It's been a long time since I talked about games. Played a handful in the last five years, but fatherhood has made it complicated. Here are the games I played in the last 5 (6?) years in ranked order.
16. Dragon Quest Tact
No longer exists LOL
15. HuniePop 2
It just wasn't as good as the first one bruh. Way too focused on being porn instead of endearing me to the cast. In the original, I actually wanted to finish every character's ending, but here I didn't care about them at all. The new gameplay stuff was also a real mixed bag.
14. To the Moon
An indie "classic" I never got around to. I thought it was... average? It didn't hit me emotionally like a lot of people claim it does for them. Maybe I've seen the type of love story in this play out in enough media that I'm just jaded. I disliked the main characters immensely. Somehow I'm still interested in the sequels because the premise of going into people's memories and fixing stuff for them is compelling enough.
13. In Stars and Time
This game got compared to Undertale a lot so I tried it. It's a time loop story where you try to figure out how to stop the loop. My problem with the game is that enjoying it is fairly dependent on finding the characters endearing, but I never felt any connection with them to be honest. The story is framed in a way that you are coming in after they have saved the world or something and they already know each other, but I felt like I really needed more context as the game progressed to appreciate them. It puts a bit too much trust in the player, basically. After completing the game (which was pretty tedious) I felt like it didn't answer enough questions about the villain and various other elements of the game, but I didn't care enough to speculate on them either. I could see it being someone's favorite game, but I was disappointed.
12. Baba is You
An impressive puzzle game that I am way too stupid for. I got through a big chunk of it before getting tired of beating my head against the wall. It's cute.
13. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Final Bar Line
Final fantasy music is good man
12. Final Fantasy XVI
When I first played this, I thought it was really nice and I was mostly positive with just a few flaws noted. But now I would consider it possibly the most forgettable Final Fantasy game and honestly just very dull as far as action titles go. I think this game's combat and progression are far too simplistic for an action game in a world with Soulsborne and even stuff like Kingdom Hearts around. The story, despite being "dark" and "mature" felt a bit hollow to me. I know this doesn't matter to everyone, but one of the things I genuinely like about most Final Fantasy games is that they are mostly family friendly, but this one feels pretty alienating to the core appeals of the franchise.
11. Fire Emblem (Famicom)
I was genuinely surprised by how playable this game was, even though it was dreadfully slow and missing a ton of stuff that's in later games. I really liked how Marth is like a lightning rod for enemy attacks; it added some interesting tactical elements to the game that do make it unique from other Fire Emblem titles. The soundtrack rules.
10. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (in progress)
I like a lot of things about this game. A lot of stuff is really cool at the moment it happens, like finding the Master Sword and exploring the Depths the first few times. But after a while this game feels like busy work in a way that BOTW never even came close to. The thrill is kinda gone and I'm just trying to complete a laundry list of tasks. The other thing I noticed is that so many NPCs say what could be said in one text box in 10-20. Funnily, BOTW made me remember what the promise of old games was with its open world and call to adventure, while TOTK is making me realize we lost a lot of the immediacy of older games that isn't coming back.
9. Slay the Spire
It's sort of an evolution of Dominion's deckbuilding, but with RPG-like combat. I played the game on and off for a few years and beat it at the highest difficulty on all characters, but it's funny how looking back I feel like the experience was a bit empty. I don't think I would ever touch it again despite the hundreds of hours spent.
8. Sekiro
In some ways it's my least favorite of the Souls games, mostly because it lacks any kind of real build variety and the combat is 'solved' once you learn to deflect properly, but that whole process is the core of the game. Aesthetically it's nice and jumping around and grappling is a ton of fun.
7. Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals
I was surprised how much I ended up liking this game; I think it might be one of my favorite Fire Emblem games. The difficulty is high and it really doesn't mess around, yet it's simple like the other GBA games, which are my preference to this day. A very expansive game to say the least; I wasn't expecting the number of chapters and how much it would kick my butt.
6. Super Mario Odyssey
It's still just jumping on stuff only now you can jump on a lot more stuff and the jumping feels better than it's ever felt. Just a really fun game, but I wouldn't say it's super special.
5. Metroid Dread
There isn't much to say other than that this is a worthy follow-up to Fusion. It takes Metroid into a more difficulty-focused action game direction, but I didn't mind that so much. I am honestly more excited to see what they do with Metroid after this game than anything else.
4. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Believe it or not I think this game is massively overrated, in part because it's so limited in variation after a while and you basically get the same rewards for everything you do. I'm also not a fan of how the story totally shifts gears in the second half, and the main reason is that the beginning of this game has such a phenomenal setup that basically ends up being rendered null and void. (probably an oversimplification, but that's how I felt about it). With that said, it's still an engaging RPG with fun mechanics and a lot of goofy humor, so I do highly recommend it regardless.
3. Deltarune
At this point I have no doubt this game will match or surpass Undertale by the end, I can already tell it will probably break me emotionally at some point. Playing this game with my kids and seeing their reactions was a new experience I won't forget. I used to make games and seeing how hard Toby Fox has lived the dream almost makes me want to go back and give it another try.
2. Balatro
In some ways Balatro takes the crown for best deckbuilder from Dominion, though I think the latter being competitive makes them distinct enough that I can't compare them easily. Balatro is so simple that anyone could learn to play it, but it surprises me constantly with hidden depth. Is it frustrating too? It sure is. But getting a great Joker combination going feels so satisfying and the game has pretty much perfect aesthetics, including just one song that somehow never gets old.
1. Elden Ring
So far it's my favorite of the Souls games, which has already become my favorite game franchise in the years since Demon's Souls. The world is expansive and full of fascinating stuff, which makes the first playthrough something else. I think the combat is vastly improved from the prior games for the most part and it's actually fun using magic and stuff in this one. If I have any critique it's that the game has too much stuff in it, but really, that's not such a horrible problem to have since so much here is technically optional. Loved the characters, the world, and basically everything about this game.
