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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Super Mario Sunshine (2002: GameCube, Switch)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

25: Fortune Street (Wii)

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

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

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

23: Mario Kart 8 (Wii U and Switch)

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

22: Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

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

21: Perfect Dark (N64 and Xbox 360)

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

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

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

19: Kirby Super Star (SNES)

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

18: Xenoblade (Wii, New 3DS)

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

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

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

16: Super Mario RPG (SNES)

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

15: The World Ends With You (DS)

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

14: Metroid Prime (Gamecube, Wii)

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

13: Kingdom Hearts II (PS2, PS3)

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

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

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

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

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

10: StarCraft / StarCraft II (PC)

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

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

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

8: Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, PS3)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

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

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

9: Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

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

8: Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)

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

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

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

​6: Trails From Zero (PC)

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

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

5: 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (PS4)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2: Magia Record (Formerly on iOS and Android)

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

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

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

1: Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

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

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

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

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

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

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

2020 Games I Beat

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

Old Games I Beat In 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Trails to Azure (PC, 2021)

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

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

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

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

​Sports Story (Switch, 2021)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Monolith Soft Game (Switch, 2021?)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kingdom Hearts 2022? (PS5, 2022?)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!