PS4)

Unlike the rest of my top ten favorite games this year, Spider-Man Miles Morales is tragically short. While it pulls its core gameplay straight from Insomniac’s previous game, right from the start Miles feels like an inspired game. Miles clearly has family and friends he cares about and he quickly needs to step up as New York’s only Spider-Man when Peter goes on vacation/assignment with Mary Jane abroad. While all of Manhattan is open to you, the majority of the story and side missions this time take place in Harlem and you occasionally get to walk the streets as just Miles which helps you form a greater connection to his new home. I loved all the core characters in the story: Miles, his Mom, his best friend Ganke, and his Uncle Aaron. While the game’s run time is short even if you do all the side activities, Miles makes all its big moments and positive themes land from the explosive bridge set piece to an emotional scene with Miles and his Mom after he escapes a secret base (I played the game twice and that latter scene got me both times). Like Insomniac’s previous Spider-Man game, the core gameplay is just an absolute blast to play and a joy to master. Miles has his own unique powers, most prominently his electric Venom powers (not related to the villain Venom) and the ability to camouflage himself both of which are powerful tools to help you save the day. After how excellent Miles was, I really hope he will get a full-length sequel eventually because I did not want it to end.

​6: Trails From Zero (PC)

I’m not sure I knew Trails From Zero retained the cozy 2D art style of the Sky games, so I was delighted not only to play one of the missing chapters of Trails in the west, but to also play another game in my favorite style of Trails thanks to The Geofront fan group. When I played Zero, I already had three Cold Steel games under my belt so while I ultimately know where the story of Crossbell and its newly formed Special Support Section leads, I was excited to see it play out and I was ultimately surprised by what Zero was. Unlike the rest of the Trails series, Zero is actually a contained adventure for the most part that focuses on the formation of the SSS and how they tackle their first big case, though it also satisfyingly resolves one of the major story threads from the Sky trilogy.

I really enjoyed getting to finally know Lloyd and Ellie and getting to better know Tio and Randy over the course of my 62 hour adventure, but what probably endeared me most was connecting with the city of Crossbell and the country as a whole. While it does make it frustrating if you are being thorough, after you’ve been to all the major areas of Crossbell you can basically revisit them at any time and you better believe everyone in Crossbell has something new to say after every major event! I think more than any other Trails game, I really came to care about the extensive extended cast and all the NPCs in the world as the story felt more intimate. Zero’s combat isn’t terribly different from the Sky games and the party of four is typically locked which is a slight bummer, but the fundamentals are so solid it made playing through the game a breeze. I also have to mention there’s one very cool event toward the end of the adventure that features an awesome twist on a song you’ll frequently hear and I wish more games attempted something like it. After Zero, I absolutely can’t wait to play Trails To Azure and finally be fully caught up on the story I’ve enjoyed for a decade now. I have to say, The Geofront’s fan translation was just as excellent and heartfelt as XSeed’s amazing work, so I know they’ll do a tremendous job with Azure.

5: 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (PS4)

I became a lifetime Vanillaware fan after Odin Sphere on the PS2 and while I enjoyed their games in between, 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim is their next masterpiece. 13 Sentinels features the stories of 13 characters and their battle against an army of robots that threatens a town. The story is brought to life with gorgeous hand drawn sprites and features an excellent English dub. While the two to three hour prologue starts off in a linear fashion and introduces a handful of interesting threads, you’ll soon begin to pick and choose how you want to advance between the three primary modes: Remembrance, Destruction, and Analysis. Remembrance is the most interesting as it plays out like an old school adventure game where you walk around talking to people and present them with keywords and items to progress. The twist is that you are choosing the order in which to advance the chapters of the stories of the 13 characters that intersect with each other. 13 Sentinels occasionally gates you from progressing through each story from start to finish by locking the next chapter behind goals like seeing a scene from another character’s story or advancing through the RTS Destruction Mode, but make no mistake you are essentially traversing the greater story in a nonlinear fashion. A 14th story is essentially in the mix as well as there are story cutscenes before and after each mission in Destruction Mode.

While incredibly ambitious, it amazingly all works out and the big revelations hit hard and kept me questioning where the story would go up until the satisfying conclusion. For the most part, the individual stories and characters are all great too. I really enjoyed that each one pulls its structure from famous sci-fi stories and movies and I especially enjoyed the stories that are more puzzle-like in structure (Ryoko Shinonome’s was my favorite). While not the main focus, I really enjoyed the RTS Destruction mode as well. Each mission lets you assemble a team of six Sentinels from the thirteen available. Each character’s Sentinel has different perks and abilities and by using the funds you receive from missions you can upgrade them and eventually their base stats. The presentation is stark in comparison to Remembrance mode, but I appreciate how clear it is to read even when lasers and missiles chaotically engulf the screen. I think what I most enjoy about 13 Sentinels is that despite the high number of sci-fi concepts and darkness in the story, it is ultimately its heart that makes the most impact. 13 Sentinels is thoroughly crafted with love and its message is wonderfully optimistic as well. I’ll be thinking about it fondly for a long time to come.

