​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!

This blog was originally posted on my Game Informer Online Blog on January 5, 2016. The text of the blog has not been updated. Although it is an older blog, I hope you will still enjoy it as I poured my heart out writing this one!

​I didn't intend to write a review of Xenoblade Chronicles X when I was playing through it. I knew Xenoblade X was a strong contender for my annual top 10 favorite games of the year blog so I thought I would try to finish it before January. Even after finishing the story at the 70 hour mark I felt the paragraph I'd soon write for my blog would be enough, but after concluding what I wanted out of the post game and reflecting on my experience I rapidly came to feel that I wanted to more substantially share my thoughts. A handful of friends asked me in person and on my Twitter (@JustinMikos) what I thought about the game as I was playing and I often had to give brief and somewhat mixed responses that lacked nuance. Certainly, that is not good enough.

Two months ago I decided to review Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax. I hadn't written a review in a long time so I mainly did it for fun. I wrote my review in my typical style as I did for my newspapers in high school and college, but I'm discarding that here in favor of a more personal approach. While I could easily write a formal review if I wanted to, I have the opportunity on my blog not to and I feel that makes sense for this unfathomably large game that always remains personal despite its size and complexity.

Fair warning, I will not share any major story spoilers about Xenoblade X here nor will I talk about the many themes it explores beyond the premise. I will however discuss the game at length in regards to its design and gameplay systems and also the story structure and the nature of its ending. Most of that information is well available and has been part of the discussion surrounding the game for the last few weeks (and earlier if you followed the Japanese launch), but if you want to go into Xenoblade X fairly blind and haven't yet been able to do so I'd suggest you return to read my thoughts about the game later. They won't go anywhere :)

My history with Xenoblade dates back to Nintendo Power where I read a brief blurb about its original announcement at E3 2009 where it was simply called Monado. I had largely forgotten about Xenoblade until closer to its release when I saw the infamous exploration trailer online. That not even three minute trailer fully and immediately sold me on the game. It sampled a handful of the game's absolutely amazing environments and one of its standout music themes, The Gaur Plains. Quick research from there led me to realize that Xenoblade would be the next evolution of the "offline MMO" genre established by Final Fantasy XII, one of my absolute favorite PS2 games and my second favorite Final Fantasy behind VI, which of course made me even more excited to play it.

Despite announcing Xenoblade in Los Angeles, Nintendo of America had gone silent about the game. At E3 2011 the game was again absent and word got out that despite an impending European release Nintendo of America refused to let Nintendo of Europe show the game which led many to believe it would not release here. Fans were rightfully upset and began to coordinate on message boards across the internet in a movement that would become known as Operation Rainfall. I participated in Operation Rainfall's letter writing campaign for Xenoblade which was neat because I received a letter back from Nintendo.
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In December, Xenoblade Chronicles was finally confirmed to release in North America in April of 2012. When I reviewed Xenoblade for my column, The Gamer's Corner, in UC Irvine's New University newspaper, I loved it even more than I thought I would. Xenoblade Chronicles would go on to be my personal Game of the Year in 2012 and one of my absolute favorite RPGs of all time, something that I was happy to share and discuss whenever appropriate (including the Xenoblade Grind Time livestream I appeared on when I interned at Game Informer!). I loved the game so much that I bought a New 3DS at launch just for Xenoblade Chronicles 3D.

As for Xenoblade X, obviously I was thoroughly excited since its unveiling as X in the infamous January 2013 Nintendo Direct where Nintendo basically announced every Wii U game in development. My passion for Xenoblade X was at its peak when I interned at Game Informer. I used my two years plus experience of learning Japanese in college to translate all the information I could from the three Japanese Nintendo Directs focusing on exploration, combat, and the Dolls and online features. I watched some scenes a few times and occasionally consulted a kanji dictionary to make sure I had everything as accurate as possible. Those three feature articles were some of the work I was most proud to publish during my time as an intern and if you read and commented on them I want to say thank you!

All of that history culminated and constantly influenced my opinion when I finally played through Xenoblade X for 75 hours throughout December. So now that I'm done with the campaign and finished what I wanted of the post game what do I think about it?
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Xenoblade Chronicles X is a glorious mess and I mean that largely lovingly. It offers outrageous highs due to its colossal ambition on every front and even where its execution falls short of that outrageous ambition you certainly can feel it, but it's never bad. When I saw the credits roll I was shocked how short they were. It merely took about four to five minutes to scroll through Monolith's staff and the other companies that made Xenoblade X a reality which you would never believe for a second when you gaze out from any point on the alien planet Mira.

Exploration is the one thing Xenoblade X clearly prioritizes above all else and Monolith unquestionably succeeded here to the highest degree. Mira is insanely vast and expansive. It features five continents to explore and an ocean filled with small uncharted islands to discover. What's most impressive about the world isn't its size, which is larger than many of the biggest open worlds of 2015 like Fallout 4 and the Witcher 3 combined, but rather its density. Xenoblade X features impressive verticality that is in part only possible because it's sci-fi setting can break away from reality in spectacular fashion.

Primordia, my favorite of the five continents, is like the Guar Plains from Xenoblade Chronicles amplified to an absurd degree. Primordia isn't just one massive canyon with multiple tiers to explore, no there are multiple mountains separated by vast plains, lakes, and rivers and often accompanied by Xenoblade's distinct, awe-inspiring overhanging rock structures that are more massive and spectacular than ever. Some of the most dense areas of Primordia have three distinct ground floors, the tops of the overhanging rock formations that can only be reached by flight, and even multiple cave networks that run inside and below mountains. With so much going on in these spaces your mind will frequently struggle to believe how this was all constructed to feel just right.

No matter where you look you'll always see the spectacular landscape accompanied by skies that are accentuated by Mira's multiple moons, voluminous clouds, and more rarely by rainbows (even sometimes in the dark!). Weather conditions vary throughout the continents, but no matter if it's rain, lightning storms, or something else they always manage to impress.

​Most excitingly, you literally can explore every inch of land you see because not a single piece of terrain is off limits for you to interact with. Even before you get your Skell (a giant transforming mech) and upgrade it with the ability to fly you can sprint around and leap impressive distances. There is no fall damage so you are encouraged to make spectacular leaps and perform tricky platforming. If you told me before release one of the primary activities I'd perform in Xenoblade X was Skyrim-like mountain climbing and furthermore that I'd enjoy it I wouldn't have believed you, but here we are and it is awesome! Movement just feels so darn good which is essential in a game about moving throughout an open world.

Adding to the unbelievable nature of how right Monolith nailed exploration is that all five of the main continents offer completely unique terrain to traverse. Nothing was copied and pasted in the outdoor environments which is mind blowing for one of the largest open worlds created, especially one built by such a small team of developers. The unique nature of each environment means you are always pushing into new areas and when you do revisit and fully explore each space they are truly memorable.

​Each environment actually has four different contexts for exploring it since you'll explore Mira first on foot, then with a mech that can jump large distances and transform into speedy ground vehicles, and finally by flying with the flight module, the fastest form of travel that lets you explore literally everywhere from the tallest mountains to the islands floating in the sky. The world essentially shrinks each time you get one of those upgrades, but the end result is that it feels more intimate and more under your control which is a very satisfying feeling. Regardless of how far you are into Xenoblade X, there are reasons to mix and match both traversal on foot and the various types of traversal in Skells which means you never truly lose anything despite the upgrades.

And before I start to move on, now is a great time to mention that the world is totally seamless and feels remarkably solid. When you kick off from your home base of New Los Angeles in your flying Skell the world doesn't feel like it will fall apart. As you seamlessly fly out of your base from any point at high speed you are simply out in the open world and with no loading you can fly all the way to the distant corners of Cauldros if you so choose. There is some pop-in sure, but it is absolutely amazing to play an open world and not feel like it will collapse on you at any point.
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While exploration for exploration's sake is certainly worthwhile when the world is so beautiful, there are many other reasons to traverse it. There are tons of enemies to fight and interestingly they aren't all cleverly situated to be around your level! Yes you could be wandering around as a level 10 working towards an objective and suddenly come across a pack of level 30 monsters or even a colossal level 70 dinosaur that is above even the level cap! It pays to take your time exploring so you don't wander into danger or maybe if you are like me you'll recklessly disregard safety for adventure and profit! Scattered throughout the landscape are treasure chests and mining points that yield loot and give battle points to power up your abilities so you'll want to wander into areas that don't feel safe. As you progress, you can more casually stride through more of Mira which makes you feel satisfyingly powerful. 

There are also survey spots scattered around the world where you can plant data probes. These are the biggest rewards early on because they help you set up an economy that gives you the two types of currency used to buy armor, upgrades, giant robots and more! Survey points also establish fast travel locations, a handy and essential convenience feature, and reveal the surrounding objectives for each hexagonal node on the map displayed on the gamepad. If you are a completionist, that map becomes indispensable in roughly figuring out how much of the game you still have left to conquer. After 75 hours playing, I only completely surveyed roughly 35% of Mira so I still had plenty more I could do.
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Before I talk about the story and battle systems, I do want to give a brief shout out to the music composed solely by Hiroyuki Sawano. Xenoblade Chronicles had one of the best soundtracks of all time and was composed by an all star group of musicians including Yoko Shimomura, Yasunori Mitsuda, and ACE+, so the decision to switch solely to Sawano made me nervous. Even if it's not uniformly excellent, I appreciated the variety of genres that Sawano took on and very clearly poured his whole heart into. Alongside the orchestral bombast you'd expect from Sawano there are also some rap and pop tracks with vocals. There are some embarrassing duds most unfortunately with the main battle theme Black Tar and a track included with the Limited Edition soundtrack called In The Forest. The majority of the tracks though are quite catchy and fun. I really enjoyed CODENAMEZ, THEMEX, Don't Worry, and, my personal favorite, the tyrant boss battle theme Uncontrollable which always gets your blood pumping.

Ok so all of the above has been pretty excellent so far so where do things get messy you might ask? Well sort of everything else. I'll start with the story.

The premise of Xenoblade X is that Earth was caught up in the battle between two alien armies. Our planet is completely destroyed in the crossfire, but a few ships carrying survivors manage to escape. One of the alien forces catches up with the ship we follow, The White Whale, and causes it to crash land on Mira, an unknown alien planet. As the ship breaks up in the atmosphere escape pods and the habitation deck (New Los Angeles) carrying the crew separates from the rest of the ship and becomes humanities' stronghold on Mira.
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So what is the threat exactly? Somewhere on Mira lies The Lifehold which contains the majority of the remains of humanity sleeping in cryostasis. If it is destroyed that would be a huge blow to rebuilding humanity especially as the crew alone is struggling to fight Mira's dangerous wildlife and the aliens that pursued them. A group called BLADE is formed to find the Lifehold and address any other problems that arise from operating society. The premise then is excellent since it basically tasks your created character along with a handful of elite soldiers with exploring the whole planet to ensure humanities' safety (which as I've said is when Xenoblade is at its best).

There are twelve main story missions in Xenoblade X, multiple affinity missions tied to each of the many characters you can recruit into your party (all of whom you can play as yourself), a large amount of normal missions, and a seemingly endless amount of basic missions (the kill X number of things, get X number of things type of missions). The story of Xenoblade X is spread across all of those many mission types aside from the basic missions.
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There are a handful of roadblocks set up from playing through the main story straight through as you are required to pursue specific side missions or survey a certain amount of Mira in order to accept the next mission. Successfully completing each chapter often grants you access to new features and exciting new questline opportunities so you'll likely want to jump off the main story path anyway. Only towards the very end of the campaign does the difficulty begin to spike which can cause frustration because you are locked out of accepting affinity missions if you are on story missions or vice versa.

Looked at positively, the main campaign feels paced more like a TV show or an anime (I don't think it's a coincidence there are 12 missions), but because of the big breaks between episodes the pacing does tend to suffer and not every mission is devoted to tackling the most interesting mysteries of the story. By the time the main campaign wraps up you'll get a solid answer to some of the main questions, but many mysteries remain unresolved and some new ones are even introduced last minute that obviously aren't answered either. The cliffhanger ending suggests there will be a sequel of some sorts, something that's been hinted at as of the latest interviews, but of course that doesn't help you from feeling cheated right now.
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Where Xenoblade's story finds more success is in the affinity missions and the normal quests. Affinity missions all have voiced cutscenes like the main campaign and are focused on specific characters and introducing new alien races that will join you in New Los Angeles. While the main campaign really only focuses on three central characters, here you'll gain insight into all of your party members and your created character is thrust into a more prominent role. An exciting number of new themes and mysteries are introduced and explored in the affinity and normal missions which are best left to discover for yourself. I was often surprised by what topics were introduced and how they were resolved which often made these missions feel more worthwhile than the too straightforward main story.

