9. Dragon Quest XI (Switch, Square Enix, 2019)
Before this game I'd only completed two Dragon Quest games. It's never been a series I'm a huge fan of; the best things I'd say about them in general is they're pretty good at making regular encounters something you care about. DQ11 basically continues on with this formula. It modernizes Dragon Quest a bit, but also not enough.
Gameplaywise this is rather unquestionably the best Dragon Quest. Random encounters are pretty enjoyable affairs, rewarding the player spending just enough resources to eliminate them quickly and safely. Boss design is also by far the best of the Dragon Quests I've played, at least on Stronger Enemies, with the bosses feeling reasonably varied and often very dangerous, rewarding good team-based play. The game also is reasonably polished and has decent quality of life compared to earlier Dragon Quests, particularly with regard to full party switching.
The game disappointed me on the usual Dragon Quest fronts. The story/writing is just... not good at all, as in it was a clear step back from DQ8 and DQ8 is already a game that absolutely falls below my standards of what I expect from RPG narratives in 2020. Music was pretty mediocre too.
And the gameplay is solid but doesn't truly get into the exceptional, of course; the randomised DQ turn system has its limits, and letting you choose actions mid-round doesn't change that. As much fun as the boss design is, I don't think the overall experience is up to the level of something like Octopath Traveler or Bravely Default.
Rating: 5/10
8. Indivisible (Playstation 4, 505 Games, 2019)
Indivisible is an obvious spiritual successor to Valkyrie Profile gameplaywise. VP had a neat system, so I'm always up for seeing a new spin on it. And Indivisible's was... fun but very imperfect.
The really cool thing about Indivisible is how much love went into each individual character; they all have distinct playstyles and are a lot of fun to learn. You keep getting new ones and being able to assemble them into parties means the game's at little risk of getting old. And the character designs are super-varied too (and actually diverse in terms of things like ethnicity and body shapes, please take note games). The game also adds a timed defence system which is pretty fun, really makes it even more actiony than Valkyrie Profile.
The gameplay does have some rocky bits though; they tried to make it so you could win without a healer but it leads to some pretty awkward balance, and often makes the game feel too easy. Some of the combo mechanics are not communicated well either. So in a marked contrast to the previous game on the list, while the battle system is fun, encounter design is not a strength. And you want that when you're a gameplay game!
Its writing mostly isn't great (a bit too children's cartoon for me), but has one super-cool thing near the end which I don't want to spoil but is honestly kind of amazing and is definitely the only reason I'm convinced to rate this game above DQ11.
Rating: 5.5/10
7. Shantae and the Seven Sirens (Switch, WayForward, 2019)
Shantae games are generally fluffy little Metroidvanias with some decent humour; this is definitely more of the same on that front.
Gameplaywise it's pretty enjoyable, though imperfect. It's probably the most Metroidy of the games in terms of exploring a big connected environment, though it still has self-contained dungeons within that environment. The game does a good job of providing that always fun gameplay loop of getting more powers and gaining access to more places. Compared to other Shantae games, I appreciate that it brought back the speed of accessing powerups; they're activated with buttons like Pirate's Curse and not gameplay-disrupting dances like Risky's Revenge or Half-Genie Hero.
Unfortunately it really drops the ball on boss design. Most of the bosses have super-easy-to-avoid attacks and are at best a minor puzzle for how you damage them. Definitely disappointing! The final boss is kind of interesting but is in this weird zone (not the first time for the series) where healing trivializes it but not using healing is just way too brutally hard (the rest of the game you can ban healing and the game feels right).
Music's also way worse than the Shantae norm. I definitely missed Jake Kaufman's stellar work.
That said for all that it's pretty cotton candy I still had a good time with it. Core Shantae gameplay is always enjoyable, and it definitely got its share of chuckles from me. Turtles are very fast, but turtles cannot swim.
Rating: 6/10
6. Final Fantasy VII Remake (Playstation 4, Square Enix, 2020)
Square Enix has kinda lost its way in terms of the Final Fantasy series, with approximately one good main-series entry released in the past 19 years (which game you consider that to be varies; I say it's XIII). So I didn't have very high expectations for this. But it's... actually pretty good?
The gameplay is neat. It does a nice job of bridging the gap between an action RPG and a traditional RPG. You only control one character at once but you're encouraged to switch who that is mid-battle regularly. The action elements are mostly how you build up ATB gauge, and then you choose your actions from a menu like original FF7. There's a chain/stagger system similar to XIII (cool) except it's not really communicated as well, nor as fundamental to the combat. Enemies are varied and reasonably interesting, and the game's challenge is in a good place, rarely causing many resets but definitely keeping me on my toes. Compared to original FF7, which was mostly snooze-easy, that's a lot of improvements.
The materia system is also back and still really cool. Weapon choices are pretty interesting as well, moreso than the original. The main downside of the system is everything involving the out-of-battle menus (especially for the new crafting/skill-building system) feels very clunky, especially compared to the original.