4: CrossCode (Switch, also on PS4, Xbox One, and PC)

I knew CrossCode made a splash on PC and featured Zelda-like dungeons so I was interested in checking it out for myself when it hit consoles in 2020. It took a while for me to warm up to CrossCode as the prologue/tutorial is a bit slow, but the more I played the more engrossed I became and I ultimately did not want to stop until I completed every side quest and opened every treasure chest over my 65 hour run. CrossCode is an exciting blend of 2D Ys-like action RPG combat and twin stick shooters with 2D Zelda style puzzle solving and a very fun sci-fi story with lovable characters. I loved the combat once I got a feel for it. In addition to your normal physical attacks, you always have unlimited access to throwing energy balls around. These are important as they help you break through enemy defenses and are also used prominently in nearly every puzzle. Over time, you gain the ability to infuse your attacks with multiple elements and gain massive stat boosts. You’ll overheat by relying on this too much, so you need to swap back to regular attacks to shorten the cool down. As you fight you are constantly building a gauge to unleash devasting special attacks and you’ll regularly need them because combat can be very tough. In addition to conquering the intense boss fights, I especially enjoyed that you can enter a combat streak to massively increase the amount of EXP you get by constantly taking out enemy after enemy with no rest. There’s already a satisfying groove to combat and that extra urgency, reward, and hype music that plays when you enter a streak just adds to the fun.

Over the course of the story, you’ll visit plenty of dungeons that not only put your combat skills to the test, but offer elaborate gauntlets of 2D Zelda style puzzles and I was impressed with just how difficult these could be. Most of the puzzles revolve around lining up specific energy ball throws with the right elements selected and many ask you to perform multiple actions across tight windows. As a result, conquering these dungeons is immensely satisfying. The thoughtfulness and elegance of design extends to the rest of the game as well. Most of the side quests introduce interesting situations like a hostage rescue level and even a unique Tower Defense game. Another activity that really engaged me is discovering all of the treasure chests as you frequently have to perform elaborate platforming and puzzle solving across multiple screens and areas to open them. Some areas, Gaia’s Garden especially, are so densely constructed it takes a while to wrap your head around how the land and puzzles connect let alone actually solving the puzzles.

I was very impressed by the story of CrossCode as well. After a quick prologue, you assume the role of a character named Lea who has lost her memories and is seemingly stuck in the body of a mute Avatar. A group of people led by a man named Sergey are interested in helping her reclaim them since they might help point them to a friend who has gone missing. It is suggested Lea may recover her memories if she plays an MMO called CrossWorlds. The twist is that this MMO actually physically takes place on a distant planet. While the other players are logging in to Avatars to play a game, Lea is essentially really there, which means both the fictional game’s story and Lea’s advance in parallel. Over the course of CrossCode you make friends and assemble a party of characters to help you out. The big twists and very emotional moments kept me fully invested until the end. I also really enjoyed the sharp writing and the humor as well as all the fun game and anime references throughout. The item descriptions are particularly silly and I have to share my favorite for the Guacamole Toast item, “taste the suffering of a generation!” CrossCode is overall an instant classic and I can’t wait for the special episode DLC to release to continue the story.

3: Trails of Cold Steel IV (PS4, coming to Switch and PC in 2021!)

Trails of Cold Steel IV isn’t just the conclusion of the Cold Steel quadrilogy, but the culmination of the story that began in the Sky trilogy and continued in the Crossbell duology. Trails of Cold Steel IV is the longest game I have ever played as it took me 140 hours to reach the credits as I was absolutely thorough in making sure I did virtually everything possible. As a culmination of nine games, I had immense expectations of Cold Steel IV and it largely delivered even with a very weak Act 1 that didn’t play to the strengths of the series. After an exciting prologue following the Sky and Crossbell teams, Cold Steel IV picks up from the end of Cold Steel III’s dramatic conclusion. Millium had sacrificed herself to protect her sister and Rean Schwarzer has been captured by his father Gilliath Osborne. This leaves both the old and new members of Class VII devastated. While Juna gets the group moving again, there isn’t necessarily a main character in Act 1 which I think was a mistake. Aside from your new home base, you’ll very quickly breeze through towns both new and old in this period and are driven by a hazy goal. This would normally be a huge problem and dramatically lower my opinion of the game, but thankfully Cold Steel IV’s biggest improvement over Cold Steel III, the combat, does impressive heavy lifting here.

While the difficulty of Cold Steel III’s combat became toothless, Cold Steel IV amps up the difficulty considerably and makes all the various systems sing together again. Manipulating turn order, managing CP, and taking advantage of character positions form the fundamentals of combat in every Trails game and the Cold Steel games introduced combat links, assist attacks (which build or use BP), and enemy break states to provide richer depth. Cold Steel III had introduced Brave Orders, but they were never an essential part of combat considering how easy the game was. Here in Cold Steel IV the rise and fall of BP becomes an incredibly important factor in determining how you want to approach a battle. A well-timed blitz can be crucial in defeating regular enemies and bosses alike so taking proper advantage of the rebalanced Brave Orders is clutch to success. With the largest cast of characters (39+!) and the immense amount of customization balanced against limited resources you still have a ton of freedom to approach battles and switch up strategies on the fly because there are actually challenges that require them. Even better, there are multiple occasions where the game forces you to use characters you might leave behind both in the story and with the return of trial chests that require preset teams to conquer. Super bosses gloriously return as well and push your teams and strategies to the limits. While it is always devastating, I liked the handful of times across my journey when my main team would get wiped out and it would be up to my reserve team to salvage the battle. Even the Divine Knight battles finally find their strategic groove as they mostly limit your team to a party of two with two assist characters.