Part of the problem of tackling all of the missions and yet also one of the game's biggest strengths is the lack of guidance throughout. Sure you get a few tutorials here and there, but Xenoblade X never quite tells you what you should be doing.

What content is worthwhile? Where should I be exploring right now? Where do I even start to find the collectable items I need? Am I playing the game wrong? These are some of the questions I found myself asking as I was playing through. There is an extensive digital instruction manual in the game, but it can't always offer explanations for some of the more basic questions like what certain abilities do or what certain icons actually mean so it is not a great help with some of the bigger questions you'll have. Still it is liberating to make genuine discoveries like finding a good cave to explore and conquer or discovering a quest with huge story and loot payoffs. 
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Perhaps one of the best examples of the pros and cons of this lack of guidance lies with how the battle system changed for me as I played. You start as a jack of all trades class, but then you choose to work towards one of the six advanced classes and maybe mix and match abilities later since you can change classes freely. I worked towards the first of the six advanced classes at the top of the skill tree and I had a large number of abilities and skill options to bring into battle. I made sure to include a good mix of abilities including two buffs, Offensive and Defensive Stance, a taunt called Decoy Round, and two damage dealing abilities, Rising Blade and Tornado Blade. Rising Blade could deal a lot of damage toward one enemy if you are directing its aggro at you while Tornado Blade hits multiple enemies at once and does more damage if you are buffed so these five abilities complemented each other especially nice.

When I was done leveling my class, I began having trouble dealing enough damage to enemies while staying healthy so I added a skill to give me health back every time I triggered a buff, but that still wasn't quite enough. I thought the game had become static at this point as I was done leveling up my class and getting new abilities.

What perhaps was my favorite gameplay moment in Xenoblade X was when I realized I needed to better understand how all my skills best worked together. By investing into my taunt ability, Decoy Round, and making use of augments and slotting gear (systems that the game never directly pushes you towards and something that you can even miss entirely in terms of the latter), I was able to create an engine of building TP in battle. TP powered my buffs and a universal ability called Overdrive that significantly speeds up the cooldowns of all your abilities and even grants you a temporary third tier of ability charging which can enable you to deal obscene damage and immediately reuse certain abilities. By upping my TP capacity with augments and using one of the bonus abilities of Decoy Round to grant me large amounts of TP based off my morale gauge I was able to constantly remain in Overdrive and activate buffs which boosted my damage output considerably and kept me constantly at full health because of my perk. My TP engine was so effective that I can't even remotely describe what the final boss music sounds like because I was in Overdrive for 90% of the battle which causes a unique theme to play.
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That kind of discovery and build is never hinted at and is only of the many possibilities in building your character. The flexibility and depth of all of Xenoblade's systems and how they all work together reveals itself the more you pore yourself into it and that is awesome.

While I'm on the subject of the battle system, I do feel combat in general is a lot of fun. It's at its best when things are going slightly wrong as you'll have to make tough decisions of how to spend your TP or when to use abilities to turn the tide of battle back in your favor. There is a good variety of enemies to fight and they range in size from tiny bugs to dinosaurs and some are even terrifyingly larger still. A new feature to the combat is that you can target specific weak points or limbs of the enemy you are fighting, which can help disable it in some way mid-battle and help you get specific loot drops.
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You'll be using a mix of ground combat and Skell combat throughout the game and both systems are deceptively different despite the UI being largely the same. In fact, I never truly felt comfortable in Skell combat despite being able to use them for over 40 hours. Exploring the depths of Skell combat and building the perfect Skell is one of the major focuses of the post game so sadly quitting the game where I did means I didn't get to experience that. Still it was fun frequently ripping health bars in half with my giant sword and blasting through hordes of enemies with my Gatling gun.

That sort of brings me to the end of my thoughts here. Despite thoroughly enjoying the game for 70 hours for the main story and all of the exploration I did, I only spent about five hours in the post game to clean up a few quests that I knew I really wanted to tackle. The grind required to build the perfect Skell to take on all of the many super bosses that roam the land and to fight global nemesis in online co-op doesn't have much appeal to me as it's roughly an additional 100 hours of content (the asynchronous online features are cool though!). Also, as I mentioned there really isn't a way to judge what missions are worthwhile until you delve into them. Playing the affinity missions requires you to up your affinity with the required party member and even though it is certainly easier to do that in the post game I don't find it worth it to grind for hit and miss story content. The same goes for the interconnected normal missions that force you through some bland missions or searches for needles in a haystack (the size of a continent) to get some of the most interesting content that brings multiple threads together. I know I'm missing out here on some of the most rewarding story content, I've read about a few of the missions I'll be missing and man they do sound cool, but grinding is never something I want to do in RPGs.
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Xenoblade X will not be my personal favorite game of the year for 2015, but that's ok because in so many ways it was personally the most important game I played in 2015. It is a really interesting and experimental game and because there is nothing else quite like it, Xenoblade X was able to so thoroughly capture my attention. From the few interviews out there, it seems like Monolith is keenly aware of where they have succeeded with Xenoblade X and how they can improve for next time. Xenoblade X will likely serve as the foundation for a new game that could be truly spectacular on every front. Whether it's entirely new or a direct sequel to Xenoblade X, something that seems a tad more likely at this point, I'll definitely be very excited to follow its development and play it.

​With both the first arc of the main story and the first year anniversary event recently completed, I felt now was a great time to write a blog fully focused on my favorite mobile game, Magia Record. I’ve written about the game twice on my blog briefly, first in my 2019 Anime Expo recap blog and a second time during my top ten favorite games of 2019 blog where it ranked fourth overall. I clearly really enjoy Magia Record, but I want to share more in depth about why it is so special to me.

Magia Record is a gacha RPG game billed as a side story to the magical girl anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica which to this day remains my favorite anime of all time. I saw Madoka in my first year at my college anime club in 2011 when it was airing. It actually wasn’t my favorite anime of all time at first, but as I collected the DVDs as they released on rewatch it became cemented as my favorite as I truly appreciated just how amazing the animation is and how densely plotted it is across its twelve episodes. No matter how many times I view it, I’m still blown away catching all of the little details in the show and come away catching something I didn’t notice on prior viewings. In my final year of college, the Madoka movie, Rebellion, released and I journeyed up to Los Angeles to see it with my Dad. I’m not 100% sure if Rebellion is my favorite anime film since I go back and forth if I like the wildly fun Girls Und Panzer film more, but Rebellion is certainly the most important anime film to me. 

​I’ve slowly collected a few other things connected to the show over the years, a few manga books (Another Story is awesome!), plushies, and figures for example, but aside from the movie in 2014 there really wasn’t any significant other way to enjoy Madoka since it came out and ended besides rewatching the show. And that was fine I felt. A huge part of the reason why I loved Madoka was how densely crafted it was so adding more didn’t seem necessary even if the show and Rebellion each ended with the possibility for more.

I never got my hopes up for Magia Record ever coming out in America as other Madoka games were all skipped over (maybe one day!) so I never looked into it too much ahead of the global release. The moment it was announced for a global release I was really excited to check it out, but I was also nervous because I knew it was a gacha game. If you are unfamiliar, a gacha game can be of any genre, as it is merely a game with a lottery component. Often you “pull” the gacha to get characters or power-ups of some sort. A vast majority of gacha games are free to play with the option to pay large sums of money to get extra pulls. At that point, it is de facto gambling and all you get is a small digital prize. I’ve played a good deal of gachas, but most often I bounce off them in less than a week since they are huge time commitments and if a few of the hooks are off (the story, gameplay, or presentation most frequently) they aren’t worth investing time in. In January 2019 when Kingdom Hearts III released, I finally gave up the gacha game I had logged into for well over 1,000 days, Kingdom Hearts UX, and was free from gachas for a few months. As you can imagine from the enormous number of days I played, I had developed very, very strong feelings about KHUX. I didn’t want to quit, but KHUX had devolved from a game I thought was smartly designed into a fireworks show as every fight became fought in auto-battle and I was done with the thin story being delivered at a glacial pace.

​I could never have imagined a year ago when I started on launch day what Magia Record would ultimately mean to me. It took a few weeks to truly get its hooks in me, but even early on I was pretty optimistic it would as I quickly invested in a plushie and a figure of the main character, Iroha Tamaki, at Anime Expo shortly after launch. I wasn’t planning on it, but I also ended up attending the Magia Record panel at Anime Expo 2019 which exceeded my expectations as it was primarily a voice actress panel with the voice actresses of Homura and Kyubey and had an unexpected preview of the Magia Record anime. I’ll never forget either from that panel when Chiwa Saito, the voice of Homura, confirmed a third mainline Madoka anime project was in the works with the president of Shaft present. It has been a year and we still haven’t seen anything from it yet, but that’s ok!

What makes Magia Record stand out the most from other gacha games that I’ve played is its strong focus on story. The ten chapter main story is fully voice acted from start to finish which is especially impressive with its large cast and length. Beyond that is a second campaign, Another Story, focusing on the five characters from the original anime. Perhaps more amazingly every character in the game gets three character episodes which is awesome to spend more time with characters you like or to better know the characters you don’t. All the limited time events in the game all have large story components that can take hours to complete. Even the PVP mode has a story attached to it as you see new scenes as you increase in rank!

​The main story of Magia Record focuses on Iroha Tamaki who is searching for her missing sister Ui in the mysterious city of Kamihama. While Iroha starts her journey alone, over time she becomes friends with four other girls, Yachiyo, Tsuruno, Felicia, and Sana. I liked Iroha right from the start. Though she is always a bit shy, she never lets that stop her and she remains kind despite all the obstacles and setbacks on her journey. I especially enjoyed watching Iroha grow in confidence over the course of the story to become a leader and a pillar of support for her friends. In Iroha’s group, the other standout character to me is definitely Tsuruno, the self-proclaimed “Mightiest Magical Girl.” Tsuruno is almost always super energetic and she steals practically every scene she is in with her infectious enthusiasm. 

While the search for Ui is the main plot of the story, it is far from the only interesting story thread in play. Magia Record strikes a good balance of introducing interesting new mysteries and providing good answers. At the same time Iroha enters Kamihama, Homura from the original Madoka anime receives a vision from a girl who claims salvation for Magical Girls resides in Kamihama. Homura isn’t the only one who received that vision as more magical girls and witches begin to all converge in the city. A mysterious group resides in Kamihama as well, The Wings of the Magius, that seems to protect witches and a new enemy, Uwasa, nasty rumors that are monstrously coming to life. This villainous group has some big personalities attached to it including the Amane Sisters, twins who are mysteriously in perfect sync, and Alina Gray, a psychotic artist obsessed with death and witches. Uncovering how all of these mysteries and more all relate to each other kept me engaged even in the slower early chapters of the story where it took its time introducing the main cast. Once the main story picks up it never lets up until the end of the epic finale where everything comes together.

​​One element I enjoyed in the main story is how the original Madoka cast weave in and out of it. While they are fully in focus in the Another Story campaign, I liked seeing the five original characters show up one by one often in surprising ways. Kyoko for example actually joins your group when she gets pulled into a plot of The Wings of the Magius together with Iroha and Felicia. I especially enjoyed seeing Madoka and Homura together because they have a different dynamic here than they do for most of the original series. I was hoping to reconnect with my favorite anime by playing Magia Record, but I really wasn’t expecting to get such an awesome expansion for it here as I saw new sides of characters I thought I knew. I also really enjoyed seeing how Magia Record relates to the original story and I love some of the new elements it adds to the lore especially in regards to Kyubey which I’m still thinking about a few weeks removed.

There was one element of Magia Record that really caught me off-guard and it has to do with the limited time events in the game. I didn’t get to play every event as they often barely lasted a week and some of them required you to play more of the main game than I might have wanted at the time to unlock tickets to play them. But even from the ones I did play, I started to become really attached to the extended cast in the game. Events in Magia Record all have lengthy stories attached to them that take hours to complete. They range in topic from fun holiday events (Halloween, Christmas, Summer etc.), introducing new extended cast members, expanding on the lore/backstory, and crossover events. I usually finished the events I started because when I made the time for it, they were all pretty fun and worthwhile.

