Top Ten Games of 2017

I can say without any hesitation that 2017 was one of the best years of all time in terms of video game releases. What makes it even better is that the real world events of 2017 were depressing to say the least, so it was nice to look to my hobby for new levels of happiness and quality. Video games rule, and I'm glad.

As usual I will be listing my top ten games of the year in descending order. Please keep in mind that these are my opinions based on games I personally completed in 2017.


10. Digimon World: Next Order

The original Digimon World was ahead of its time, and was truly a one of a kind game. Raising Digimon in an open world didn't happen again until now.

Next Order brings back the city building and Digimon raising that I love, but this time you raise TWO at the same time. I lost countless hours of sleep to this game, and I hope they continue using this formula.





9. Gravity Rush 2

Gravity Rush got its start on the Vita, which means it was pretty much DOA. Despite a rough start the game garnered enough of a following to garner a sequel that improves upon the original in almost every way.

Once again you control Kat, the Gravity Queen as you fly through the air using your magical Gravity powers. The world is larger, and the mechanics work a lot better than before. Sadly the story is wrapped up, so we might not get to see another.




8. Hollow Knight

Metroidvania games have been wearing out their welcome for me recently, but Hollow Knight pulled me right back in. Team Cherry has manages to create a beautifully bleak world that's surprisingly fun to explore.

You play a little bug knight with a nail as you explore a long abandoned kingdom. The combat initially seems a bit mashy, but I eventually got into a rhythm and enjoyed it a lot.




7. Nier: Automata

I feel like I'm one of the few people who played the original Nier, and am one of the even fewer people who actually liked it. Due to that fact I put off playing Automata for a lot longer than I should have, because I was worried that the hype would fall flat for me. It didn't.

While the combat wasn't the best, it was serviceable. What drew me in was the crazy existentialist story of a few androids. The themes and questions that Automata bring up are absolutely crazy.




6. Yakuza 0

I fell into the Yakuza franchise during its third entry and I have loved it ever since. What's crazy to me is that this is the entry when the series finally blew up in the West. The story goes back to the 1980's when the Japanese real-estate market was blowing up, and a young Kazuma Kiryu is just starting his Yakuza career.

You get to see characters you've known for years in a brand new context. On top of that it introduces many new combat styles to keep it feeling fresh.




5. Pyre

What I like about SuperGiant games is that each one of their games have been different. Bastion was an action game, Transistor was turn based strategy, and now Pyre is a visual novel mixed with a weird fantasy sport.

I thoroughly enjoyed dunking my way across the Downside in an attempt to rescue my fellow teammates from their banishment. I'd give more context, but it would ruin the experience for you. Just know that it's a well developed world, and the part where you play a sport is fun.



4. Super Mario Odyssey

Mario is the first video game I ever owned, which is why I think Odyssey is so special. To me it feels like the culmination of everything Nintendo has been working towards with Mario since its inception. It manages to be an excellent new adventure while paying homage to the days of old. I teared up a few times.

It feels like you want a Mario game to feel, and it's so awesome that you can possess enemies with your magical hat. Odyssey rules.




3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Breath of the Wild is a reinvention of the classic Zelda formula that still manages to hold onto what makes people consider something to be a Zelda game. The open world is immense and filled with a lot to see.

What's amazing is that it made exploring an open world fun for me again. It's not overly concerned in funneling you towards all the coolest content, and lets you discover the secrets the world has to offer on your own. Even more importantly is that it proves Nintendo can renew their old formulas.



2. Persona 5

Persona 5 is exactly the JRPG I wanted it to be. Even though people seemed to turn on it relatively quickly I still think it's great. I like the characters, world, and story. Don't even get me started on how amazing the music is.

Yes, it should have come out in Winter of 2014. However, the game we got was well worth the wait.




1. Night in the Woods

I found out about this game from a random ad on the PS4 store and I'm so glad I did. It's an adventure game about a cat named Mae who has dropped out of college and returned to her home town. She realizes that everything is both simultaneously the same and very different. Something strange is going on and it's up to you to figure it out. All I can say is that you should probably play this game.

Game Time - February 2017

Normally I find a break in my free time to write these at the end of every month, but the past few times I have had to stop playing a dope video game in order to do so. You might see that as a complaint, but it's definitely not. All it means is that awesome video games have been coming out at a rapid clip!

I only played two new games in February, because the ones I played in January were super long, and I had to continue playing those as well. I ended up beating both Gravity Rush 2, and Yakuza 0. They were both excellent and I would highly recommend them. I'm only going to talk about Yakuza 0 again this month though, because a lot of interesting stuff happened after my initial few hours with it.

Like I said last month Digimon World: Next Order came out the last day of January and I played it a TON. I thought the original Digimon World was super cool and ahead of its time, and this new game continues to be super great! 

As a surprise to me I also ended up playing all the way through Night in the Woods. I did it in two play sessions, because I was so engrossed by the world. I found out about it a few months ago from an ad on the PlayStation blog, but completely forgot it was coming out in February. Lucky for me I had some credit sitting on my PSN account, so I was able to pick it up. 

It's game time!

Yakuza 0

Last time I talked about Yakuza 0 I had only played a few hours of it. Now that I have completed it, I can say for certain now that it is my favorite Yakuza game. The story picks up quite a bit, and it doesn't have the insane pacing problems that a lot of the other games have. The previous Yakuza games were much less savage than this one. I think that the 80's setting allows the story to be a little bit more vicious, because Kiryu and Majima are technically not fully established at that time. Like the previous games in the franchise it goes on for a long time, but unlike the others I never found myself lamenting that it overstaying its welcome.