As Rean is rescued around the 40 hour mark, Cold Steel IV finds its sense of purpose for the next 100 hours. The main thrust becomes rescuing and reuniting all of your allies and participating in the Rivalries against the owners of the powerful Divine Knights while helping the citizens caught up with the impending war and a supernatural curse spreading throughout the land. With the exception of Cedric who is still lame throughout, the Rivalries all involve challenging some of the biggest legends and villains in the series so preparing your team for the big showdowns is satisfying to work towards. Most of the locations from Cold Steel III return and a substantial number of new areas are available to explore as well. Unlike most Trails games, once an area is available to explore you usually can reexplore them freely. While I sadly once again felt I needed a guide to make sure I didn’t miss any story bits, I do appreciate that for the most part, unlike Trails From Zero, areas that have updated elements/events are marked with “NEW” on the map so you actually know when something changes.

The biggest draw of Cold Steel IV is definitely all the characters that assemble for the climatic adventure. In addition to Class VII New and Old, nearly the full Sky and Crossbell teams join your party at various points, in addition to an awesome legion of guest characters. Going on more adventures with everybody and having them share some of the story’s biggest moments is immensely satisfying. The extended cast is incredibly vast as you interreact with the branch campus members, former Thor alumni, and more. I was especially glad to finally have Trails From Zero under my belt because this time I was really able to appreciate seeing so much of Crossbell brought into 3D and reuniting with characters I now cared about. Bonding events with your close allies return and resolve so many of their personal journeys that get somewhat lost in the larger epic. I definitely reloaded my save a lot to see every possibility and did turn to Youtube to catch events I became locked out of. The final conclusion and revelations at the end of the story (especially related to Zemuria itself) are so satisfying and have me more excited than ever for the future of the series. Cold Steel IV is everything I love about RPGs and even though it ran a bit long, I was excited to see every bit of it. I can’t wait to play the final missing chapter Trails To Azure this year and continue the saga in the future whenever Hajimari No Kiseki is localized.

2: Magia Record (Formerly on iOS and Android)

Magia Record is officially the most unusual game I’ve ever written about for my GOTY blogs. Not only is it the first game that has appeared twice as a live game, it also has the supremely unfortunate distinction of being shut down this year. Yes, one of my favorite games ever made is now completely unplayable. Following Magia Record’s first anniversary I wrote a blog gushing about why I loved it so much. Magia Record not only reconnected me with and reignited my love for my favorite anime series of all time, Madoka Magica, over time it grew to become its own thing that I came to care deeply about and it amazingly even added to the source material I loved. With live games, there is always the fear that one day they will shut down so I was already happy Magia Record did complete the first arc of its story and reached a satisfying conclusion. What made the news of a shutdown of the English version so cruel though, was that literally right before it was announced an event happened that hyped up Arc 2. I have to imagine then whatever went wrong behind the scenes was sudden, but the developers and Aniplex have not opened up about what happened and unfortunately I do not know enough Japanese to start over and enjoy the ongoing Japanese version.

Before the shutdown, Magia Record was already naturally on track to be in the upper half of my list because the new content we did get this year was incredible. 2020 for Magia Record began with us rescuing Tsuruno from the Magius’ clutches and them swearing revenge. This took the form of them sending their Feathers to attack every Magical Girl in the city in a state of berserker rage. Here is where Magia Record really endeared me, because for the first time it started to bring in the extended cast of characters that form the majority of the gacha pulls and who previously only participated in all of the events. Through this story chapter and through the climatic battle with Eve and Walpurgis Night the extended cast joined the main characters to defend the city. It was so awesome seeing everyone work together and it felt extra special playing when the final chapter released because they made Walpurgis Night a global raid battle for the whole Magia Record community to defeat together. As players challenged the boss, each successful win would chip away at its global health and advance the story to its triumphant conclusion. In the lead up to this, all the big revelations dropped about where Iroha’s sister had been, why and how the Magius originally formed, and why Little Kyubey appeared. I especially liked the lore with Kyubey, because it turns out when you rip one off the Kyubey Network they turn from the devil incarnate into an adorable creature who would take a bullet for you which begs the question who or what created the Kyubey Network in the first place.