I’d like to share a bit about three of my favorite events, especially since they can’t be experienced again. My favorite one for sure was definitely Nagisa’s event as she was a new character that was hyped up for the Rebellion movie, but ultimately only had three lines in the movie. We never received her backstory in the main canon, but Magia Record actually reveals her dark and tragic backstory including seeing why she made her wish and what it was. The game uses its restrictions to its advantage here, as there is ultimately a really creepy serial killer at the heart of this story whose face we never see. If there was one event that could be adapted as an anime OVA, I think Nagisa’s story should be it. Shaft would elevate it.

​My other two favorite events are way more light hearted. The first was the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha crossover event that saw Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate visit the world Magia Record. The three compete in a team battle tournament together with all of the main characters, Momoko, Kaede, and Rena, and the other groups in the city. Considering there is no way to legally watch Nanoha right now (which sucks!) it was cool getting a new adventure with characters I like and I was super happy I beat the odds with the gacha and actually got all three Nanoha characters on my team before the event ended.

The other event I really liked was the summer event from a few weeks ago. This event was split into two sections. One followed the original Madoka characters summer vacation being interrupted by a ghost and the other followed Iroha’s group as they enjoyed more traditional summer activities including going to the beach, embarking on a treasure hunt, and enjoying a summer festival. Events like the summer event and the Nanoha event weaved the large extended cast in and out of them and even spread character development across them as well. I was glad to see characters frequently reappear in these stories, such as Karin, a girl first introduced as the magical girl of Halloween, and in subsequent events is revealed to also be really into manga and the occult, because you knew they’d often make fun scenarios much wilder. More restrained characters like Konoha, who was an anchor on my main battle team, but rarely appeared in the main story, benefited from these appearances as well as I experienced a fuller picture of who they are. When events in the main story escalate to threaten the city of Kamihama as a whole, it really meant something seeing all of the extended cast come together to face the threats and it was fun seeing some characters finally meet for the first time.

​While the story and characters are the main reasons I love Magia Record, I do want to talk about the gameplay as well. Simply put, I’m very happy with Magia Record because it never succumbed to the power creep that is a feature of most gachas. Magia Record laid out all of its major progression systems from the start and never introduced anything extra throughout its first year. The goal for leveling up characters remained the same then throughout, increase your characters rank to five stars, level them up to 100, collect items to unlock your buffs and power up your Magia super attack, hopefully collect duplicate characters (dupes) in the gacha to unlock more accessory slots, and, if applicable, unlock their ultimate Doppel attack.

There are a few systems that make this a little easier than the daunting task it appears to be as there are a few different currencies you can exchange to collect the items and dupes and many events made certain items and dupes even easier to get. Most significantly a few months in the developers introduced daily coins (earned by playing at least one PVP match a day) that you can exchange to collect one to three of any item in the game. Every activity feeds into the various character growth systems so you are always progressing. I played the game free to play (I put $8 in as a tip which didn’t even give me a single ten pull of the gacha) and by playing daily I had no problems leveling up twelve of my favorite characters to level 100 and even had a few with Doppels. By swapping around accessory cards at this point (which of course have their own level up systems), I was more than strong enough to clear the main story with minimal revives.

​When you are on the battlefield itself, you bring in a team of four characters and select a guest character from other players. You and your enemies each reside on a three by three grid. Positioning matters here, as you pick three of five attack discs to attack with, pulled somewhat randomly from the pool of discs your characters own (each character on your team has five). There are three types of discs: Accelerate discs deal the most damage and significantly charge your MP, Blast discs strike across a row or column, and Charge discs are weaker, but power up the next Accelerate or Blast Disc. Selecting three Accelerate discs grants every character 20+ MP instantly, three Charge discs grants a +5 charge, and selecting three Blast discs or any three discs from the same characters grants significant extra damage.

While the basic action is thus very simple, select your targets and click on three attack discs to execute your attack, there are quite a few other systems in play besides your characters stats. Every character has one of five elements and you need to manage your charges and your MP gain to deal the most damage and build up to your Magia and Doppel attacks at 100 MP and 200 MP respectively. Your characters might have buffs/abilities to trigger that have cooldowns attached to them that can turn the tide in battle as well.

​All of that is nice, but the one system that really proves the most interesting in Magia Record’s combat and has kept it interesting for the year is the ability to Connect with another character after they have made three moves. When you Connect you not only share your characters attack disc, but you also grant some abilities, buffs, and rarely heal that character as well depending on which character initiates the Connect. This is where the most strategy comes into play in battle because all the other systems are affected as well. Giving a character your turn can help them get the damage boost from using three discs in one turn, it can help build MP, and it can more obviously let a character with a better element exploit a weakness. I mentioned earlier that at the start of the turn the attack discs were presented semi-randomly because if you use a character’s disc on one turn they will very likely be excluded from the next selection of discs. It is of upmost importance then in the more challenging fights to plan a few turns ahead when selecting who and when to attack in order to build up resources and have the right characters available to Connect with.

Over the course of the year I really enjoyed mixing up my teams’ compositions and reassigning the right accessories to create uniquely powerful characters and combos. One of my favorite simple ones was to give Tsukuyo a Charge buff accessory because three of her five discs were Charge discs. It gave me flexibility to make her Accelerate or Blast disc all the more powerful in addition to her normal role of building up the Charge Counter for her teammates. That her Connect ability grants 100% Critical Hits made her even more effective in this role. Another example is when I reorganized my party around Rena in the final chapter when she unlocked a third accessory slot. She was already a glass cannon, but by upping her attack and critical hit rate as much as possible she can regularly deal four times the amount of damage the rest of my team can deal.

Magia Record’s combat system works well for PVE obviously, but its strength really shines in the asynchronous PVP mode as well, which again with the lack of power creep typical of gachas has actually remained interesting for the year. The matchmaking does a surprisingly good job of presenting opponents around your level. You can bring up to five of your characters into PVP and direct them to fight against other players' teams controlled by the computer. Fights often come down to the wire and I’ve been most impressed that most of the time I lose I usually can pinpoint where a different decision in combat would have helped me win.

That is more or less Magia Record the game, but there is one more element of the experience that I’ve really been enjoying and that is the anime adaptation that started in January 2020. Shaft is of course handling the Magia Record anime themselves and while it hasn’t been a perfect adaptation, the action scenes are a little lacking and I don’t like the changes they have made to Iroha’s character, it’s been awesome seeing a Madoka TV show again. A lot of the direction and shots are incredible, I love seeing some of my favorite characters come to life in full motion, and I do like that it isn’t a straight adaptation since it keeps me guessing exactly how things will play out. The first half of the anime ended on a wild cliffhanger so I’m looking forward to whenever it will resume. Also I love just like they do for the game, Trysail provides the opening theme song for the Magia Record anime. It’s hard to beat Kakawari, but Gomakashi comes close!

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That concludes my latest blog and I hoped you enjoyed it! Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @JustinMikos to share your thoughts! Until next time!

This blog was originally posted on my Game Informer Online Blog on October 7, 2015. The text has not been altered, but I did place the pictures above each section to reflect how I lay out blogs today. Though it is an older blog, I hope you will still enjoy it! - Justin

This past Summer I dug deep into my backlog to finish my final few PS2 games. Since I wrapped up my last game a few weeks ago, Radiata Stories, I felt now was a good time to put together a top ten list of my favorite PS2 games.

My list is by no means comprehensive of the vast PS2 library and it definitely does not tell the full story of what I enjoyed on the PS2 since it only covers my top ten favorite games on the system. When putting together my list I only considered the games I played on the PS2 itself so no HD remakes or handheld ports were eligible.

Before I dive into my list then I'd like to briefly share a little bit about some of the games I didn't include that I still want to call out. Only a few of my early PS2 games made the list, but some of my other favorites included XGIII (Extreme G 3), Timesplitters, and Gauntlet Dark Legacy all of which were great co op games.  No sports games made my list, but games like SSX 3 and Tony Hawk's Underground 2 were definitely favorites in my PS2 collection (Underground 2 especially since I really got into its create a park feature). My favorite bad PS2 game of course didn't make my list, Battle Assault 3 Featuring Gundam Seed, but it was definitely one of the most memorable PS2 games for me and my friends. Finally none of the Shin Megami Tensei and Disgaea games made my list because I played them on other platforms, but I'm sure some of them would have found a spot on my list otherwise.

With all that said, let's move on to my Top 10 Favorite PS2 Games!

10: Okami

I became interested in Okami the moment I saw its attractive art style and its central image of a wolf running through a field with flowers blooming in its wake. When I learned Okami would have the gameplay and structure of a Zelda game I knew it was something I had to play. What I didn't expect though, was that it would be Okami's sense of adventure and colorful cast of characters that would really stick with me for so long after. The journey begins in a small quiet town deep in the countryside, but you'll soon be traveling far beyond it to explore the forests, ocean, and eventually the snow covered mountains at the edge of the world. Defeating the evil demons that threaten the people and conquering all of the dungeons is exciting, but restoring the nature and color to the world alongside your growing group of allies and friends feels even more fulfilling.

9: Kingdom Hearts

I played a good chunk of the first Kingdom Hearts around the time it came out. I wasn't really a big Disney fan at the time, so I was more interested in seeing the Final Fantasy characters and the original content (the cool, effective commercial helped too). Even on the lowest difficulty the original Kingdom Hearts was brutal, especially for a game largely aimed at kids, so I was not able to make it too far in the story. After Kingdom Hearts II came out, I got my own copy of Kingdom Hearts and returned to conquer it. By then I enjoyed the tougher difficulty and forming a deeper connection with the characters I came to love through the sequel. While I prefer Kingdom Hearts II overall, I still appreciate the original Kingdom Hearts' straightforward story and its often grander worlds that offered more exploration than later games in the series.

8: Jak and Daxter
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I played Jak and Daxter at two very different points in the PS2's lifetime. I originally had rented the game from Blockbuster (which was a big thing then!) soon after it first came out. I played through the whole game and really enjoyed it, but it wasn't until the first Uncharted graced the cover of Game Informer that I decided I wanted to play through the whole series. I soon bought a copy and played through Jak and Daxter a second time. It was then I fully came to appreciate how special the game is. The platforming is excellent and there are tons of unique challenges across its fully connected world. Jak and Daxter's world is perhaps the best fully realized world ever imagined for a platformer outside of Super Mario Sunshine because it truly deepens the connections between all of its levels and characters. I loved the characters and the fun, adventurous nature of the first game so much, that the dramatic tonal shift in Jak II was a real betrayal.

7: Final Fantasy X

When I first got Final Fantasy X I actually didn't like it too much. The tone was far removed from the Final Fantasy games of old and I didn't like how oppressively linear it felt which was made worse by how its difficulty frequently stalled my progress. When I restarted Final Fantasy X in high school (and had more Final Fantasy games under my belt) I really came to enjoy all that it offered. The story had always intrigued me, but in my full playthrough I finally got to learn the deeper and darker backstory of the world of Spira. I came to appreciate the characters more too, even the goofy lead character Tidus with his honest reactions to the strange and brutal world he journeyed through. I also greatly enjoyed the combat which was satisfying in both the normal encounters and the complex boss fights which were often puzzles to overcome rather than simple endurance tests.

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6: Jak 3

Jak 3 melded the best elements of Jak and Daxter and Jak II to create a strong conclusion for the series. While Jak 3 continued the story from Jak II, it wisely distanced itself from the misguided, gritty tone of Jak II and reshaped Jak back into a more likeable character. Instead of directly chasing after Grand Theft Auto's open world ambitions again, Jak 3 struck out on its own by pursuing an open world desert that played host to some fun vehicle challenges. Jak 3 also refined the gunplay introduced in Jak II and brought back more of the great platforming from the original Jak and Daxter. Nearly all of the characters in the series had great moments and good sendoffs which made their final adventure all the more fulfilling.