The writing is... very mixed. On the one hand, I give the game massive props to the way it treats the original material. FF7 walked a fine line between being a game about serious things but also being irreverent and at times ridiculous; the remake captures that mix perfectly. The story about a tyrannical corporate government maintaining control of the people through a resource they crave and media propaganda has never been more timely. The core characters of the Remake – Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith – are excellent and often compelling. And when the game goes zany (most memorably during the Wall Market sequence), it does so with so much aplomb that you can't help but applaud. One such moment earns FF7R the Elf award for best gaming moment of 2020, not bad for a game I have at only #6 this year.
So where does it go wrong? Simply put it introduces some plot elements which are, for lack of a better way to put it without completely spoiling, very navel-gazing and unsatisfying. I'm all in for the story about Shinra and I find Sephiroth a tolerable fantasy diversion from that, but other added plot elements feel like they turn the game from "something I can discuss with politically-minded non-gamers" to "weird fanservice for nerds", except from what I can tell I'm far from alone at disliking it so I guess it's not even very good fanservice.
The game's pacing also can be a bit cumbersome. They turned a 7 hour piece of a game into a 30-40 hour game. Some things they added work nicely, sometimes I very much feel like the game is bloated and wasting my time. And the gameplay is solid but not so good as to justify extra time for me.
The music is also a touch disappointing? Like if I was going to point at one place the original clearly wins aside from pacing, it's here. Periodically you get some classic tracks from FF7 remixed and they're predictably great, but aside from bits like that which cruise on nostalgia the rest of the soundtrack blurs into forgettable. I've been watching original FF7 again recently and it's remarkable how much that great battle theme it has helps; FF7R frequently serves up far more boring tracks for its battles.
It's a strange game to rate because it's impossible to consider completely in a vacuum; the game itself begs you to compare it with the original. On the whole, I probably find that for me, personally, I rank it around the same place, although obviously the original will always be the more important game, both historically and for me personally.
Rating: 7/10
5. Hollow Knight (Playstation 4, Team Cherry, 2017)
For all that I appreciate Shantae doing Shantae things, Hollow Knight is clearly the better of the two Metroidvanias I played this year.
It's definitely a solid game! It controls very nicely, and it's got a very nice world too explore. (Very large too.) In that good Metroidvania way you get new powerups and go new places, repeat as you explore. All the while there's plenty of good combat to be had. Actually, the combat-while-exploring is definitely up there in the conversation for genre best. The way the game mixes it in with platforming is beautiful (particularly using the downslash to both attack and bounce off enemies), and the health recovery system is perfect for exploring; do well in combat and you get magic back, which you can use to heal when you have a break in the action.
The boss design is more mixed, but when it's on its game, it's definitely great too. Only about three or four bosses really stand out to me, but do they ever. Many of the rest I find I don't really remember half a year later. Probably my biggest knock on boss fights in general is that while the healing mechanic is great while exploring, it's not very fun in bosses, as you sit there motionless midcombat and basically hope the boss is too stupid to hit you (yes, you can learn some windows to reliably heal against some bosses, but it's still not fun even then).
For non-gameplay things, well, it doesn't have much story, but some of the writing and characters were cute, so it gets an okay grade on this front. Music is not something I'd listen to out of game much, but usually quite pleasant, and many boss fights have unique tracks, which is neat.
I don't have too much to say about the game, ultimately. It's certainly fun and good, but also left me without that much desire to replay it immediately or get all the crazy amounts of optional content/endings which a really great game probably would.
Rating: 7/10
4. AI: The Somnium Files (Switch, Spike Chunsoft, 2019)
This year's Uchikoshi thriller/visual novel. That's three years in a row! Zero Time Dilemma in 2021? We'll see.
Let's start with the weak points of the game. One, even by the standards of the Zero Escape games, there's barely gameplay, mostly just some trial and error sequences. They're rarely that bad to play because they are dream sequences and often have some good storytelling, and there's at least one which makes extremely good use of the game's mechanics to tell a story point, but overall they are pretty unengaging on a gameplay front.
The game's other weakness is that while the writing is usually very very good, it occasionally shifts into zany humour action sequences which are a little jarring tone-wise (and are utterly nonsensical). A lot of the game's humour really landed for me, but by and large these sequences didn't.
But otherwise? I've got a lot of good things to say. The game tells a really compelling mystery story and, like previous games, you get to learn different pieces of the mystery and are encouraged to speculate at each step. The game features branching timelines so putting together information from each is also part of the fun. And the characters themselves are almost uniformly great; at times funny, at times charming and heart-warming, sometimes in surprising ways. It's a game that, though mostly mystery with a bit of comedy, definitely manages to explore its themes quite well, too.
The character designs are great, the voice acting is phenomenal. The music is mostly not very memorable (a problem the Zero Escape games had too), but the ending vocal still sticks with me to this day, so there's that.
It was a great time. Just wish it had, y'know, gameplay.
Rating: 7.5/10
3. Trials of Mana (Switch, Square Enix, 2020)
The original Seiken Densetsu 3 was an interesting game, but I'd hesitate to call it outright good. It was an outstanding game aesthetically for the time: music, character design, enemy design in particular. And it featured a bold system where you chose three characters from a pool of six and each had up to four final classes, leading to crazy amounts of replay value. Unfortunately, its experimental early action-RPG gameplay was not the best.