The events this year were awesome too. First there were the lighter events such as fun summer events that covered everything from enjoying summer festivals and the beach to spooky ghost stories and exciting treasure hunts. There were also some dramatic events as well including Nagisa’s tragic backstory which was the best in the game and deserves to be adapted into an OVA by Shaft. Another really welcome type of event we started to receive regularly in 2020 were story events that covered both back story before Iroha arrived in Kamihama and epilogue content following chapter 10. Actually seeing Iroha and Ui together again in the epilogue events was satisfying, especially after how hard Iroha worked to rescue her. I’m glad I actually managed to pull Ui before the game shut down so I could have her on my team to the bitter end. I also really enjoyed participating in the final Mirrors PVP tournament as I assembled my best team (Iroha, Rena, Tsuruno, Mito, and Tsukuyo) to fight a gauntlet of extra challenging battles. I’m happy I managed to place somewhere in the top 20-40% at the end of it. Before Magia Record shut down, after clearing all the individual character stories I wanted to see, I decided I wanted to see every main story cutscene again. After rewatching 30(!) hours of fully voiced cutscenes I really understood just how special Magia Record was. The script was even tighter than I remembered with how it developed the characters and foreshadowed events. Seeing it uninterrupted by story battles, it was no wonder why I came to care so much about everyone involved. I consider it extremely unlikely, but I really hope one day Magia Record will return and find the audience it should have. If not, hopefully there will be some way for me to continue the story whether it’s by the anime or manga adapting Arc 2 or that a new game will come along. Regardless of the future, I’ll never forget my time with Magia Record.

1: Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Before the first part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake came out, I wrote a short blog about why the original Final Fantasy VII was an important game for me growing up, but had lost its luster over time. I was amazed at FFVII at the time of release, but with a lack of RPG experience under my belt I never finished FFVII back then. When I played it all the way through in high school the messy story never quite worked for me and by then I found the game far too easy. Yet I did enjoy its willingness to be bold and different, its weird humor, and how it would remember your actions throughout to personalize your experience. While I have loved many of the modern Final Fantasy games, XV was my 2016 GOTY, after X the franchise frequently lost the assuredness and execution of vision of the original games. The XIII trilogy is a prime example of this and while I loved XV for what it was, it definitely was a compromise.

Final Fantasy VII Remake released early on in the pandemic and blew me away. I regard remakes in general with extreme skepticism as I’d rather creative people focus on new ideas than painstakingly recreating old ones. Without going into detail, Final Fantasy VII Remake is not a remake. It expands the first five or so hours of the original adventure into a full forty hour experience. It boldly expects you to be familiar with not just the original Final Fantasy VII, but its extended media as well, as it ever so slightly twists your expectations, introduces new ideas, and eventually loudly charts its own path. As it builds up to this, with the greatest of care and respect it brings the world of Final Fantasy VII to life in a way it never could have been at the time of release. Wall Market and the Hell House are two of my favorite examples and I especially applaud the outrageously excellent soundtrack. Classic tracks like The Airbuster are gloriously reborn with full orchestration and new tracks like Hollow Skies are wonderful as well and fit right in. With exception to some of the hand drawn sky boxes, the graphics of Remake are amazing and I can’t believe how smoothly it runs. I especially loved seeing the classic characters and monsters brought to life in stunning detail.

My biggest surprises of FF7R were in regards to the combat and some of the new additions to the story. Unlike Final Fantasy XV, FF7R is not afraid to put you in full control of an action game. The combat is simple, but a ton of fun as you swap between members according to your situation. Cloud for example has big sweeping sword attacks perfect for taking out multiple enemies, Barret can shoot enemies from a distance, and Tifa can quickly overwhelm enemies 1v1 with a flurry of punches and kicks. I especially liked how it incorporated the spirit of the original ATB battle system by limiting your special attacks and magic to ATB gauges. While it does an amazing job in normal fights, combat really shines in some of the spectacular boss fights as it puts your skills to the test. As for the story additions, aside from everything tied to the new ending sequence which I absolutely adored, I especially like the greater focus on the members of Avalanche outside the main party. I actually came to care about Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, especially during the new chapter where you visit Jessie’s parent’s house.

2020 was really an excellent year for games despite everything else going wrong in the world. The competition for my game of the year in 2020 was especially tight. I could slot CrossCode, Cold Steel IV, and Magia Record all for the top spot and feel good about it, but all throughout the year I knew Final Fantasy VII Remake stood above the rest to a degree. It’s odd because for much of its runtime FF7R is looking back to something else, but yet it still feels so fresh and forward looking. No other game this year did I so thoroughly devour quite like FF7R. The combat is amazingly fun, the characters are wonderfully brought to life with awesome voice acting (well, Barret aside), and I just couldn’t wait to see what was coming next all the way through. Unlike the rest of my top contenders, the ending of Final Fantasy VII Remake filled me with such wonder and excitement for the future of not just this new Final Fantasy VII series and the future of Final Fantasy in general, but also for the future of gaming as a whole. Final Fantasy VII Remake is my 2020 game of the year.

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That concludes my 2020 GOTY blog! I hope you enjoyed it! I’m always interested in hearing your opinions so let me know what you thought of my list and be sure to share what games you enjoyed this past year and what you are looking forward to in 2021 with me on Twitter @JustinMikos.

Listed below are the games I beat last year in order. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 and Yakuza 7 Like A Dragon I finished in 2021 and were eligible for my list as well. Until next time!