5: Guitar Hero

I have always loved music and rhythm games, but Guitar Hero was the one that truly elevated my passion for them. While you weren't actually playing the guitar, it felt awesome strumming along and eventually mastering all of the unique rhythms and overcoming each of the increasingly complex guitar solos. I became addicted to Guitar Hero as I wanted to boost my scores as high as possible and conquer the entire game on Expert difficulty. The game hit at the right time in my life too as I was beginning to build my collection of music so I was thrilled as the game introduced me to many new songs and bands. While later Guitar Hero games improved on the gameplay and soundtrack, the first game will always have a special place in my heart.

4: Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy XII is my second favorite Final Fantasy game of all time just behind Final Fantasy VI. FFXII plays like an offline MMO and offers a truly expansive world that is also incredibly dense. I became fully lost exploring Ivalice, building up my party, and tackling the increasingly difficult Hunts that I often ended up leaving the story behind for hours. It took me 120 hours to see the credits roll and I played another good 20 to 30 hours beyond that to explore even more areas far off the critical path. Despite the massive amount of time I spent on Final Fantasy XII, the awesome and scary part is that I easily could have spent another good 100 hours to see everything it had to offer. I sincerely hope Square Enix decides to bring an HD version of the International Zodiac Jobs Edition to the Vita because I'd love an excuse to play through it all again.

3: Kingdom Hearts II

I remember becoming very excited for Kingdom Hearts II after reading a brief feature about the game in the BioShock issue of Game Informer (which incidentally remains my favorite issue of Game Informer to this day). At the time, I hadn't finished the original Kingdom Hearts, but I was intrigued by the radical changes to both the combat system and camera as well as the new selection of worlds including Steamboat Willie, Tron, and the Lion King. When I finally got the game I was hooked right away during the prologue that followed a new character, Roxas, during the dramatic final days of his summer vacation. As I continued playing I found a story far more epic and gameplay far more approachable and addicting than the original Kingdom Hearts. I just couldn't put it down until I maxed out Sora to level 99 and completed all of the side quests to see the secret trailer. Despite its massive length I've happily played through Kingdom Hearts II many times since to relive the story and experience more of its fantastic combat. Each and every time I play through it still holds up. While I think Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep is the best Kingdom Hearts game, Kingdom Hearts II will always be my favorite.

2: Shadow of the Colossus

There are very few games I've played through as many times as Shadow of the Colossus and I'm not exaggerating when I say I've easily finished the game over 20 times. I was absolutely enthralled during my first time through so I was eager to play through it again on hard and beat time attack to unlock more tools like explosive arrows, the Harpoon of Thunder, and the parachute. Beyond that, there were rumors circulating around the time of its release that if you beat the game four times you could encounter a hidden 17th colossus so I beat the game five times on both normal and hard and completed time attack just as many times to see if it was true and well it wasn't. I didn't mind playing through it all so many times because I wanted to scour every last bit of its vast desolate landscape and take down each of the colossi again and again. While I never found the fake 17th colossus, I found out so much else in the process such as discovering hidden animals like the hawks and fish, learning how to climb to the top of the shrine, and how to perform back flips. Shadow of the Colossus is one of those rare games that continually rewards and surprises you for putting so much time and energy into it and for that it will always be an important game for me.

1: Odin Sphere

Odin Sphere strikes a masterful balance between story and gameplay. There are five playable characters in Odin Sphere that each have their own intertwining stories and unique fighting styles. You must play through all of the characters' stories in a set order, but this works to the story's advantage as it carefully develops each character and expands the central mysteries and conflicts that all come to a head in the grand finale. While the story and characters are what ultimately push Odin Sphere to the top of my favorite PS2 games list, the action gameplay and the intricate process to building your characters are both very important as well. Each dungeon in the game is a maze of interconnected circular rooms that are filled with a limited number of enemies and resources. As you carefully dismantle enemy armies you must constantly be considering your health, your stamina, your inventory space, and the number of photons each enemy drops. Photons can be used to level up your strength by feeding your weapons or alternately be used to grow food on the battlefield that both restores your health and ultimately increases your maximum HP. Since you are always making tons of varied decisions throughout your fights and their aftermaths that impact you both immediately and in the long term, you really become invested in every single fight and outcome. Odin Sphere thus demands your full attention and constantly rewards you every step of the way. No other PS2 game fully satisfies me in quite the same way Odin Sphere does and for that it truly stands strong as my favorite PS2 game.

​I don’t often like to write short blogs, but I realized I’d regret not breaking that limiting habit if I didn’t write about Final Fantasy VII right now. At the time of this writing, we are less than three days away from the release of the first Final Fantasy VII Remake game and I have a lot of thoughts I want to wrestle with and document by writing and sharing a blog.

I have three main forces pulling at me as I anticipate the Final Fantasy VII Remake. The biggest and primary thrust of this blog, is my history with the original Final Fantasy VII. FFVII was no doubt one of the biggest games of my childhood, but it has an odd distinction among them. Unlike the rest of my major childhood games that amazed me at the time and still resonate with me today, I had some struggles playing Final Fantasy VII when I was younger and years later when I revisited it in high school I found the game sometimes lacking in comparison to the other Final Fantasy games around it even if I still enjoyed it. Final Fantasy VII is my go-to example of a time and place game, one that was amazing at release, but one that did not age as well as I would have hoped.

​No game exists in a vacuum. They all have their own merits for sure, but they also always exist relative to other games that shape your opinion of them. I had already formed a foundational love of RPGs before walking into FFVII because my older brother introduced them to me on the Super Nintendo. The big three RPGs for me growing up were all Squaresoft games: Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG. As a result, I was excited for Final Fantasy VII walking in (I wasn’t anticipating it beforehand; that distinction first goes to Final Fantasy VIII), and with that history combined with the richness of the new 3D graphics, Final Fantasy VII was destined to make an impression on me.

And it did! The opening sequence with the bombing mission was incredibly cinematic and introduced two cool characters right off the bat with Cloud and Barret. You soon begin to explore Midgar which at the time seemed overwhelmingly huge. I was again impressed once you get to the world map and you see how you have barely just begun your journey. While the character models during exploration looked a little goofy with blocky hands, the higher quality models during battle left strong impressions and the prerendered environments invited imagination. FFVII had plenty of cool surprises the farther you played, including the games at the Golden Saucer, not just airships, but underwater exploration with the submarine, and cool bonus characters including Vincent (my favorite character next to Cloud). There were a ton of secrets to discover as well which made the game fun to talk about with friends and family for months after it came out.

​I always enjoyed watching my brother play the game and I enjoyed playing the game myself, but I found myself getting stuck frequently since I wasn’t even quite six when the game first came out on PC. After the bombing mission, I didn’t know how to get out of the Midgar slums for a while. When I reached the overworld it was fraught with peril and I had to retry frequently. I think I truly got stuck somewhere in the middle of disc 2 and I had to load one of my brother’s later saves to see the end of the game. Regardless of how good my party was, I don’t think I ever challenged Sephiroth myself since I used to be afraid of challenging the final bosses in RPGs growing up except for the three Super Nintendo games I loved.

After Final Fantasy VII, I kept playing all of the new Final Fantasy games as they released and when I was in high school I decided I wanted to beat all of the Final Fantasy games in order. With the first six Final Fantasy games freshly under my belt and other RPGs I enjoyed growing up, I tackled Final Fantasy VII again on the PS3. This time I was far more prepared to play the game and I could begin to look at it critically. The biggest failing in Final Fantasy VII is the Materia system as character growth is primarily tied to it and Materia levels up so slowly. There is a lot of flexibility with Materia for sure, but since the commitments you need to make to see investments pay off take so long you might as well stick with what works. That’s fine too, because the game is actually very easy in comparison to other Final Fantasy games (which is funny to me given how much I struggled with it growing up). The tone of the game is super weird too as it begins at its most dramatic in Midgar following your ecoterrorist heroes, but not even ten hours in you are riding a dolphin to jump hundreds of feet in the air to advance the story. Real talk though, that dolphin better be in part 2 of the Final Fantasy VII Remake.

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​I think what strikes me about Final Fantasy VII is that you never really know what will come next and that is a great thing. There are many wonderous locations to explore beyond the industrial city of Midgar such as the Golden Saucer, a giant amusement park that hovers above a large desert. It’s more than just location variety as the tone and gameplay shift frequently as well. There is a bout of horror for example as you explore the upper floors of Shinra’s HQ, followed by a cool motorcycle sequence, and soon after by a tower defense minigame at Fort Condor. I also love that the game remembers your actions which affects for example your date in the Golden Saucer or how it personalizes Cloud’s breakdown (“I played the piano!”). These elements kept me invested in the game even when the combat and character growth systems didn’t. Final Fantasy has a reputation of always reinventing itself with every mainline entry and Final Fantasy VII proudly carried on the tradition and I hope the Final Fantasy VII Remake will do the same.

The second main force pulling at me as I anticipate the Final Fantasy VII Remake is my history with the Remake itself. While I saw its E3 reveal trailer and first gameplay glimpse live over the internet, I had one specific event with it prior to those in person that I’ll never forget. When I attended the very first PlayStation Experience in Las Vegas with my older brother, I was present for what was probably the most infamous moment on its road to release. I was sitting three rows from the front of the main stage of the opening ceremony and the brand manager of Final Fantasy came out to discuss what they were bringing to the PlayStation 4. I learned later this was a mistake, but the logo for Final Fantasy VII appeared behind the man talking. The crowd started getting excited and my brother turned to me and said they are finally going to announce the remake. I wasn’t sure as a trailer began to play showcasing the original PlayStation graphics. Everyone expected it to explode into beautiful PS4 graphics, but that moment never came as it was merely an announcement that the PC version of Final Fantasy VII would be ported to PS4. The energy was sucked out of the room and we all felt defeated. I didn’t learn how much of an impact that had on the internet until after the show where it gave rise to the Ultima Troll gif (see below), but for better or worse that incident always has an influence on my excitement for the game.

​Finally, the last major force that’s really causing a great impact on my anticipation of FFVIIR is the state of the world. As I write this, I’ve been home for twenty days now due to the global pandemic of Covid-19 prompting shelter in place orders from the state of California. I’m handling it fairly well since my biggest hobbies, video games and anime, are ones you enjoy at home. It’s still sad though to be off and you can’t go out at all to visit friends or even go out for lunch or dinner. A Hatsune Miku concert I had been looking forward to for months that would have happened this Wednesday in LA was pushed back until October and I’m fully expecting Anime Expo to be cancelled this year soon. While losing that normalcy and big events are disappointing, I’m glad to stay home to keep myself and my parents as safe as possible through Social Distancing.

I’ve gotten to finish a few cool games at least while I’ve been stuck at home including Yakuza 3, the first Devil May Cry, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore which is currently my favorite game I’ve played this year. This has been a great time as well to reconnect with friends with everything grounded to a halt and I've enjoyed playing a lot of Splatoon, StarCraft, and Animal Crossing with friends online. I’ve also finished some great anime as well such as the original Love Live and its movie, the fourth season of My Hero Academia, and the first season of Magia Record. I’d love to write about everything I’ve been enjoying during this time and I have a lot of free time as the shelter in place order shows no signs of being lifted soon so you might see some more blogs from me sooner rather than later.

With Covid 19 being so disruptive to normalcy, it is obviously having a big impact on games as well. Final Fantasy VII Remake is the last huge game right now in this period with a release date. If it wasn’t for the situation we are in, I probably would not want the game to be as great as I do right now, but I want to lose myself in a huge, high quality adventure. I didn’t play the demo in March or watch the final trailer because I’ve been wanting to go in as blind as possible, so I’m excited to see what Square has created and I hope it delivers.

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That concludes my latest blog! I hope you enjoyed it! I always enjoy feedback so feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @JustinMikos to share your thoughts. I’d be curious to know your history with the original Final Fantasy VII and your excitement for the Remake. Until next time!

2019 may have been a quieter year with the next generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles on the horizon, but it was also refreshing and satisfying thanks to the variety of games that were released. Nearly all of the games I played were of strong quality and had interesting unique factors to consider that proved hard to weigh against each other. As always, this is a list of my favorite games of the year, not necessarily the best, and since there were at least fifteen strong contenders my top ten list was not easy to shape. 

I reached my goal of beating forty games this past year and thirty of them released in 2019. Only one of those thirty is ineligible for my list, The Link’s Awakening remake, since aside from the quality of life changes and new graphics it is basically identical to my favorite Game Boy game of all time. Like last year, I will share all of the games I finished in 2019 at the end of this blog.

