Eh, screw it. How many people are going to read my post anyway? LOL.
The 10s, despite two great games releasing in 2010, started out very lackluster for me, to the point where I really considered hanging up gaming for good. Brown-scale shooters, mobile pay-to-win crap, and an increasing dearth of content from Japan. I also wasn't impressed with the PS4 or Xbox One when they launched. That's why it's so surprising that the decade went from 0 to 100 starting mid-decade to the point where I'm having more fun gaming than I've had since the PS1/N64 era, and maybe even more than that.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (5p)
This game defines this decade perfectly for me as far as the positive. I felt almost like I was playing the original Zelda for the very first time back in 1987.
2. Dragon Quest XI S (4p)
If Ni no Kuni was the beginning of the Japanese Renaissance, DQXI S is the culmination of the Japanese Renaissance (so far). After Dragon Quest IX ended up on DS, I wondered if we would ever see a console Dragon Quest without online play again. It's also amazing that a series that is over 30 years old and was previously known as staid and resistant to change could reach such a high water mark here in 2019, but Square Enix did it.
3. Ni no Kuni (3p)
Ni no Kuni is the game that revived my interest in gaming after I was seriously thinking of giving it up altogether. It was beautiful, had a wonderful soudtrack, and a huge explorable world. And it wasn't on a handheld system with graphics somewhere between the N64 and the PS2 (note that ironically, another arguably underpowered console, the Switch, is a serious contender to be my favorite system of all time.)
To me, Ni no Kuni was the start of a Japanese renaissance, where we saw games that were previously confined to the DS, 3DS, PSP, and PSV due to the economics and demographics of the Japanese market, finally returning to full consoles.
4. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2p)
Valkyria Chronicles was one of my defining titles of the previous decade, a game which brought strategy arcade games out of the Disgaea and FF Tactics molds and gave them pleasing visuals and a new gameplay style. Valkyria Chronicles 4 was a great return to form, but Three Houses has now become my new gold standard for the genre. The battles are great, the music is great, I like the visuals, and there's so much content stuffed into the game.
5. Fallout: New Vegas. (1p)
It was the last good game of the early 7th gen, before gaming seemed to hit a slump for me. It had the engine of Fallout 3 with the mechanics of the classic Fallout games. I wish Obsidian was still making the Fallout games.
Two other games that defined the aspects of the 2010s that I hated:
1. Angry Birds. A cheaply made game that made huge profits, which was emblematic of the rot of the mobile market, which I feared would spread to console gaming. It isn't even the most egregious mobile game out there, but it just really summarizes what I hate about mobile and F2P.
2. Fallout 76. Fallout went from New Vegas to this hot garbage fire. I remember my reaction to its unveiling: excitement. Then came the announcement that it was an online dependent game. My response: "Aaaaaaand it's gonna suck."
And even though I'm not a huge fan, you can't really talk about the 2010s without talking about Minecraft, which was the biggest phenomenon of the decade.
Last edited by SanAndreasX - on 03 December 2019