2020 Games I Beat

Kingdom Hearts III Remind
Murder By Numbers (100%)
Control: The Foundation
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Devil May Cry 3 Switch
Trails From Zero
Hatsune Miku Project Diva Mega Mix
What The Golf (100%)
Xenoblade Chronicles Future Connected
Clubhouse Games
Magia Record
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition
Death Come True
Paper Mario: The Origami King
Ghost of Tsushima (Platinum)
A Short Hike
Giraffe and Annika
Control: Altered World Events
Picross S4
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Remastered
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 Remastered
Minoria
CrossCode
Hades
Shantae and the Seven Sirens
13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (Platinum)
Astro’s Playroom (Platinum)
Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory (100% Stars)
Part Time UFO
Spider-Man Miles Morales (Platinum)
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Touhou Luna Nights
Super Meat Boy Forever
Trails Of Cold Steel IV

Old Games I Beat In 2020

Astral Chain
River City Girls (co-op replay)
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order
Metal Wolf Chaos XD
Box Boy and Box Girl (co-op replay)
Yakuza 3
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry 2
Daemon X Machina
Picross S
Blue Reflection (Platinum Trophy)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
Picross S2
Kirby Super Star (co-op replay, 100%)
Puyo Puyo 2
Donkey Kong Country (co-op)
Pop’n Twinbee
Yakuza 4
Super Mario 64 (100% Replay)
Super Mario Sunshine (100% Replay)
Super Mario Galaxy (100% Replay)
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (100% Replay)
Among Us
The World Ends With You Final Remix
Luigi’s Mansion 3 Scarescraper
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3 (103% Replay)

​RPGs have been on my mind a lot these past few weeks. As of this writing, I’m 76 hours into Trails of Cold Steel IV, the culmination (but not the end!) of the prior eight Trails games. After a rough start with Act 1, everything past it has been delivering everything I love about Trails and RPGs in general with awesome, tactical combat matched with an exciting story driven by characters I care so much about. There are so many elements and decisions worth investing in every step of the way that makes it a joy to play through and that ultimately delivers immense and lasting satisfaction. I’m not sure exactly how much I have left of Cold Steel IV as I enter Act 3, but I could easily see me crossing 100 hours of playtime before I’m done and I’m very excited to keep going.

I’ve loved RPGs my whole life and when they are on top of their game, RPGs are no doubt my favorite video game genre. While I wish it was under better circumstances, this awful year gave me plenty of quality time to spend with RPGs. I don’t know the final order and there are still some games I’m working through, but expect RPGs to dominate my top ten favorite games this year like never before. Even with a good deal of 2020 RPGs under my belt, I still had time to play a game I had wanted to play for a few years now, Blue Reflection, and enjoyed claiming the Platinum trophy in it.

The big reason that pushed me over the edge to write about RPGs today was the announcement of Neo: The World Ends With You this week. The original DS version of TWEWY is my favorite DS game of all time and still means so much to me more than a decade later. The wild combat system that spans two screens is brilliant and the story, especially the message at the heart of it to always try to connect with others and expand your world, is excellent. I still regularly enjoy listening to the glorious soundtrack and have enjoyed seeing it slowly expand as its various ports released. TWEWY is a game I happily gifted to all my friends when their birthdays rolled around and I can’t recommend it enough.

​I’ve loved games my whole life and even though I’m still regularly amazed by games, there are times when I doubt if can I love and be excited by the new ones as much as I did the ones that formed the foundation of my love for games. Of course I can is the immediate answer. The games that reach the top of my top ten favorite games list every year always speak to that, but lately I find more often new games impress me once they arrive and I can finally play them. I don’t necessarily passionately anticipate games all too often anymore, especially as so many awesome games release regularly.

There are of course still exceptions. The short two minute trailer of Neo: The World Ends With You thoroughly captured my imagination and I think cemented something that I’ve been feeling for a while now. Simply put, I’m very excited for the near future of RPGs more than I have been for a few years now.

In this blog I want to share why I’m so excited for the near future of RPGs as 2020 comes to a close by discussing my nine most anticipated RPGs on the horizon. Most of these games have been officially announced, but there are a few others that are in production that haven’t. The majority of these nine games only have very little information released, but from what we know already is enough to make me incredibly excited.

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A quick note, my discussion of Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 and the future of Kingdom Hearts contains MAJOR SPOILERS at the very end of this article. I put an extra break between the first seven games I discuss and the last two to make it obvious so feel free to stop reading then if you care! Also, rest assured, there are NO SPOILERS when I discuss Trails To Azure. Let’s get to it then!

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Trails to Azure (PC, 2021)

If there is one RPG I’m discussing today that I’m absolutely certain I’m going to thoroughly enjoy from start to finish it is definitely Falcom’s Trails to Azure, the final missing Trails game in North America. Thanks to The Geofront, a fan translation group, Trails fans like myself were finally able to play Trails From Zero in English this year and they did a phenomenal job on par with the best of XSeed’s work. The Geofront is currently hard at work at making a similar patch for Joyoland’s PC port of Azure and even coordinated with the company to add a Paypal option on their website to make it easier to use for international customers.