I do have a few honorable mentions I’d like to address ahead of my list. First is Judgment (PS4) a game that was originally on my list since the familiar Yakuza gameplay is so fun and satisfying and the story and characters are brought to life by a wonderful English dub. It fell off as my memories of Judgment blurred together with the other Yakuza games, but’s it’s well worth playing. I also want to shoutout Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch) which had an awesome single player campaign I blitzed through. I didn’t get into making courses quite as much as I expected, but I’m looking forward to putting in more time soon now that you can use buttons in handheld mode. Finally, I want to give an honorable mention to the visual novel My Girlfriend Is A Mermaid!? (Switch, PC) I want more visual novels on Switch so I put money towards the kickstarter in 2018. I enjoyed the story and characters and it was fun figuring out how the choices you make affect the story since there were no guides online.

Now let’s dive into My Top Ten Favorite Games of 2019!

10: Baba Is You (Switch, also on PC)

When I sat down to write my list Baba Is You was relegated to the honorable mention category, because even though I beat the game and cleared over 100 puzzles, many puzzles still haunted me. As I poured my heart out writing about it, I felt I had made a mistake because Baba Is You is truly an incredible puzzle game unlike anything I’ve ever played. I decided to return to Baba Is You and after clearing The Big Puzzle the game builds towards I felt accomplished and more at peace with the game. Baba Is You is essentially a box pushing game as you slide objects around to solve puzzles, however you are frequently rearranging words to rewrite the rules of the puzzles on the spot. When you form simple sentences by connecting words together, like “rock is push” or “water is hot” they become the rules for the puzzle and by sliding out a word that rule becomes deactivated. For example, if you slide the word “is” out of the phrase “wall is stop” suddenly your character can walk through walls. More astounding than the gameplay, Baba Is You truly understands how far it can take that premise to create amazing puzzles that make you feel like a genius when you conquer them. I loved that I could share puzzles I was stuck on with my friends and family, regardless of their skill with video games, because the ideas behind the best puzzles all had clear logic behind them. Even though I have a long way to go until I truly complete the game, I can’t recommend Baba Is You enough. (Except the puzzle Evaporating River. I solved it, but it broke me.) 

​9: Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Switch)

I always had a fondness for the original Luigi’s Mansion as it was one of the launch titles for the Gamecube, the first console that was truly mine. Luigi’s Mansion 3 however is truly a standout game. Luigi is tasked with exploring a haunted hotel and rescuing his friends and family trapped within with the help of Polterpup and a new Poltergust vacuum. While the hotel is divided into themed floors, you are never kicked out of the action like in Dark Moon. Most remarkably, Luigi is armed with far more abilities than the original game including a stomp, a plunger that he can use to pull things apart or toward him, and Gooigi, a gooey clone of Luigi that can slip through grates and tight spaces to reach places Luigi can’t and with careful coordination can help increase his suction power. While defeating the boss ghosts is the highlight of the game, I also really enjoyed exploring the hotel since there are gems tucked away to discover on each floor. With one odd exception, you have all the abilities to solve the puzzles of the mansion from the start so it is a matter of poking around and figuring out how all the pieces of the puzzles come together.

8: Box Boy and Box Girl (Switch)

I’ve always been a huge fan of Box Boy and his latest game is his best yet. There are three campaigns in the game and while I enjoyed conquering Quby’s solo campaign and the tall box Qudy’s campaign (who can rotate himself to create horizontal and vertical rectangle boxes), the true standout campaign is the tragically short co-op campaign with Quby and Qucy. It’s so fun to solve Box Boy puzzles together with a friend and even though the levels are generally short, they all are interesting challenges that require smart coordination. After I beat it once with one of my best friends, my other best friend and I tackled the same campaign again the next day. This second time we engaged with the scoring system that’s only present after beating the game and in one late night session we S-Ranked every single level and set new high scores on the levels that had already been S-Ranked. The quest for S-Ranks transformed Box Boy from a low-pressure puzzle game into mad dashes through every level where we would rigidly reset if we felt we could cut down our box usage. That second run was a total blast and easily my favorite co-op experience of the year.

7: River City Girls (Switch, also on PS4, Xbox One, and PC)

Back in 2010 I absolutely adored the Scott Pilgrim Vs The World game that was heavily inspired by River City Ransom. When I saw Arc System Works was teaming up with Wayforward to make River City Girls, I knew their collaboration was going to be awesome. I’ve beaten the game three times now, once in single player and twice in co-op, and I can’t get enough. The street brawling feels snappy from the start and I especially love trying to maximize damage with air juggles and nailing perfect parries. While beating up the world and getting experience and money to level up your characters is the main satisfying hook, what I didn’t expect walking in was how funny the game would be. The two main characters are hilarious loose cannons and the weird characters you meet all exude personality. The humor extends into the gameplay too whether it is Kyoko’s thunderous dabbing finishing move, reviving your knocked-out friends by stomping their escaping souls back into their bodies, and attacking foes with the weirder weapons including lightsabers and oversized fish. The bosses all make big impressions (Misuzu, Yamada, and Abobo are my favorites) and I adored the soundtrack so much that I rushed to iTunes after only hearing a few tracks. I really hope River City Girls gets a follow up, but even if it doesn’t, like Scott Pilgrim it will live on fondly in my heart. It’s a classic.

6: Ai The Somnium Files (Switch, also on PS4 and PC)

Ever since 999 released on the DS, I’ve been a huge fan of Kotaro Uchikoshi and his games. Like Zero Time Dilemma before it, I was once again at the first unveiling of his latest game at Anime Expo and I even got to meet him and get his autograph afterwards. Even so, Ai The Somnium Files kind of snuck up on me. At first blush Ai appears to be a very serious story about a serial murder investigation. The most rewarding threads of the game all revolve around that mystery and the key players in it including the main character Date and his roommate Mizuki. Yet it also is incredibly odd all the same when Date and his partner Aiba regularly exchange dumb sex jokes, lame puns, and video game and anime references, and as Date becomes more acquainted with some of the bigger personalities like Tesa and Ota. The lighter and more bizarre elements make the darker material stand in stark contrast and once you begin to start to understand how pieces of the mysteries begin to connect you are in for a wild ride. While the story is the main attraction, I really enjoyed the Ace Attorney style investigation sections that represent the majority of the gameplay and how nearly all of it was fully voiced (Greg Chun gives an awesome performance as Date). The Somnium gameplay which involves walking around strange dream environments and clicking on things is often a drag, but some of the most interesting and memorable intersections of the story happen inside Somnium. After an awesome finale where it all comes together (not to mention the incredible Grand Finale), I can’t wait to see what Uchikoshi will make next.

​5: Control (PS4, also on Xbox One and PC)

I was a huge fan of Alan Wake, so I was excited to check out Remedy’s latest game, Control. Right from the start Control makes a strong first impression thanks to the stark architecture of the Oldest House contrasted against the deep red of the Hiss that twists spaces and corrupts the people within (incidentally, the Hiss is one the dumbest names for evil enemies in a video game). While I wish it was ultimately a little weirder and had more sections that weren’t gunplay driven, I enjoyed exploring the Oldest House and discovering all of the weird objects and stories stored within. That said, the tight gunplay really made Control so much fun to play and it only became better as more movement options are introduced including the dash and hover not to mention the absolute best implementation of telekinesis in a video game. I’m glad the way Control is structured you never truly conquer the Oldest House as new enemies respawn to let you challenge them again and again. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how much I enjoyed the live action elements especially the flashbacks with the former director of the Bureau, Trench, and the video logs left behind by Dr. Darling (Dynamite is the best!). I also have to share how much I thoroughly enjoyed the Ashtray Maze where the gameplay and presentation beautifully comes together to make you feel as awesome as possible. I ultimately enjoyed Control so much that I claimed the Platinum Trophy and I can’t wait for the upcoming DLC to continue the story.

​4: Magia Record (iOS, also on Android)

The hardest game to place on my list was Magia Record, a side story to my favorite anime of all time, Madoka Magica. Magia Record is an RPG gacha game, a genre I thought I was forever done with after I swore it was time to put Kingdom Hearts Union X down after logging in for over 1,000 days. Magia Record encourages a similar daily login commitment, but it couldn’t be more different in terms of actual quality. Magia Record prioritizes story above all else and has never altered its rock-solid gameplay fundamentals. By putting in time you can be just as good if not better than the whales and since the ceiling of stats has never been raised every character and accessory is always relevant. In battle your team of five magical girls fights monsters or other teams on small 3 x 3 grids. Executing each turn is simple, you pick three of five attacks somewhat randomly presented to you (ordering and positioning matters), but as fights drag on you can “Connect” to share attacks and buffs and choose when to activate abilities and devastating Magia attacks. Good decision making is important in most fights, so the simple combat remains engaging. Growing and developing your team is a slow, satisfying process as daily missions encourage and reward you to engage with all of the game systems.

Without question what elevates Magia Record is the heavy focus on the story. Simply put, I love the core cast of characters, I’m invested in the story, and I love how it regularly develops and utilizes the ever-growing extended cast of characters. When you boot up Magia Record you are greeted by your favorite character and have access to the main fully voiced campaign, the Another Story campaign focusing on the five original Madoka characters, lengthy individual character episodes, and regular events that are packed with story. The game strikes a happier overall tone than the original Madoka, but the story is still serious with some brutal cliffhangers. My favorite characters are definitely Iroha (my favorite protagonist of the year), Tsuruno, and Alina and I’m most happy I got Nanoha and Fate on my team during their crossover event and finally have Madoka on my team as well. I’m excited to see the story continue to play out and I’m super excited to be watching the anime right now as well (Shaft’s still the best!). It was over five years since Rebellion came out and I didn’t think I’d ever reconnect with Madoka quite like I have here and that is what makes Magia Record so special.

3: Devil May Cry 5 (PS4, also on Xbox One and PC)

There’s no question the best playing game of the year is Devil May Cry 5. I was already loving the game playing as Nero and V, but the moment you get control of Dante everything changes. Dante has access to four separate styles of combat and multiple weapons you can swap between from standard swords and dual guns to more wild weapons like dual rocket launchers and a motorcycle you can ride and essentially split into two chainsaws. Even playing as Nero and V you feel in total control of any battle as you string together massive combos, but with Dante you truly feel you can make combos your own. While there were a few games on this list I played multiple times, it’s rare when I finish a game that I’m eager to dive right back in, but with DMC5 I immediately played the game again on Son of Sparda because I was not finished yet. I also really enjoyed the Bloody Palace mode that was added after launch because it was just wave after wave of exciting combat encounters and only the best of the awesome bosses to fight. The combat is definitely the main focus of the game and even though I’ve never played a mainline Devil May Cry game before, I really enjoyed the beautiful and crazy over the top cutscenes (Nero and Dante are awesome characters) and the amazing soundtrack (Devil Trigger is my favorite song of the year). I can’t wait for more Devil May Cry after how awesome DMC5 was, so I hope Devil May Cry 6 will happen sooner rather than later.

2: Trails of Cold Steel III (PS4, coming to Switch and PC in 2020!)

If I have to pick one game series that defined the past decade of video games for me it is 100% Falcom’s Trails series. The soon to be ten game strong series are lengthy RPGs that most remind me of the amazing SNES RPGs I grew up with and are amazingly all deeply and directly connected with one another. I was very nervous about Trails of Cold Steel III, the eighth game in the saga, since NISA would be taking over localization duties after they infamously botched Ys VIII’s localization, a relatively simpler Falcom game, across multiple releases (thankfully Ys VIII is finally in good shape). I made my peace with it well ahead of launch, but I was delighted to find it was up to par with XSeed’s stellar efforts where it counted most. I’m also glad the awesome voice cast was almost entirely reunited since they add so much to the experience.

Trails of Cold Steel III once again follows Rean Schwarzer, wonderfully voiced once again by Sean Chiplock, but a few years have passed following the end of Cold Steel II. Rean finally graduated from Thors Miltary Academy and now he assumes the role of a teacher at the newly opened branch campus. Rean is soon put in charge of a new Class VII Special Operations composed of Altina Orion and new characters Kurt Vander and Juna Crawford. Over the course of the game two more characters join the class, the troublemakers Ash and Musse, and you’ll be joined by the original Class VII members and an awesome array of guest party members from Trails in the Sky, the Crossbell games, and the other Cold Steel games. While moving the story forward is important, seeing the constant stream of reunions with playable and nonplayable characters was always delightful and it was amazing just how well the game juggled everything it set out to do over 100 hours. Exploring Erebonia again, this time with a focus on the western half on the country, and seeing all of the factions at war with each other was another highlight of the game.

