Listen, I'm old. I could die at any moment. This was easily my worst year ever as far as finishing games goes. My Dominion ranking also tanked, and I wasn't even able to compete in the big tournament this time. Taking care of a one year old, teaching four classes, and gaming: pick 1.5. You can't do much more. Still, I tried. I "finished" 5 games this year. I'm maybe 1/20 of the way through Dragon Quest XI and have had it since release day. I don't anticipate finishing it in 2019 either, sadly. I'm also playing Fire Emblem IV on my phone, which has been enjoyable. I'm telling you all this in case any of my opinions on these games seem outlandish. This is the state I'm in. Have pity on my soul.
5. Doki Doki Literature Club
I imagine if anyone really cared about my opinions on games, I would get some flack for this, but I just wasn't fazed by or impressed by this game at all. Maybe it's because I have seen the Shyamalan twist thing done so many times in recent games, or maybe this game actually did it as poorly as I suspect. Yeah, sorry if it's a spoiler to you that this game has a twist to it. It starts out as a generic dating sim with some hints that weird stuff is going on, then at some point weird things happen, and then honestly the rest of the game lost my interest. The dating sim portion of the game is the longest part, and it's extremely vapid and tired by design, but being by design doesn't excuse just how vapid it is. I didn't care about any character in this game. Didn't even take any glee in it when bad stuff started happening to them. If you want to play a better game in this vein and haven't played them already, try Undertale, Ghost Trick, 999, or Nier! I loved those games a lot, and they tickle the same buttons this one was attempting to. I'm probably less impressed with DDLC because games like those exist already. I can understand somebody who isn't normally exposed to postmodernist elements in games being impressed by this.
4. Dragon Quest Monsters
So, I tried for a while to get the 3DS remake with fan translation working and eventually had to give up on it; I ended up playing the original version instead. It's perhaps unfair to judge this game on the terms I'm going to, as I have to imagine the remake is more palatable. Conceptually, I'm very enamored with this game--it's monster collection with Dragon Quest gameplay, and seems to have much more depth than the Pokemon titles released around the same time. I liked the breeding system as well, and I think if I had played the game to completion, I might have really enjoyed it. It was also cool hearing all the world map themes from DQ I-VI in Game Boy sound format. The problem with this game is a simple design choice that made it nearly impossible for me to enjoy playing, and in retrospect, this is really funny. The developers placed "auto-battle" as the default battle option and made it so you have to go down two options to select attacks. Perhaps I'm fickle, but I really hate letting an AI control fights for me in a game like this. This problem is compounded by the controls being a bit finicky; I was consistently accidentally hitting the auto-battle command even when I didn't want to, which led to death in several boss fights. I had to start save stating every turn to try and avoid this. Eventually, I got sick of fighting the controls and quit playing. Stuff like this shows how important remapping is for games; I actually think Pokemon RBY is superior to this game almost strictly because you can move menu options around in battle. Not everyone plays games the same way, and it adds a lot of accessibility when you allow some control customization for players. If I can ever get the remake working on my PC, I will give it a go again some time. (Okay, that's idealistic)
3. Deltarune (demo)
It's more Undertale, and I'm not complaining. Come for the jokes, stay for the feels. I am less sold on the characters this time around, but to be fair, this is only the first chapter, and I am nonetheless intrigued about where it's going. Many questions filled my head when I finished this thing, and I think it will be a fantastic game when/if Fox finishes it. I have mixed feelings on the upgraded battle system. I want to see what gets done with it, and having multiple party members definitely opens the door for interesting new types of fights, but it also means more clicking through menus and downtime. We'll have to see. Either way, I totally think it's worth doing, and this is easily one of my most anticipated games for the future.
2. Nier: Automata
It was pretty good, but I must say I enjoyed the first game more despite popular consensus. If I had to put a finger on why, it was the cast. Weiss and Kaine added so much needed humor and pathos; the pods in Automata didn't accomplish the same for me. 9S was a cute character, but I never felt any attachment to 2B or A2, and enjoyed Pascal more than any of the main cast. I appreciate this game's ruminations on the meaning of existence (to be or not to be; cliche, but a clever reference. 9S being a reference to Sonnet 9 and A2 to Julius Caesar was also neat), particularly in a post-humanity context, but it's the kind of stuff that was more interesting to think about and read comments about after playing than it was to experience in-game. I do applaud Yoko Taro for attempting a game with this crazy of a concept and actually succeeding for the most part, but I don't think I would want to play or read another story with an all-android cast after this. I guess I might consider that praise for the game in some sense.
As for gameplay, the combat wasn't any better than OG Nier's (not that it was impressive or anything). Mostly it just involved mashing buttons. Using magic in Nier was more satisfying than anything in Automata. You don't get anything as cool as the Dark Hand spell in that game. After a while I turned on the option to let the game play itself because I was bored. Souls has really killed most other action games for me. There's nothing compelling about this type of gameplay to me anymore. I found myself rushing through the actual game to get to the next story scene.
Oh, and the soundtrack, while quite good, also didn't quite measure up to the original. Not that I'm complaining; it's still great stuff. I particularly liked the arcadey versions of songs that happened during hacking segments.
I am happy that this game got so much critical recognition, regardless of my feelings. Yoko Taro deserved to have some victories.
1. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
This sure is Super Smash Bros. Better than Melee? Ehhh... we'll see, but I don't think so. I think it's the best one since Melee, though. Honestly, the best thing about it is that it's finally on a system that makes it possible to play when you'd like to. You can take the Switch anywhere and easily let friends join in or play it while waiting on your Frappucino. Too bad I have to hide the thing from my son...
(Incidentally, as of this posting, I still haven't unlocked all the characters. haha)