Trails to Azure is the fifth Trails game and the second of the Crossbell Duology. I already enjoyed getting to know the SSS and Crossbell over the course of Zero so I’m very excited to finally experience their biggest adventure and see all of the dramatic events play out. It’s also a bit bittersweet for me as well, because Azure is the last game to feature the top down view and 2D sprites that I loved from Trails in the Sky and a battle system that isn’t as crazy as the Cold Steel games even if I love those games too. I’m glad the Geofront patch appears like it will come out early in 2021, because with it under my belt I can be properly excited for the next adventure whenever Hajimari No Kiseki (Trails 10) comes to North America.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (PS4, Switch, PC, February 2)

The other big Falcom game I’m very much looking forward to is Ys IX and I’m happy it is barely two months away. While the reception to Ys IX was more mixed compared to Ys VIII, the Ys fandom has diverse tastes. Since Ys VIII is my favorite Ys game which IX is building off, my expectations remain very high. With the exception of Origin (my other favorite Ys game), Ys IX is a bit darker in premise compared to prior Ys games. When Adol and Dogi visit the city of Balduq, Adol is captured and transformed into a Monstrum which grants him supernatural powers. Alongside his fellow Monstrum, Adol is tasked with saving the city from monsters arriving from another dimension. Balduq appears to be much vaster than the Island of Seiren from Ys VIII and has more stark verticality in its environments, so it makes sense that the Monstrum powers Adol and his new party have access to seem to be primarily focused on aiding with traversal. I’m happy the action combat in Ys IX is building off the excellent foundation of Ys VIII as both Flash Guard and Flash Dodge return alongside the Boost Gauge from prior Ys games.

​Sports Story (Switch, 2021)

Every year around August I decide on the five games I have to play before the end of the year in anticipation of my annual top ten favorite games of the year blog. Sports Story was one of the five games I chose for 2020 before it sadly suffered an indefinite delay. Sports Story is the sequel to the wonderful and hilarious Golf Story. This time it is more than just a 2D Mario Golf-esque RPG, but an RPG that includes even more sports, such as tennis and soccer and also other activities like dungeon exploration and espionage. From the debut trailer, you can even see sports are mixed together as a golf player hits his golf ball with his driver on a tennis field over a tennis net and then the main character uses a tennis racket to score the golf ball into a soccer net. Given how excellent and imaginative Golf Story is, I expect Sports Story will be able to juggle all of its wild ambition. While not featured primarily in the trailer, I also can’t wait for Golf’s Story’s sharp and silly writing to return because we always need more humorous games.

Neo: The World Ends With You (Switch, PS4, Summer 2021)

I already gushed about why I loved the original The World Ends With You above, so I’m now going to focus on why I’m excited for Neo. For years, there had been teases of a TWEWY sequel and nothing came of it. As I write this, I have to admit I have not played the most relevant content in regards to this sequel, the new chapter included with the Switch port Final Remix, so I can’t speak to that. I now plan on playing Final Remix ahead of Neo’s release, but I did not want to delay this blog to do it. I also intend to watch the new anime adaption of The World Ends With You (which incidentally is why I felt a sequel game was finally in production) because I’m certain there will be relevant differences between the anime and the original TWEWY that matter for Neo.

Right off the bat in the trailer we are introduced to a mostly new team of characters. The new designs look slick and fit right into TWEWY’s original aesthetic and I’m very excited one of the four characters on the team is Minamimoto from the original game as he was my favorite villain with his weird trigonometry/math obsession. There was certainly room for him to return, but I’m excited to learn why he is back and also to meet all the new characters. While the debut trailer is in Japanese, I fully expect and am looking forward to an English dub in the final release after how great the first game’s was. I’m very glad already Neo will retain 2D art for cutscenes, because while the new 3D character models look stylish, they aren’t quite as striking as the 2D art. Neo is certainly not the only game to let you explore modern Japan, but I like how stylish the new 3D version of Shibuya looks (the lighting looks awesome!) and I’m eager to explore it. The way the camera follows you throughout the world gives the game a directed feeling I appreciate.

My biggest question is of course the combat. There is no way the combat system could be replicated from the original DS game (hence why I’ve put off playing Final Remix for so long) so I’m glad Square is attempting something different. Seeing your whole squad fighting together is already a cool benefit of the new combat system and judging by the various gauges that appear during combat it looks appropriately complex and frantic. It also seems the Pin system will return which I appreciate since it was interesting to build your moveset entirely from the individual pins you collected and leveled up.
 
One final element I’m very excited about is the return of Takeharu Ishimoto as the composer. I mentioned earlier I still regularly listen to the original soundtrack and I absolutely can’t wait to hear what he will create for Neo and the upcoming anime. The brief taste of new songs and remixes in the reveal trailer is already amazing.

Final Fantasy XVI (PS5, PC?, 2021?)

It’s crazy to think it had been fourteen years since the last new mainline Final Fantasy world had been revealed when XVI was finally announced in September. I came very close to writing a full blog dedicated to the reveal of Final Fantasy XVI considering it was such a momentous moment. I even had a short page of notes all written out!

I think what is most shocking right off the bat in the reveal trailer, even though I love him, Tetsuya Nomura is not doing the character designs for XVI, blood is prominently featured, and the graphics are not the highest end. All three of these elements are certainly controversial, but at the same time very welcome. When I was growing up Final Fantasy was a franchise always taking on new challenges and never content to repeat itself. While I don’t think that fully changed after the year 2000, it suddenly started taking Square a dramatically longer time to produce AAA games and as a result, even if they were wildly different in some ways, the Final Fantasy’s including and after X all received various sequels and expansions to further extend our time with them. I’m excited to see a more mature fantasy setting and tone even if I suspect there will still be lighter moments.