The gameplay in Trails of Cold Steel III is once again built on solid fundamentals, but Falcom went a little too wild with all of the various subsystems as they give you way too much power. The new Brave Orders system regularly gives your whole party wild buffs, but even more powerful is the Sub-Master Quartz system since you can share some of the most powerful abilities between party members on top of the powerful effects of equipment and accessories. For example, I made sure Kurt, who by default has wildly powerful counter attacks, would have one of the highest evasion rates in the game. Enemies would miss attacking him about 50% of the time and when they did Kurt would counter with 400% percent damage (often enough to one shot standard enemies and wipe out a full eighth of a boss’s health) and by the end of the game he also had a 30% to freeze enemies with every hit which paired well with his many special attacks that hit multiple enemies. Even more absurd I always made sure my party had incredible speed and strong breaking power which led to long stretches of the game where no one could hit me which is boring.

Still I tremendously enjoyed my 102 hours with Trails of Cold Steel III. I savored every bit of the adventure and I was incredibly thorough as I managed to claim all but six trophies. Cold Steel III ends on a wild cliffhanger so I’m excited to see where the series heads next.

1: Kingdom Hearts III (PS4, also on Xbox One)

If Devil May Cry V had my favorite gameplay of 2019 and Trails of Cold Steel III had my favorite story, Kingdom Hearts III was my favorite union of both story and gameplay. It had been nearly 13 years since my favorite Kingdom Hearts game, Kingdom Hearts II, and I was more than ready for another adventure with Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Kingdom Hearts III is an oddly structured game, after exploring seven Disney worlds you head off to the Keyblade Graveyard for the final confrontation with Master Xehanort and the true Organization XIII. Leading up to the final battle you check in with three running plotlines each left unresolved from a previous game. Seeing everything come together is immensely rewarding for someone who has played every Kingdom Hearts game (and other Nomura games) even if the weird redemption arcs for certain villains are bizarre.

While I may have liked the main story to be structured a little differently at launch (imminent DLC will seemingly alter a lot of it), what really surprised me in this game is how excellent the Disney worlds were. The series has finally moved on from its PS2 design roots and has ushered in much larger worlds to explore brought to life with beautiful graphics. The Toy Story world and the Pirates of the Caribbean levels are my standout favorites. I loved exploring the huge toy store and going on a new adventure alongside Woody and Buzz and I couldn’t believe the Pirates of the Caribbean world was essentially a smaller version of my favorite Assassin’s Creed game Black Flag complete with many optional islands to explore and awesome ship battles.

While there is a great variety of gameplay in Kingdom Hearts III, my favorite element of the game might be the combat even if it was a little easy even on Proud mode. The game feels closest to Kingdom Hearts II, but as you attack enemies with your keyblade you’ll gain access to special abilities you can trigger such as extra powerful magic and most interestingly form changes for your keyblade that offer completely different combos like the altered states in Birth By Sleep. Combat is certainly never dull in Kingdom Hearts III as so many special abilities are being fired off and you tear through hordes of enemies. Once again, the numerous boss and event battles provide the most interesting scenarios (there is one fight entirely in the sky in the Pirates of the Carribean world that is super awesome), but I was really pleased to see how each Disney world also adds its own flavor to the combat. My favorite is once again the Toy Story world as there are various robots scattered around the toy store that you can hop in to decimate standard enemies and go toe to toe with other rogue mechs.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Kingdom Hearts III from start to finish and I made sure to do everything possible to claim the Platinum trophy and see the secret ending. Even if it was a bit messy at times, the big emotional moments land and it feels so good to adventure alongside Donald and Goofy again. The final confrontation is so exciting to see play out as all of the characters continue to assemble and I could not believe how insane the secret ending was as director Tetsuya Nomura continues to drag Square and especially Disney along his wild ride. The thirteen year wait between mainline Kingdom Hearts installments was entirely worth it and I can’t wait to start tackling the ReMIND DLC alongside a fresh Critical mode playthrough. Kingdom Hearts III is my favorite game of 2019.

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That concludes my latest blog! I hope you enjoyed it! Definitely feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @JustinMikos to share your thoughts and what games you most enjoyed in 2019!

Below is the full list of games I beat last year in order. Until next time!

2019 Games I Beat

Kingdom Hearts III (Platinum Trophy)
My Girlfriends Is A Mermaid!? (100%)
Trials Rising (Level 50 and DLC)
Dead Or Alive 6
Devil May Cry 5 (Devil Hunter and Son of Sparda)
Baba Is You
Final Fantasy XV Episode Ardyn
Yoshi’s Crafted World (classic 100%)
Anthem
The Princess Guide
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
Box Boy and Box Girl (100%)
Tetris 99
Puyo Puyo Champions
Gato Roboto (100%)
Magia Record
Super Mario Maker 2
Picross S3 (100%)
Umihara Kawase Fresh
Judgment
Control (Platinum Trophy)
Untitled Goose Game
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Switch)
Gears 5
Luigi’s Mansion 3
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle 2.0
Ai The Somnium Files
The Touryst (100%)
Riiver City Girls (Solo and Co-Op!)
Trails of Cold Steel III

Old Games I Finished In 2019

Megaman Legends
Dragon Quest XI
Super Smash Bros Ultimate World of Light
Octopath Traveler (All 32 Chapters)
Super Mario 64 (Replay, 100%)
Mega Man 11
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Fault Milestone One (Switch)
Super Mario Maker 3DS
Journey

After I journey to Anime Expo every year, I enjoy writing and sharing a blog detailing all of my experiences at the show with a focus on the games I played. While I typically lead these blogs discussing the games, I’m actually going to start with detailing my other AX experiences since I had an unusual year that is brief to summarize.

I was having a great time at this year’s show until I suddenly became ill and sadly had to leave both the Aqours concert I was attending and Anime Expo as a whole. I was very disappointed since I was only able to hear three songs in full before I was too sick to continue, but I’m glad I was at least able to hear my favorite song Aozora Jumping Heart live again. I sadly also missed out on a Judgment themed escape room I was planning to tackle with a friend and a movie premiere on the final day (though I learned that one was ultimately capped for premiere fans only).

​Thankfully I still had many good memories and great successes while I was at the show. I was able to get all of my shopping done on the first day (see the above pic) and I was able to attend some very awesome panels, three of which I’d like to highlight here. The first one I especially enjoyed was the Trails of Cold Steel III voice actor panel which featured seven of the game’s voice actors including Sean Chiplock (Rean Schwarzer) and Carrie Keranan (Sara Valestain). I should have known by the high quality voice acting from the first two games that the panel would be super entertaining because everyone on stage clearly cared about the series and thoroughly enjoyed hanging out and talking together. The voice actors performed some cold line readings on stage and shared some of their favorite voice lines. I also thoroughly enjoyed Kotaro Uchikoshi’s panel for Ai The Somnium Files. Uchikoshi was joined by the character artist for Ai, Yusuke Kozaki, who is best known for his work on Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates. It was obvious that the two are good friends and I enjoyed hearing their insights on the creation of the main characters. During the panel Kozaki did a live drawing of two of the characters and it was amazing how much he got done since he was still answering questions and a fire alarm even interrupted the panel halfway through. Perhaps my favorite moment of the panel occurred after Kozaki shared he keeps trying to sneak an SD (very cartoony) character into all of his projects, but he has thus far been rejected. His character morphed into Ota in this game, but if Ai gets a sequel you can blame this panel if an SD character is included as the audience and I cheered Kozaki on to keep pushing to include a cartoony character in a realistic setting.

​My favorite panel turned out to be the Magia Record panel. Magia Record is the new Madoka Magica mobile RPG that is a side story to the original anime and the sequel movie Rebellion. Madoka remains my favorite anime of all time so I really enjoyed that the first fifty minutes of the panel were strictly focused on the voice actresses of Homura and Kyubey, Chiwa Saito and Emiri Kato respectively. The two shared interesting insights into acting as their characters. Chiwa Saito for example tunes her voice for each of Homura’s distinct personalities by practicing saying how she says “Madoka” as each one. Emiri Kato shared her favorite part of voicing Kyubey came during the Rebellion movie as she actually gave over forty different line readings as the various Kyubey that appear in the movie. I really want to finish my latest rewatch of Madoka Magica and Rebellion after hearing them share all of their memories voicing their characters. When the game developers eventually joined the panel, it became fairly standard for a bit, but there was a surprise appearance by the president of Shaft who brought along an in-development trailer for the anime adaption of Magia Record which was very cool to see. The most exciting surprise however was when Chiwa Saito shared a new mainline Madoka anime is coming soon and she will return to voice Homura. It’s been six years since Rebellion, so it was especially exciting to be in the same room as the announcement of the third Madoka story.

​This blog is an excellent opportunity to talk about Magia Record, so I’d like to do so briefly. I had finally stopped logging onto Kingdom Hearts Union Cross after logging in over 1,000 days since it served its purpose of giving me more Kingdom Hearts while waiting for Kingdom Hearts III and since it had evolved into purely auto-battling which is boring. While I had dabbled in other gachas, essentially any game with a prominent lottery component, none ever hooked me as much as KHUX. It’s only been about a month, but Magia Record very much has its hooks in me. As I said earlier, Madoka remains my favorite anime, so Magia Record already had a strong avenue for connecting with me, but it helps tremendously that the writing, story, and combat in Magia Record are all quite good. Unlike Fate/Go, which is also handled by Aniplex, the translation is error-free and enjoyable to read. I really like Iroha, the main character, who is searching for her missing sister Ui and I’ve met some other standout characters like Yachiyo and Tsuruno. There are two gachas in Magia Record that let you pull characters, Memoria (accessories), and materials. There’s surprisingly only a small amount of characters, but it’s neat since each one matters more in battle and because each one has their own multipart character episodes. Battles in Magia Record are simple, but it’s fun building your party and coming up with the best moves for each turn since you have to consider enemy positioning and managing your special attacks and buffs while also hopefully preventing enemies from triggering theirs. Combat shines in the indirect PVP mode, which at least four weeks in is still regularly offering good match ups. I’m eager to keep following the main story (I’ve already cleared all of the launch content) and dive further into the second campaign that follows the five original Madoka characters.

With all of that said, I’m now ready to talk about the games I played at AX this year. I ended up playing eight games this year. One actually just came out, but the rest are mostly coming out in the near future. The games certainly ranged in quality so I have a good deal to cover.

Umihara Kawase Fresh (Switch, out now!)

I was a huge fan of Sayonara Umihara Kawase on 3DS, Vita, and PC so even though I had the game ordered and on the way to my house I still wanted to dabble with it when I saw an empty line. I haven’t gotten my hands on it since, but the game controls just as tight as its predecessor. You once again play as a girl, Kawase, who is armed with a fishing rod that serves as a grappling hook. My demo was from the opening area so it wasn’t too tough yet for a veteran of the series. I often describe the learning process of Umihara Kawase as going about as smoothly as a normal person attempting to be Spider-Man and that will still be true here for new players. I’m curious how the switch from distinct, short levels to a large 2D open world will affect my enjoyment of the game, but the brief demo couldn’t really answer that aside from how easy it is to get lost. I wanted to get in trouble quickly so I initially went in the opposite direction of the arrows placed in the world itself, but then I found I couldn’t find my way back to the objective easily. Still, I’m super excited to dive into my copy soon.

​Azur Lane Crosswave (PS4, 2020)

By far the oddest game I played at AX 2019 was Azur Lane Crosswave. I had time to kill and there was no line, so I decided to give it a try. Azur Lane Crosswave has you assembling a team of three anthropomorphic battleship girls from a selection of thirty to battle actual battleships and airplanes and other battleship girls. Your three characters glide across the surface of the ocean and by locking on to your targets you can strafe around them while shooting them with all manner of bullets and explosives. Aside from basic machine guns, all of the larger attacks are on cooldowns, so it pays to swap between your party members regularly to deal the most damage. I always enjoy dodging in and out bullet hell so I had more fun than I was expecting.

