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Like I did last time I'd also like to round things out with some Highlights of the last year (not counting games that made the top 50) and I figured I might as well take the opportunity to write a bit about about them as well so here it is. Since the "placement" column wouldn't make sense for these I just threw in playtime instead since that's a stat I had more or less available for them all. Anyways that's all for me then, looking forward to seeing the full results later on!
Playtime | Write-up | (Box) Art |
80 hours | Tales of Arise I would have picked up Tales of Arise at launch if I had been able to play it back then, but due to circumstances I ended up playing it early last year instead and so it became one of my first highlights of the year. My expectations were a little mixed going into the game and frankly so were my thoughts on it by the end, but there was a lot that I loved along the way. Arise is the biggest shake-up to the Tales series in a looong time and its reimagined combat is excellent and fairly fresh while also remaining familiar; I wouldn’t quite call it a new peak for the series, to me it’s more on par with games like Vesperia (#11) and Xillia 2 (#31), but that’s obviously still very solid. The game also gives us some beautiful areas that feel worth exploring and a lot of optional content aside from the main story. But that is why my main gripe lies though, to be while I almost always love the gameplay the stories in Tales games can be fairly hit or miss and for me Arise is mostly in the second category, at least in the second half. It most certainly has its moments and it’s far from a bad story, but one that left me a bit disappointed nevertheless. The cast also feels a little lackluster to me, don’t get me wrong I do like 5 out of 6 of the characters, but it’s lacking any characters that stick out as truly great, which is something I feel most games in the series has. Ultimately, while there was a time early on where it felt like this could be one of the top games in the series, to me at least in ends up being around average as an overall experience, however with Tales being one of my absolute favorite series, average is still pretty damn good. |
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25-30 hours | Kirby and the Forgotten Land I was a bit skeptical when I first saw the reveal for Forgotten Land, mainly because HAL had not had the best track record in recent years so tackling their first truly 3D game seemed risky, but I ended up taking a chance on the game and yea, they delivered. Forgotten Land reminds me in a lot of ways of Super Mario Galaxy (#22) as a really charming and pleasant 3D platformer with neatly designed linear levels and an awesome hub, in this case jam packed with smaller activities to do in between missions. Obviously, it doesn’t quite reach the same heights as Galaxy or it would be sitting up there with it on my list, but I can honestly say I consider it the best non-Mario 3D platformer I’ve played. |
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40-50 hours | The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword So, I did get Skyward Sword way back in the day when it originally released. I started playing it and I liked it, didn’t really blow me away, but I certainly enjoyed it, however mostly due to bad timing I ended up getting distracted from the game before I finished it and never got back to it… well at least not until a decade later when I set up my old Wii last year. This time I played the whole thing (started from scratch of course) and yep, Skyward Sword is great. The motion controls are both a blessing and a curse, undeniably becoming cumbersome in some situations, but also being novel and fun, I’m not sure it’s necessarily a great asset overall but I think it adds at least as much as it subtracts. The game also has a great feel to it, ranging from the epic fate-of-the-world parts to the various side quests; I think Skyloft might also be my favorite town in a Zelda game. It’s undeniably a game with flaws, such as camera controls and some aspects of the story in my eyes, but as an overall experience I think it’s still a great game and a worthy entry in the 3D Zelda pantheon. |
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54 hours | NieR Replicant ver. √1.5 The less popular predecessor and/or successor to NieR: Automata (#28) has a lot of the same strengths: great combat, great music and some very powerful moments in its story. It also gave me a chance to learn about the series’ extremely convoluted origins from Drakengard, best not to think about that part too much. Anyways while the game was made by Square Enix they got a helping hand from members of PlatinumGames and it shows. The melee combat is very solid and while the magic system maybe feels a bit iffy with some spells feeling too strong and others feeling too situational, it’s overall a pretty nice element that adds to the gameplay further. One problem I have with the game, however, is that some of the parts/elements throughout feels like the developers went “wouldn’t it be cool if ____?” and then they just threw it in there whether or not it really fit or made sense. And to be fair some of those elements are in fact cool, and nobody can accuse it for being a game that plays it safe, but it’s the ones that miss the mark along with other small details that feel off which prevent the game from being Top 50 material for me. Still a great game though and definitely one that any Automata fan should give a shot at some point. |
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118 hours | Elden Ring Beautiful… ahead, but suffering ahead. I generally have somewhat ambivalent feelings toward From Software games and Elden Ring is no exception in that regard. I have my fair share of grievances with the game, going beyond the fairly severe technical issues I encountered (on PC), but let’s focus on why it managed to be one of my highlights despite that. Elden Ring takes a lot that we know (great core combat, a dark and compelling setting, pain) and throws it into a brand new beautiful open-world, and yes, I do like me a good open-world to explore. Of the several smaller new elements it brings to the table most are also ones I’m very happy to see: a map, our trusty steed Torrent, the Ashes of War, a dedicated jump button, definitely some nice bonuses to the formula and on top of that, while I’m no connoisseur on From Software storytelling, we do get some of the most intriguing characters here that I’ve seen from them yet. I also have to point out the message system; the previous games I’ve played from them were either somewhat deserted or didn’t have functioning online at the time, so this feels like my first real experience with it and it’s a lot of fun and sometimes a rich source of hints. All in all, while Elden Ring might not be Top 50 material for me, the majority of the 118 hours I put into the game were very enjoyable ones and that’s certainly enough to be one of the year’s highlights. |
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