Since the trailer came out, we now have more details on the characters we met in the trailer, including the name of the main character, Clive, as well as some details about the world itself. While it gives us more to work with, we still don’t know what the game structure will be, how open and inviting the world of Valisthea is to explore, and how combat works exactly. In the trailer it seems Clive will be fighting more monsters one on one and the combat appears closer to a character action game. This is certainly possible as one of the main combat designers worked on Devil May Cry so I’m interested in learning more. The staff on XVI in general appears very strong as it is pulled from the staff of Final Fantasy XIV, a game I’ve repeatedly heard is excellent, but have yet to play (I can’t get the free trial to work!). While XVI is officially undated, there is a sense it is far along and may even release next year. I can’t wait to learn more next year regardless.

Next Monolith Soft Game (Switch, 2021?)

Monolith Soft is long overdue for its next big game if the statements they’ve shared over the years are accurate. We know Monolith Soft has multiple teams and even multiple studios. Part of Monolith acts as support for other Nintendo games. While this is most notable in their influence on Zelda Breath of the Wild, this extends to other big first party games as well. What I’m most interested in are the teams that make games. It was said when Xenoblade 2 released at the end of 2017 it was mostly younger staff working on that game and I believe it. While it still is very good, Xenoblade 2 certainly wasn’t a masterpiece like the first Xenoblade Chronicles nor did it show the insane ambition of Xenoblade Chronicles X released back in 2015.

Since then Monolith created an impressive DLC/standalone Xenoblade 2 prequel with Torna and an amazing remake of Xenoblade Chronicles with the Definitive Edition that includes an extensive new epilogue, Future Connected. It is hard to say where staff was allocated throughout these projects, but somewhere in there, it’s clear the experienced staff must be hard at work on something else. Maybe it truly was just Breath of the Wild and its sequel I’m discussing separately next, but I believe a new Monolith game is coming soon. Future Connected in particular does not spell anything out and could in fact not tease anything at all (the name Future Connected could just thematically describe the epilogue itself), but the story uses a concept we have seen in Xenoblade X so perhaps the next Xenoblade will tie the saga so far even further together. I want to believe Monolith’s next true epic is in production and given how high they aimed with Xenoblade X, a huge alien open world planet explorable on foot and with a transforming mech that can fly, I’m excited for the possibilities. I truly think if Covid 19 hadn’t happened this year we would have heard about their next game by now so I do believe we will hear about it soon.

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 (Switch, 2021?)

More days than not, I consider Breath of the Wild an RPG even if I usually don’t for other Zelda games so here we are! It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year and a half since the reveal trailer that shows Link and Zelda discovering what appears to be the mummified remains of Ganondorf. When Ganondorf revives himself, it appears as if Hyrule Castle sinks into the ground. It is possible the second cloud of dust sees Hyrule Castle possibly lifting itself up out of the ground, but the trailer ends before it is fully clear. We know the world of Breath of the Wild is being reused, but it will also see substantial changes as well. It’s funny, shortly after it was revealed I wasn’t as excited for it as I am now, because the longer it has been in development the more excited I am for it. A longer development time doesn’t necessarily mean the changes to the world will be more substantial, but even taking Covid into account, it does seem there are going to be fundamental changes to Breath of the Wild. Direct sequels to Nintendo’s biggest games are rare, but when they happen, like Mario Galaxy 2 for example, they are usually incredible games. I’m very eager to learn more about Breath of the Wild 2 and I think we will soon as the 35th anniversary of Zelda approaches. I don’t feel safe predicting it, but I’m once again hoping Zelda will be a playable character this time. Finally, for the record, I am nowhere near done with Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity, so if it does have any hints to the sequel I’m currently entirely unaware.

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For these last two games, Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 and Kingdom Hearts 2022, FULL SPOILERS AHEAD! Please feel free to stop reading or skip to the last paragraphs if you care.

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​Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 (PS5? 2022?)

We know more games in the Final Fantasy VII Remake project are coming, but we have no idea when. It is very likely a rerelease of the first Final Fantasy VII Remake game on more platforms will come soon, but after that will come the next game in the series. My enthusiasm for this next game is entirely based on how much I adored the first installment and how I’m still fascinated by how it ended. I’ve grown increasingly frustrated by straight remakes across mediums. Why waste so much time and energy recreating something we already did and still can enjoy? I was thus very glad by how much Part 1 added to the original Midgar section and I adored how it said loud and clear it is no longer bound to the original story when the party literally destroys the arbiters of fate and Sephiroth discusses the endless potential ahead.

I still expect major beats from the original to repeat themselves and form a guideline for how the story progresses, but I’m eager to see it start to wildly diverge too. I fully expect for example to see the flashback of Kalm in the next Remake game in full detail since new players have to understand Sephiroth’s original backstory, but I wonder for example will the story become something else entirely by the time the party would originally reach the Impact Crater where Cloud suffers his breakdown now that Zack is potentially alive provided we get that far. The original Final Fantasy VII loses focus as it progresses, so I’m curious to see what a more directed game will look like. I suspect Part 2 will not include the world map from the original FF7 so it presumably must add fleshed out new locations to explore along the party’s journey. I do feel safe in whatever changes Square decides to make, because the team did such an amazing job bringing Part 1 to life and respecting the legacy of FFVII and Final Fantasy as a whole. If nothing else stays the same, I at least am still sincerely hoping in Part 2 they bring back the segment where Cloud rides a dolphin hundreds of feet in the air to reach his next destination.