Granblue Fantasy Versus (PS4, 2019)

The tightest game I played this year was certainly Granblue Fantasy Versus, the latest 2D fighting game from my favorite fighting game developer, Arc System Works. I stood in line twice to play two rounds to try to get a good feel for it. I first played as Katalina who I’m familiar with from the anime. Her attacks were fairly straightforward and hit pretty hard. I also played as Charlotta, who was quite short, but moved around fairly quickly. The most interesting mechanic that I avoided is that you can use your special moves easily by pressing a button and a direction (like Smash Bros) instead of using traditional fighting game inputs with the trade off that they have to cool down and will not hit as hard. If I had more time, I would have loved to play more rounds.

Luminous Avenger iX (Switch, PS4, PC, September 26)

I always enjoy checking out what Inti Creates brings to AX every year (I even attended their panel this year) so I was excited to try the new Gunvolt spinoff. Luminous Avenger iX stars Copen, Gunvolt’s rival from the previous game. Copen is an unusual hero for a 2D action game, because in order to deal the most damage you first need to dash into your foes so your drones can lock on and strike them no matter where you are on screen. If you get hit you lose your lock on and if you then fire bullets you’ll dip into your ammo and will be forced to take time to reload. While I blazed through the level I chose thanks to Copen’s amazing mobility, the boss crushed me twice before I ran out of time.

Code Vein (PS4, Xbox One, PC, September 27)

I’ve never been a fan of From Software’s Souls games, but the character design for Namco Bandai’s Code Vein always struck me as cool so I wanted to give it a try. The game is quite a bit faster than Demon Souls (the only Souls game I’ve played) and it seems you have a ton more abilities and healing options readily available which I appreciated. I feel like I played ok during my first two attempts since I was playing as carefully as possible, but my other three or four tries quickly ended in tragedy. My AI partner was a big help, but whenever she died, I’d soon follow. Code Vein is not for me, but I’m glad I was able to try it.

Trails of Cold Steel III (PS4, October 22)

My Trails of Cold Steel III demo flew by. A good deal of it was taken up by excellent voice acting and the rest was primarily filled with combat tutorials. Trails is my favorite modern RPG series, so Trails of Cold Steel III’s combat felt very comfortable to slip into. The menus are much faster to navigate now since every action is tied to a button like Super Mario RPG or Persona 5. I was intrigued that one of the new characters, Juna, had a weapon that could transform to give her more flexibility in combat. Between the demo, the voice actor panel, and the art panel, I’m incredibly excited to dive into the game in October.

Kill La Kill IF (Switch, PS4, July 26)

I was skeptical of Kill La Kill IF walking in since arena brawlers are often very clunky. While the graphics and animation look amazing and capture the energy of Kill La Kill, movement, targeting, and attacks feel sloppy. I tried out one of my favorite characters, Gamagoori, and even though my character was huge, I had trouble reaching my opponent. When my opponent or I would land a hit, we often became trapped by basic combos over and over again, since we didn’t seem to have the tools to escape. Maybe my own fight was a bad match up, but watching others I saw more clumsy fights unfolding. I can’t recommend checking out Kill La Kill IF after trying it myself.

River City Girls (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC, September 5)

River City Girls was my favorite game I played at Anime Expo this year. This game stars the girlfriends of the original two River City heroes, who spring into action when they get a text message saying their boyfriends have been kidnapped. I was able to play co-op with a friend and I had a blast kicking and punching all the punks who opposed us. In the demo we played we had to break out of detention and escape the school. The two main characters constantly remarked on their situation, along with some of our foes, and a lot of the dialogue was often very funny. My favorite detail was apparently the character I was playing as, Kyoko, didn’t even attend the school she was currently breaking out of. While we didn’t get to check out the upgrade system, we still learned new moves as we leveled up including a stomp move that hurt downed enemies and hilariously help us kick each other awake if we got knocked out. We also were able to recruit some of our defeated enemies to call them in for clutch assist attacks which especially helped during the tough boss battle. I can’t wait to play the final game, so I’m glad it is barely a month away.

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That concludes my latest blog! I hope you enjoyed it! If you have any questions about my AX experience or the games I played this year be sure to reach out to me on Twitter @JustinMikos. I always enjoy hearing from my readers!

​This blog was originally posted on my Game Informer Online blog on October 5, 2016. The text has not been updated, but I hope you will still enjoy it as it is one of my favorite blogs. - Justin

For a long time now, I've wanted to write a blog post or feature dedicated to one of my favorite video games of all time, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. While I've written about the game and its sequels frequently across various articles I've written over the last five years, I've never written an entire post fully focused on just how much I love it and why it is so special. On two separate occasions, I've written rough drafts that ultimately went unfinished. This time however, I'm armed with far more experience with not only the original game, but the franchise as a whole. Since my last attempt a year ago, I've fully replayed Trails in the Sky, have finished two of its sequels, and I'm well on my way through the latest game in the franchise. With all of this extensive experience under my belt, I'd like to share not just why I love Trails in the Sky, but Falcom's Trails series as a whole.

​Before I start delving deeper, I'd like to give a brief overview of just what the Trails series is and a little bit of my history with it. Falcom's Trails series is an ongoing RPG series consisting of seven games, with an eighth on the way, that are amazingly all directly and deeply connected to each other. More than any other RPG series today, the Trails series carries on the spirit of the RPG classics I loved growing up like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger while also feeling well up to modern standards even from its very first entry that released in Japan in 2004. As you might imagine from the impressive number of games all connected to each other, the Trails series is always playing the long game when it comes to storytelling even as it also revels in mundane quests and experiences. The series intensely works from the very beginning to build its world as you travel town by town and learn everything about the people that live there including their culture and politics and how it all interconnects with the world at large. When events happen that threaten countries, you'll know how it affects the people you've grown to care about which is why they will matter. Of course, in addition to the series grand narrative ambitions, each arc of the story also focuses on specific casts of characters and their stories are just as fascinating and fun to discover and experience.
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As you might have noticed, I've largely glossed over that the Trails series is part of Falcom's greater Legend of Heroes series, which is also a subset of their Dragon Slayer series, but that's because it doesn't really matter. The Trails game are divorced from the greater series as the world that Falcom started building with Trails in the Sky has nothing to do with any previous Legend of Heroes or Dragon Slayer games.

The eight Trails games cover three separate arcs of the greater Trails story including the Liberl Arc, the Crossbell Arc, and the Erebonia Arc, and there is definitely potential for the story to keep growing beyond that as it covers more countries and characters across the continent. To date, four games in the series have been released in English and one more is on the way. That leaves two games unlocalized while another is still in development. Since it is kind of confusing to discuss otherwise, I've broken down the status of each game in the series in regards to their English releases:

The Liberl Arc

Trails in the Sky (PSP/Vita, PC, 2011)
Trails in the Sky SC (PSP/Vita, PC, 2015)
Trails in the Sky The Third (PC, Coming In 2017)

The Crossbell Arc (Unreleased)

Trails to Zero
Trail to Azure

The Erebonia Arc

Trails of Cold Steel (Vita, PS3, 2015)
Trails of Cold Steel II (Vita, PS3, 2016)
Trails of Cold Steel III (Still In Development)

If you haven't started playing the series I'd encourage you to start with Trails in the Sky and Trails in the Sky SC. These two games follow Estelle Bright as she journeys across her country of Liberl to become a full member of the Bracer Guild which assists civilians in need. Liberl is a small, independent country situated between two larger countries, the Erebonian Empire and the Calvard Republic, but interestingly it holds a technological advantage. While Estelle's journey becomes increasingly grand in scope during her travels, it is grounded by having the focus be on her relationship with her brother Joshua. Of the Trails games I've played so far, both Trails in the Sky and SC (SC stands for Second Chapter) are my absolute favorites. The two games were my 2011 and 2015 games of the year respectively and are of course some of my favorite games of all time. They offer the perfect mix of story and gameplay and I'd especially recommend them to fans of the SNES and PS1 RPGs of old.

Trails in the Sky The Third is coming in early 2017, but don't let that stop you from jumping into either the first two Sky games or the alternate entry point for the series, Trails of Cold Steel. Trails in the Sky and SC are lengthy adventures that tell Estelle's complete story, while The Third focuses on another character introduced in SC, Kevin Graham, and helps further set up both the Crossbell and Erebonia arcs.
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Speaking of the Crossbell arc, as you've read above it is the only arc not translated in English. By the time we received the PSP ports of both Trails in the Sky and SC the PSP was long dead in the West which nixed the chances of us getting the original versions of Trails to Zero and Trails to Azure. The Crossbell arc focuses on members of a police force in the state of Crossbell which wants to claim its independence from both the Empire and the Republic. While XSeed, the publisher of the Trails series in the West, has expressed interest in localizing both games there are various hurdles to be cleared and currently they are still busy with localizing Trails in the Sky The Third. Thankfully, the story of the Crossbell Arc is actually concurrent with the story of the Erebonia Arc which means either arc is good to jump into next from The Trails in the Sky series. 

​Now that I've properly introduced the series, I'd like to focus the rest of this blog on three main pillars of the franchise: combat, characters, and the world.
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While the story is the most remarkable part of the Trails series, the combat is equally entertaining and important as it helps make the games feel all the more substantial. The Trails games all feature turn-based combat that is basically a cross between Final Fantasy X and Chrono Trigger. As in Final Fantasy X you can see the order of battle for both your party members and enemies and similar to Chrono Trigger a lot of your special attacks are affected by your shifting position on the battlefield.

Yet there are two clutch additions to Trails' combat that gives the combat its own unique flavor. First are the bonuses and penalties that are handed out on specific turns such as 10% Strength Up, Critical Hit, and Deathblow. By delaying and interrupting the turn order in battle through your abilities, buffs, and debuffs you can ensure your team gets all of the bonuses and even shift the penalties onto your enemies. The other major feature of the battle system is the CP gauge. Unlike EP which governs Arts (Magic) and is a limited resource, CP gradually increases as you deal and take damage. CP allows you to use powerful character specific abilities and the Limit Break-like S-Crafts that can completely interrupt turn order when you trigger them during an opponent's turn. CP is thus a very flexible resource which allows you to shift the battle in many different ways and helps combat always feel engaging.

Each game in the series introduces new ideas to combat that complement the rock solid foundation established in the first game. Trails in the Sky SC for example introduces the ability for you to initiate a combo attack with one of your party members. Cold Steel takes this a step further by introducing Combat Links that let you pair up characters to deal follow up attacks and cover for each other. Combat Links even tie into the social mechanics where the power of your Combat Links is strengthened by the bonds you develop with your party members during Bonding Events. 

​Of course the best RPGs offer meaningful choices both on and off the battlefield and Trails is no different. Through a combination of equipping the right quartz and accessories you can develop your party members in very interesting ways. Unlike many RPGs I play where I strive for very balanced party members, the interesting perks of Trails' equipment often encourages me to make my strengths even stronger no matter the cost. In Trails in the Sky for example, I strove to make Tita a glass cannon by throwing everything I could into her attack power and upping her CP generation as much as possible. Even though it cost her both defense and Art strength, I felt Tita was a good choice for this because her default grenade launcher could hit multiple enemies at once which already generated a significant amount of CP to begin with. Ultimately my build  allowed Tita to fire off her S-Craft practically every other turn which would annihilate trash mobs and help me disable bosses that much quicker. I appreciate that since you can freely shift your quartz and accessories around between battles you are always able to rebuild and thus can fully explore the potential of the system.

While there are plenty of standout party members, the protagonists of Sky and Cold Steel are especially noteworthy. Estelle Bright is an amazing female protagonist in both Trails in the Sky games and probably my favorite in a video game. She has a ton of personality no matter the situation which always makes her a joy to follow and watching her develop into a leader that inspires others over the course of 120 hours is awesome. Rean Schwarzer from Cold Steel is likewise one of my favorite male RPG protagonists. I love both his normal down to earth personality and the deep passion he displays when he has to fight for something important. I also love how Rean hides secrets from both his friends and the player as it's interesting to control a character you don't always fully understand.

