Discussion Thread – The 13th Annual Greatest Games Event

[UnderwaterFunktown]

All games were guessed this time around, so without further adieu here are some words about my number 35-31:

Placement/ Last Year	Write-up	(Box) Art
#35 #32	Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty The first year I took part in this 4 of the 5 MGS games made the list, but by now its down to just one as the others have been pushed out (they’re still great though). Sons of Liberty is a serious ride from start to finish with an absolutely insane storyline even by Metal Gear standards and it’s my favorite for that very reason, even if there might honestly be one too many plot twists thrown in there (seriously what does S3 stand for?). However, the gameplay of early MGS games was never that great in my eyes if I’m being honest (though still far from bad), and that’s the main reason most have left the list by now and 2 is steadily declining. But as overall experiences I still like them a ton, and Sons of Liberty in particular.
#34 #28	Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward Virtue’s Last Reward is a very difficult game for me to rank because on one hand it’s full of excellent puzzles and puzzle rooms and has an incredibly ambitious story with crazy twists. On the other hand, it has at least one, if not multiple, glaring plot holes and several other elements that feel off such as one of the returning characters having a very different personality and appearance (something that somehow became a trend when the third game did it for multiple characters). But the good parts are really good though, so much so that this game would probably be sitting comfortably in my top 20 without the screw ups.
#33 #34	The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time So yeah, 99 on metacritic and often hailed as the greatest game of all time; it’s no exaggeration to say that Nintendo knocked it out of the park with the first 3D Zelda game and it laid the blueprint for probably the most critically acclaimed (sub)series out there. It also brought with it lock-on targeting which works damn well here and helps make its combat feel great even if its not the most advanced. And of course, the dungeons are the star of the show with lots of varied and memorable ones here. I wouldn’t call it a perfect game though as I think there are some flaws to speak of, but the 3DS remake did address some of them such as improving the controls and allowing for easier item switching, which makes it my version of choice.
#32 #35	Resident Evil 4 (Wii Version) Well, Resident Evil 4 is a favorite to many, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s survival horror at its best and has many extremely iconic parts to it from the 1-hitting chainsaw man to the ever-quotable merchant. But to me at least, there’s also been another element that elevated the experience: motion controls. The Wii version is still the only version of this platform-rich game I’ve ever played, and its simply the best implementation of motion aiming in a shooter that I’ve seen, and perhaps surprisingly, it goes damn well with horror gameplay. Actually, having to physically aim down a Regenerador as they menacingly walk towards you is just a special kind of terrifying. When next year’s remake drops, I guess I’ll have to try to make due without those motion controls, but I’m awaiting it eagerly nonetheless.
#31 #40	Tales of Xillia 2 So funny story, I have a Day One edition of this game sitting on my shelf… that I bought brand new maybe 3 years after release from a regular retailer. Yeaaah, I don’t think this was Bandai’s biggest hit in the west (releasing here in 2014 exclusively for the PS3 probably didn’t help), and that’s quite a shame because in my eyes it’s still the best Tales game since the 00s. It’s a bit of a unique entry in several ways both for its more fragmented mission-based structure, allowing each character to have their own side stories, and for being centered around player choice, an element I definitely liked even if your choices rarely had long lasting consequences. The storytelling is generally excellent with emotions running high at times and on the gameplay front the game fully delivers as well which, at least to me, is nearly a given with Tales titles.