So along comes this remake and just like FF7's, they totally got what made SD3 good. The music is back with better remixes, the aesthetics are now transitioned into lovely 3D (it's not a technically graphically advanced game, but it looks great anyway... leagues above the ugly 3D of the FF3-4 remakes, for instance). But the gameplay? That got a complete overhaul, for the better.
Gone is the huge emphasis on enemies having fullscreen attacks; now avoiding enemy attacks (with their telegraphed threat-ranges, an absolute necessity with how hectic fights get in this game) is big part of the game. Like any good action game, it's fun to learn how to avoid enemy attacks, and bosses further mix this up with some attacks you are supposed to avoid, and others you are supposed to interrupt.
Still present is the branching class system, but now there are more choices with the skill system, and you gain the earlier levels faster so the class changes come earlier than in the original (a major positive for the game). Character balance is better (no longer does Kevin mercilessly outclass the other physical characters). The limit of 9 of each item per boss is still present, but you no longer have to manually restock from one menu to another between fights. So many design choices of this game are so good.
It still doesn't have much of anything to speak of plotwise, although Angela is a very Elf character anyway. But y'know what I don't really care that much. I haven't gotten around to replays yet, but I'm sure I will. An utterly joyful game.
Rating: 7.5/10
2. Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia (Switch, Matrix Software, 2020)
The original Brigandine is a good game and I totally get why several people in the DL got super-into it. However, I wasn't one; the game had some flaws holding it back for me. And guess what this game not only somehow brings back Brigandine in the year of our lord 2020, but it totally agreed with me with what most of the flaws were and addresses them.
This game's a lot of fun! There's a strategy take-over-the-map aspect, it's fine I guess. Mostly it's good in the way it makes you think about defending various borders with various teams. The real good gameplay occurs with in the strategy RPG battles themselves. Battles are clashes between two teams fundamentally playing by the same rules, but one where every bit of good play on the player's part is strongly rewarded, since every character death on either side matters - monsters are lost permanently, while a human character being wounded causes their entire team to retreat.
The different classes (for human characters) and different monster types each bring different things to a team and there's lots of different ways to play. MP is a resource you actually need to think about carefully in battle, enemy healing is something you need to watch for, and there's lots of strategies you can do between wearing your opponents down or going for assassinations on the leader. Different units perform differently in different terrain, making you keep an eye on that. Since no two battles feature exactly the same enemy composition, things are constantly fresh, and while this means there isn't the same type of hand-crafted maps you get from the best Fire Emblems, it's still a lot of fun.
The game features non-random damage and damage projections, so planning out a turn is something you can do if you're into that sort of thing, and obviously helps a lot.
The game doesn't really have much plot, but oh well. If you ever wanted to play as anime Targaryens, a megalomaniac cult leader, or a magical lesbian society, you can, so there's that. Character art's nice at least, and quite distinctive; shades of Valkyrie Profile.
Probably the game's biggest flaw that remains is that the teams start too far apart in each battle so the first two turns consist of moving towards your enemy and are boring. (You can auto-battle them on fast forward, at least.)
I've already replayed it once and have just started on file #3. This game's good.
Rating: 8.5/10
1. Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark (Switch, 6 Eyes, 2019)
It's a love letter to Final Fantasy Tactics, which is a sure way to my heart. But it also really understood where FFT went wrong and tries to do better.
Like FFT, battles are small-scale, hand-crafted affairs. There's no trudging to your destination like in some SRPGs, it's straight into good combat. Damage projections, planning things out, it's all there. There's a speed system kind of like FFT and a visible turn order so you can think about who's going to act when and plan appropriately.
Mechanically, MP is probably the biggest difference between this game and FFT; everyone gains 10 a turn. How to use that is definitely something some characters need to consider; use a small amount each turn or save for big novas? On the note of novas, enemies have them too, so if you see an enemy Templar building MP, you'd better take that into account. But again, this is something you can do; like any good strategy RPG, good play is often the difference between enemies wrecking you and you having complete control over the battle.
The class system is of course a joy, given the source material. You can bring in one secondary command and two support abilities; equipment adds a good layer of customization as well. Crafting characters is a lot of fun; so much so that game encourages you to use more than the minimum six, by having an injury system where you are encouraged to rotate party members (if a character falls in battle, they are injured for the next fight, even if you revive them). The injury system can be gamed (by fighting randoms) or removed entirely if you don't like it.
And in general the game is an extraordinarily customizable experience. There are many, many ways you can tweak the difficulty to your liking, which is neat.
Non-gameplay stuff isn't really worth too much note. The plot is functional but ultimately not that interesting, the music doesn't stand out, the graphics are not really my favourite (and since the maps are hand-drawn, you can't rotate them, which is a bit annoying for an isometric game). For a gameplay weakness (relatively), the encounter designs are respectable but not really great; some of them do blur into being a bit same-y compared to the genre best.
Still, for an iteration on one of my favourite games, Fell Seal does a great job, and it's game I'm happy to add to my library of favourites.
Rating: 9/10