The main reason I'm writing about this again is because I had not played the two central mini-games. When you're Kiryu you become a real estate mogul. The goal is to take over five areas of Kamurocho that are being held by a group called the Five Billionaires. You do this by going around to buildings to purchase them. You can then upgrade them to raise their profitability. This is almost done entirely through menus. Since there are five districts you need to assign them managers and bodyguards. The managers will raise or lower the profitability of an area, while the bodyguard will keep thugs from stopping your progress in money collection. It sounds complicated at first, but once the initial setup is complete all you do is wait for a bar to fill up and then collect your money. This allows him to get stupidly rich, which makes it very easy to upgrade all of his combat skills. 

Buy ALL the real estate. 

Majima's mini-game has him managing a cabaret club (Hostess Bar). In order to do so you need to recruit ladies from around the city to work for you. Once recruited they will have stat values, and abilities that can increase as you use them for work. This game is a little more involved, but you are locked into it for around five minutes at a time. There are six tables in the club and people come and sit down. You assign them a hostess based on their likes, and the more they like them the more money they will spend. Issues can arise, and you have to help the hostess by guessing the correct menu option. It's not super deep, but it is definitely more involved than Kiryu's. However, he makes waaaay less money. They're both interesting additions to an already feature rich franchise. Like I said, if you have liked any of the previous Yakuza games you have to play Yakuza 0. 

Digimon World: Next Order

Last year I played the original Digimon World for the first time. In fact, I recorded a podcast about it. In my opinion it was way ahead of its time with a lot of the elements present in it. Digimon World: Next Order is essentially that same game from many years ago, but with a ton more in it. As someone who thought the first game was really cool, I really like Digimon World: Next Order. I found myself with the two days following the game's release. This led to me playing it until 6AM two consecutive days in a row while drinking way too much Red Bull. Now that I work full time I tend to not do that kind of thing much anymore, but the game's core loop took a hold of me in a way I didn't expect.

In Digimon World you raise a Digimon from its inception to its death. In Next Order you raise TWO Digimon at the same time. It doesn't sound very different, but it makes things a little more complicated. Both of the creatures won't necessarily like the same foods or sleep at the same times so it adds new challenge to the old formula. Outside of that it's essentially the same concept as the original game. Your Digimon need to eat, and go to the bathroom. If you don't take them to the toilet they'll go right in the ground and if you don't feed them they'll get angry. In order to train them you take them to the gym and pick the stats you want to increase. It's kind of like Monster Rancher if anyone has ever played that. Days are limited, so you have to manage your time between training and exploring.

Now you have TWO Digimon!

The world is huge and very fun to explore. As you traverse you'll find Digimon who used to live in the main city. Most of them can be recruited by meeting certain objectives. Once they go back to the city they will open a shop, or offer some type of service to you. I love this kind of mechanic in games. The thing that bothered most about the game was the combat difficulty. It starts off fine enough, but by the end game enemies are so strong they're almost impossible to defeat. Even with almost maximum stats on both Digimon it is now a challenge for me to defeat most regular enemies. Don't even get me started on bosses... Since the battles are mostly AI controlled sometimes the Digimon do really dumb things, but that comes with the territory. With that said I still really liked the game. It got its hooks deep into me. 

Night in the Woods

I was browsing the PlayStation blog to check out the new releases and saw an article about Night in the Woods.It captured me immediately, and I decided I was going to get it. I am very glad I got it. If you haven't seen it the only way I can describe it is an adventure game where all the people are animals. You play as Mae Borrowski, a 20 year old cat who dropped out of college. She has come back to her home town of Possum Springs to find things very much the same, but different at the same time. It is an adventure game, so the crux of the gameplay is to look around the environment and talk to people. The town is small enough and the characters are interesting enough that you'll want to look at every nook and cranny. You traverse the world by platforming around the sidescrolling map. It's odd, because you never really have to platform. You can get to some special events that way, but most of the time there's really not a reason for it.

These are the central figures in the story.

This game resonated with me in a way that I definitely didn't expect. It delves deep into mental issues and depression in a way that most games don't. It's expertly written and the art is top notch. In the end I found myself wanting to play through it again, but just haven't had any time for it yet There is a ton of stuff you can miss, but it's only necessary to get a sense of the characters and the world. Anything to do with the overarching mystery you'll be funneled into eventually. It's weird, because in the end the real plot kind of let me down. What made me fall in love with the game is the way it doesn't tell you a whole lot, but fills in the gaps through dialogue and interaction with the environment. 

As usual with this type of game the story is the entire thing, so I'm not going to talk about it a whole lot more. If you're into well written dialogue and dope art, then you should play this game. I will probably write a more in depth piece on this in the future.

Switch Time

I picked up the Switch this past Thursday night, and I absolutely love the thing! I LOVE IT! It's exactly what I wanted it to be, except for the part where there are like two games I want to play on it at the moment. That means that you can expect me to talk all about the Switch and Zelda for the next edition of game time. 

Other than that Mass Effect Andromeda will be out, which I still find myself not believing. The marketing has been so sparse for it up to this point that I have yet to properly process that it's even coming out. They're ramping up the marketing now, so it's probably going to come out right on time. I am very ready for a new Mass Effect, so I bet I'll be very excited. 

I have to get back to playing Zelda for obscene amounts of time, so I'll see you next time!