The third and final major pillar of the Trails games I want to discuss is their impressive world that has been developed over the course of seven games. There is an impressive amount of NPCs to interact with that are all named and have their own quirks and stories to tell as well as a ton of history and lore to discover during your adventures. Each Trails game has you visiting towns, filled with their own histories, cultures, and people and it is always a joy to explore them as thoroughly as possible. While talking to NPCs to gather information is important, especially as a lot of the quests in the Trails games rely on your knowledge of the areas you are exploring to complete them, I mainly enjoy checking in on them regularly since they always react to the latest events and offer new insights. I love that the dialogue in conversations adapts if you have gained information ahead of time as it makes your actions more personal. What is most fascinating though is that in both Sky and Cold Steel the relationships you forge in their first entries can be transferred over into their sequels which grant various rewards and even additional quests that further expand your relationships.
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While all of the Trails games feature stories that become increasingly epic as they progress, I really appreciate that Falcom gives equal attention to the more mundane parts of their adventures as well. While a lot of this is found in the contents of quests, such as every game featuring a quest about changing a light bulb, there are also plenty of fun activities that reinforce this as well. All of the Trails games feature fishing minigames for example and most task you with filling out a fishing journal by catching every type of fish in the land. Subsequent games each introduce new activities such as Cold Steel's card game, BLADE, that has since appeared in other Falcom games, and Cold Steel II's snowboarding. Perhaps my favorite feature of the Trails games that focus on fleshing out the world though are the various in-game books and newspapers you can read. While some books are unfortunately obtuse to collect, the often lengthy stories span a wide range of genres and amusingly are frequently referenced by characters in the world. My favorite book in the series thus far, Red Moon Rose, is a 300+ page adventure about hunting vampires and was entertaining enough that I made sure to go out of my way to collect and read every chapter. 

​That more or less wraps up my thoughts on why I love Falcom's Trails series. They are deeply personal adventures, with amazing characters, excellent battle systems, and a world that is one of the most developed in video games. If you love RPGs, especially from the SNES and PS1 era, I cannot recommend the Trails games enough. They are easily some of my favorite games of all time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6: Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion (Switch)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3: Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4)

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

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

​2: Spider-Man (PS4)

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

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

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

1: Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch)

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

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

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

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

2018 Games I Beat

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

Old Games I Beat in 2018

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

​In the lead up to each new Smash Bros game, the one thing many fans and I care about the most is the final roster of playable characters. Back in June it was revealed that the latest Smash Bros game, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, would bring back every character that has ever been playable in the series, so any additional characters joining the roster would be brand new to the series. While series director Masahiro Sakurai said not to expect too many new characters as a result, eleven new characters are joining the roster at launch with another character, Piranha Plant, joining the roster as free DLC a few months later. Seventy-five characters is a tremendous amount to choose from, but that’s not the end of it, as the Fighter Pass DLC will add another five characters who each come with a stage.

In the lead up to launch I had thrown out a list of characters I wanted to see join on Twitter, but with the news that each character would also come with a stage I wanted to rethink the characters I wanted to join. Since the Fighter Pass was announced earlier this month, Sakurai confirmed all five DLC characters on the pass have been decided from a short list provided by Nintendo. Honestly I’m not sure what to make of that information as Smash 4’s DLC was Nintendo’s best selling DLC of all time and it featured three third party characters and only one brand new first party character. Keeping that in mind, I’m not sure a list from Nintendo would only include first party characters so basically any video game character is on the table as far as I’m concerned.

In this blog I’d like to share nine characters I most want to see as DLC in Smash Ultimate alongside a potential stage and music selections. My personal hope is that a second fighter pass will follow the first and that other content such as echo fighters and new or returning stages will release regularly. I’ve written before that I’ve hoped Smash 5 would become a platform for Smash throughout the Switch’s life and I think it has a truly fantastic base to build upon. With all of that said, let’s get to it!

​Elma (Xenoblade X)
Stage: Mira
Music: Uncontrollable, Don’t Worry, Wir Fliegen

The character I most want to see in Smash Ultimate is Elma from Xenoblade Chronicles X. As of this writing, with Smash Ultimate not in my hands, it seems there is a significant gap in Xenoblade X content in the final game. There is no playable character, no Xenoblade X stage, nor does it appear there are any Xenoblade X songs on the Xenoblade stage, which is a shame. Xenoblade X features a custom avatar character as the main character you play as, but the main character of the story is undoubtedly Elma. She primarily fights with a mix of two swords and guns in Xenoblade X, but she also prominently pilots the giant robots known as Skells as well, which could factor into her Final Smash attack. I kind of forgot how cool a character Elma was until I recently played the Xenoblade 2 DLC that featured her alongside Shulk and Fiora. What I haven’t forgotten though is how amazing the world of Mira is or how awesome Hiroyuki Sawano’s soundtrack is. Alongside Elma, I’d love to have a level with a set platform that takes a tour of Primordia as Uncontrollable blares in the background.

​Andy (Advance Wars)
Stage: Warzone
Music: Andy’s Theme, Jake’s Theme

I don’t understand how there have been five Smash Bros games so far and still no Advance Wars content outside of an assist trophy in Brawl. The series dates back to the NES/Famicom with Famicom Wars and saw multiple installments on the Game Boy Advance and DS and a spinoff series with Battalion Wars on the Gamecube and Wii. DLC is a good place to rectify this by adding Andy from Advance Wars as a playable character. I imagine Andy using his wrenches for melee attacks, but I think where he would most stand out is his special attacks that could focus on building things like tanks, turrets, drones, or motorcycles. Like Snake, I imagine he would also be able to plant mines in the field. I have two ideas for a warzone stage that could represent the series. While I’d like to see Advance Wars brought to life in 3D, it would be pretty cool to have a 2D sprite-based war raging in the background. My other idea is to incorporate a king of the hill-like mechanic to represent capturing buildings. The stage would have to be fairly large for that, but it would be unique in Smash and play well with Andy’s construction skills.

Dixie Kong (Donkey Kong)
Stage: Pirate Ship
Music: More Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze Songs

While I was happy to see King K. Rool make the cut for Smash Ultimate, I can’t believe he got in ahead of Dixie Kong. I’ve wanted Dixie for a long time since I think her hair has a lot of potential for a unique moveset. It can easily be useful for both throws and recovery skills and be used in some direct attacks as well. I’d also like to see Dixie’s guitar be available as part of her normal techniques rather than regulated to a Final Smash. I’m honestly not too set on a stage or music to accompany Dixie, but I most associate her with the pirate theme of Donkey Kong Country 2 and I’d like to see more Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze songs make the cut in general.

Tsubasa Oribe (Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE)
Stage: Shibuya
Music: Reincarnation, Beastie Game

I’ll be up front here, I’m mainly pushing for Tsubasa to be playable in Smash because I really want a Tokyo Mirage Sessions stage in Ultimate with a handful of the best vocal songs including absolutely for sure Reincarnation. The game has a ton of slick, vibrant style which would translate well to a Smash arena whether they go for an outdoors Shibuya arena (my personal pick) or the regular battle stage. That said I think Tsubasa would be a cool character in Smash. Thus far, there still isn’t a single spear wielder in Smash so she would be unique there. She’d also have access to all of her special attacks and classic Shin Megami Tensei magic. I would like to see some SMT/Persona representation in Smash as well, but I think Tokyo Mirage Sessions should be considered first and Tsubasa is a strong pick to represent the game.

Banjo (Banjo Kazooie)
Stage: Spiral Mountain
Music: Main Title, Spiral Mountain

While most of the third party characters in Smash have good history with Nintendo (Cloud infamously less so), there is one set of characters yet to join that make perfect sense: Banjo and Kazooie. The bear and bird duo starred in two of the N64’s biggest adventures and probably would have been in Smash sooner had Nintendo not let Mircosoft buy Rare and its IP. While they are competing first party video companies, there doesn’t seem to be any bad blood between the two. In fact, Nintendo has one of Microsoft’s biggest games, Minecraft, on their platform and Nintendo even allowed crossplay between Microsoft’s versions and the Switch version. Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s game studios, has expressed his interest multiple times in seeing Banjo and Kazooie in Smash. As for a moveset, Banjo punches and kicks his foes and Kazooie can peck at them and shoot eggs out of her mouth for long range attacks. I’m not particularly attached to any one stage, so a flyover stage seems like a good idea or one that just rotates around Spiral Mountain.

Linkle (Hyrule Warriors)
Stage: Hyrule Field
Music: Hyrule Field (Guitar)

Hyrule Warriors was one of the standout games on Wii U and one of its most interesting new characters was Linkle. I’ve never been particularly attached to having Link as a male character since he is more of an avatar, but I really liked what Tecmo Koei came up with for Linkle. She is a distinct character on her own journey, who exudes enthusiasm, and while she may frequently get lost, she always winds up where she is needed. Since she originated from a Dynasty Warriors game, it’s no surprise she’s ready to fight, but she does so with unique style. She dual wields crossbows and the Pegasus Boots in a way that looks like she is doing kung fu. She also regularly uses bombs with abandon which might be trickier to fit in, but would be perfect for a Final Smash. If Linkle does make the cut, one of her taunts should let you swap between having her hood on or not.

Saki Amamiya (Sin And Punishment)
Stage: Destroyed Tokyo
Music: Urban Ruins, Blackheart

Saki was my favorite assist trophy back in Brawl and Smash 4 and I’ve always hoped he’d be promoted to a playable character. I’m a big fan of the two Sin and Punishment games as they are incredibly challenging shooters with so many over the top boss fights. There may be a lot of sword users in Smash, but Saki’s sword can switch between being a sword for melee combat and a gun for long range fighting which is a cool distinction. I think it would be important to have a special sword attack that can reflect projectiles as that is a major mechanic of both Sin and Punishment games. Saki’s Final Smash should incorporate his Godzilla-like monster form. If Saki is chosen, I’d like to see the destroyed Tokyo from the first game be the stage since it is so striking, but they should heavily pull the songs from Star Successor which has a more diverse OST.

Geno (Super Mario RPG)
Stage: Bowser’s Castle
Music: Fight Against Monsters, Fight Against Culex

We’ve been teased by Geno in Smash for too long for nothing to come of it. There was a Geno model left behind on the Brawl disc and in Smash 4 there was a Geno Mii costume as DLC. I grew up with Super Mario RPG and I’ve always wanted to see a character from Mario’s RPG adventures become a playable character in Smash and Geno is one of the strongest candidates. Geno is armed with guns and rockets and has access to powerful spells that see him shoot out laser beams and throwing whirling discs of energy. I’d like to see his Final Smash be based off of Geno Blast which sees rainbow columns of light smite enemies from the sky. While the chandeliers in Bowser’s Castle could make a cool arena, I’d prefer a battle on the hill that overlooks the castle with the sword sticking out of it. I definitely need Fight Against Monsters in as a song, the basic battle theme of Super Mario RPG, and I’d like to see Fight Against Culex make the cut since it is not so secretly the Final Fantasy IV boss battle theme and we need way more Final Fantasy music than we have.

Goku (Dragon Ball Z)
Stage: World Martial Arts Tournament
Music: Cha-La Head Cha-La, Genkai Toppa X Survivor

For a long time, getting Final Fantasy’s Cloud in Smash Bros was a longshot dream. Even though many third party characters had come before him, Cloud’s inclusion in Smash 4 as DLC was shocking. I think with Smash Ultimate, it is time to dream again and start asking for the next seemingly forever unlikely character: Goku from Dragon Ball. Both Sakurai and the Smash community love to come up with rules for why characters can’t join the roster, but time and time again the goal posts get shifted as characters who seemingly never should be allowed join the fight. Goku may have originated in a manga, but he is certainly no stranger to video games or Nintendo platforms as his most recent game, Dragon Ball FighterZ, attests to. Goku is a martial artist first and foremost and many of his special attacks like the Kamehameha lend themselves to special moves. I’m not especially attached to any particular arena for Goku, but the World Martial Arts tournament stage seems like a safe bet and lends itself to character cameos in the background. If Goku joins, I’d hope they could snag some anime songs (Cha-La Head Cha-La and Genkai Toppa X Survivor are musts) and iconic sound effects to help bring Goku to life. If there is one thing that makes me hopeful that including Goku is easier than it seems, Bandai Namco is in charge of all of the Dragon Ball games and they are the developers of Smash Ultimate. If anyone could help Goku transition into Smash Bros seamlessly, it’s Namco Bandai.

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Thanks for reading my latest blog! I hope you enjoyed it! I’m always curious what you think of my blogs so feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @JustinMikos. While you are there, be sure to share what characters you’d like to see become playable in Smash Bros. Until next time!

- Justin