Uh, Valis the Fantasm Soldier, that got a collection release this year, so it counts right? All my favorite games of this year has been old ones, be it that I played them for the first time or replayed them, Tales of Destiny PS2 Remake, Tropical Freeze, 999, Shadow Tactics, Troubleshooter, the original RE2, etc.
The next best thing that is actually new would be Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga, very simple story and presentation, but what a fantastic strategy game with a pretty interesting difficulty curve.
Also King of Fighters XV, really the major thing holding it back is the still lackluster visuals and the animation work not being done with the level of intent and purpose that sprite based games would have, but still, it has the good story set pieces that SNK knows how to do within the constrains of an arcade mode, awesome music, mechanically solid, really fast, and a pretty good and substantial roster.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is pretty good but not without issues, the nerfed roster of abilities, lesser variety of enemies and bosses really hurt it in its action game side, the extra dimension doesn't really change the gameplay format, so is essentially a 3D Return to Dreamland style game, so I can't really let slide those elements since that extra axis doesn't really bring anything new in the grand scheme of things, still, a less good RtD game is still really good.
Worst thing I finished this year is Tales of Arise. The first Tales of game that actually bored me, hope that isn't a bad omen, don't really want to drop another series I love.