I loved the gameplay of the first part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, so my main hope for Part 2 is a focus on adding more playable characters. The roster shuffled quite a bit during Part 1 and while I hope the main team sticks together more this time and Red XIII is upgraded to a full party member, I also hope there will be opportunities for guest characters to be added to the party. Even if they don’t get fleshed out movesets like the main party members, it would be awesome if Biggs for example joined the party for a quest or two. My last hope for Remake Part 2 is to bring forward important choices from the original Remake and if not at least set the stage to do so for future installments. My favorite part of the original VII is that it remembered choices you often didn’t realize you were making such as in the Kalm flashback where Cloud has the opportunity to play the piano. There were similar decisions possible in Remake Part 1, but it remains to be seen if they’ll be remembered in future entries.

Kingdom Hearts 2022? (PS5, 2022?)

No, the next Kingdom Hearts game is not actually called 2022, it may not ultimately release that year, and it may also not be the game I’m highly anticipating, but according to Kingdom Hearts director, Tetsuya Nomura, the next Kingdom Hearts game is due to be discussed in time for 2022 for the series’ 20th anniversary. What I am excited about is the next traditional Kingdom Hearts action game that will address the developments first shown at the end of Kingdom Hearts III’s secret movie that has been elaborated on in the ReMIND DLC and the final cutscenes of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.

For those unaware, in Kingdom Hearts III a trailer for a fake video game plays during the Toy Story world called Verum Rex (Latin for true king). This video clearly pulls elements from the infamously cancelled Final Fantasy Versus XIII that Tetsuya Nomura conceived. A version of Versus XIII did ultimately release as Final Fantasy XV, which I loved for what it was, but it definitely wasn’t the full vision Nomura had as he was infamously pulled off the project. Now hold that thought for a minute. At the end of Kingdom Hearts III, Sora is seemingly erased from reality after he both abused the Power of Waking to essentially time travel and rewrite the universe so the good guys won and when he abused it again to revive Kairi after she was killed by Xehanort. The secret ending to Kingdom Hearts III shows Sora waking up in what appears to be The World Ends With You’s version of Shibuya and Riku waking up in the area of Tokyo that served as the inspiration for Versus XIII. To further the connection a few notes from Somnus, the theme song of Versus XIII play, before the camera pans up to show Yozora, the main character of Verum Rex sitting on a rooftop! At the time, Neo: The World Ends With You was not announced so the implication of this video was that Nomura was going to be recreating the projects he couldn’t make inside of Kingdom Hearts and dragging Disney along for the ride which is just bonkers.

That still may be the case in regards to Versus XIII and Verum Rex as the final fight in the Kingdom Hearts ReMIND DLC is an immensely difficult showdown between Sora and Yozora. If things weren’t already crazy enough there are actually two outcomes to this showdown whether you win or lose the fight. A video then plays showing Yozora waking up from a nap in a car and the shot is framed exactly like a shot from an old Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer with Noctis (see above). If you win the fight you can see Luxord from Kingdom Hearts is the one driving the car! After that Sora and Yozora say the first words ever uttered in Kingdom Hearts in unison, “I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately, like is any of this for real or not?” That may actually be the case as the latest Kingdom Hearts developments at the end of Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory (aka Kingdom Hearts MoM which unbelievably had nothing to do with the Master of Masters, MoM), has Sora’s friends realizing he has been sent to the world of Unreality. No really, Ansem the Wise literally stares at the camera and utters “Unreality!” with his sexy voice and all the gravitas you expect from him. It’s amazing. The last new detail we get is that the city Sora might be in is called Quadratum, which is Latin for square. Like Square Enix, Square.

So where does that leave us since Kingdom Hearts MoM ends before showing any character inside Quadratum / Unreality? Well if you tie everything we see with Yozora together with Quadratum / Unreality it only further strengthens the Versus XIII connection, a game that never existed in reality, whose tagline was “a fantasy based on reality.” As someone who devoured and obsessed over every piece of the Versus XIII experience, I’m most excited to see more of that, but I’m also curious what that means for Kingdom Hearts proper. Maybe we get a dedicated Verum Rex game next or maybe Versus XIII actually resurfaces before Kingdom Hearts IV. I think Unreality offers an interesting theme to build new worlds to explore because they can be what if versions of stories rather than strict retellings. I imagine the Disney element of the series will not disappear so it will be interesting to see what worlds are flexible enough to explore under this theme. I think the new theme signals the series will be changing to become something different and I’m excited to see what comes next as Nomura brings his wild ideas to life.

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That concludes the main section of my blog today, but before I wrap up I do want to give a brief shoutout to other RPGs I’m looking forward to that complete my enthusiasm for RPGs in the near future. Some of these games include Hajimari No Kiseki (Trails 10), Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, Tales of Arise, Bravely Default II, and CrossCode’s Special Episode DLC.

Thank you for reading my latest blog. I hope you enjoyed it! I’m curious what RPGs you are excited for in the next year or so, so please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @JustinMikos to let me know! Until next time!