The Last Story & Lost Odyssey capture what people loved about Final Fantasy in the 90s on 7th gen consoles. FF series has never been the same since Sakaguchi left. These two games recaptured the magic.
Not that DMC lost it but Bayonetta when it came out felt like a fresh spin on something familiar. Bayo has evolved fully into its own series, but the very first game is a better game than DMC4 which is still great. But Bayonetta, within the game, took shots at DMC4 and said we can do it better.
GRIP. It's a fun successor to the PS1 game Rollcage. When everyone made futuristic racing games, this put a nice spin on the gameplay. GRIP is rollcage without the name.
Horizon Chase Zero. It really captured the style and presentation of Top Gear on SNES/Genesis in 3D for modern systems.
Hot Shots Racing. If you miss SEGA Model 2 racing games and 90s arcade racers in general. This will bring you back to games like Daytona USA. Scud Race (tho that was Model 3) Virtua Racing and more.
Xenoblade. Gears/SAGA. What more do I need to say?
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. I waited 20 years for a sequel to Jet Set Radio Future. This is what I waited for and it was worth it. They nailed it in every way. The look. The vibe. The OST. The gameplay but even improved on it. It's everything I wanted.
Odin's Sphere. A spiritual successor to Princess Crown on the SEGA Saturn and they captured it. When they made Princess Crown they worked at Atlus before forming VanillaWare so they did not have the rights to it.
On that note. Dragon's Crown was meant to be a spiritual successor to Capcom's Dungeons & Dragons Tower of Doom. Director of DC worked on those games when he worked at Capcom. It's a great game that captures the spirit with VW's own flair.
Nex Machina. A successor and love letter to Robotron 2084. Eugene Jarvis advised them. The game ends up being the best twin stick shooter I've ever played.
Resogun. An updated take on Defender, much more so than the mediocre PS2 3D game. Probably the best PS4 launch game.
Prodeus. After the amazing Doom 2016, I wanted something that was similar but evolved. After the letdown that was Eternal, I played Prodeus. In many ways, Prodeus does feel like the proper sequel to Doom 2016 and is an amazing game.
Gunhound EX on PSP. This was a loveletter to the Assault Suit Series from Leynos to Valken (Cybernator). So much so, this game got the studio the gig to remake Assault Suit Leynos on PS4 and PC!.
Blue Dragon to Dragon Quest. Not as good as LO or TLS, but a really good RPG and using Toriama's art style again. They add some sci fi to I,t and you have Dragon Shadows (Personas kinda) but some of the same spirit is there and a great game.
Bite my shiny metal cockpit!
