16. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (2011)
Another new game to my list was a huge surprise. Now, in all honesty, I'm a sucker for time-travel (see other games on list, particularly those yet to come). But given the predecessor (while it made my list) wasn't spectacular in many ways I was expecting to only like this one a little. Removed is the annoying, ever present linearity and in its place, more of a level type system where you can go to one of many areas at different points in time. The ending was highly controversial but I actually loved it, because it was nice to have someone take a different stab at story telling. In addition, weaving the time travel into the plot, even going as far as having events occur for characters in different orders, allowed a lot for players to discover. The combat changes were interesting, and having the very flexible third slot made up for having two fixed characters. As a pokemon fan I also enjoyed the take on catching monsters. The only issue I had was that there was so much in the way of sidequests that the main plot line almost seemed like an after-thought while playing. This game made me actually want to buy its DLC, but I have regrettably been sidetracked with other (great!) games to play.
Primarily an RPG player but have interest in any game that will make me think.
