It's that time. Here's what I played in 2018!
12. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (PS4, 2018)
A few good solid SLink scenes buoy this up a bit, but in the end the Persona Dancing series is not what I want from my rhythm games on a pure gameplay level, like it’s not near so good as Theatrhythm, and while pulling together dancier remixes is thematically appropriate they miss a chunk of the appeal of this sorta game. I mean… like I kinda wanna play some of the straight up Persona 3 music? I know P3’s OST is held back by its abysmal main battle theme in actual practice but like that’s already one of the four unaltered tracks in the base game!
Also dammit how dare you make me spend money to get Labby. Bastards one and all.
5/10
11. Dragon Quest IX (DS, 2009)
DQIX reminds me most of Golden Sun. Well, that’s unfair, it’s trying really hard to be the Dragon Questiest game to Dragon Quest. But the end result is a game with exactly one standout quality I can remember without rereading stuff I wrote about it months ago, a distinction it shares with Golden Sun: it is an aggressively adequate game and no more. It’s fine. It has no particular outstanding issues, once or twice it has a solid idea or effective scene, I don’t regret playing it. It just never aspires to more than that, and the only thing putting it ahead of GS is it’s been a couple years since I played a Dragon Quest game. Yeah that’s about all I got that’s not examining the implications of “what’s a Dragon Quest game”.
6/10
10. Disgaea 5 Complete (Switch, 2017)
Disgaea 5, at long last, completes the circle for Disgaea. A series with its roots in savage mockery of anime, from its superficial genre conventions to the foundational bedrocks of heroism and friendship, celebrating the weird and the way surface-level violence could mask complex and deeply felt feelings, Disgaea 5 at last is just a cliché anime ass anime. It is a third rate shonen knockoff, to the point I can’t even tell you which show it’s knocking off because it’s too bland to stand out enough. If they omitted all dialog from the game I think it would actually be an improvement, because the sprites and the acting paces the game puts them through communicate far more emotional and depth than the script does, to say nothing of how goddamn obvious it is the voice cast does nooooooot caaaaaaaareeeee. And it ain’t a lack of talent, among other standouts this cast includes both Kira Buckland and Kyle McCarley, otherwise known as the cast of NieR Automata. Doubly damning, it’s still a game that was extremely playable, I had plenty of fun storming through the game with the bountiful past-game cameos of the DLC. But good lord it doesn’t get that it’s a Disgaea game.
6/10
9. Super Metroid (SNES, 1994 (WiiU VC))
I’m not sure what I can add for Super Metroid that I didn’t say at the time, really. It’s certainly an interesting playthrough, but between showing its age in the margins and the Castlevania side generally playing to my sensibilities better it’s not something I was SUPER engaged by. It does a really good job of establishing a few set pieces, and when it really embraces them to lean into its Alien inspirations it’s amazing how effective that can still be when the protagonist is a verifiable badass.
6/10
8. Transistor (Switch, 2018)
In its first two games at least, Supergiant seems to have a minor preoccupation with the nature of player agency, and in particular nudging the player to realize that it doesn’t exist. Transistor is much more explicit about this, and that’s probably the biggest reason I don’t think it quite works as well (playing both in such close succession probably didn’t help). That the main character’s quest is futile, somewhat obviously so, in a game so thoroughly tying itself to breaking down the illusion of choice… I dunno, it gives things a sort of hopeless feeling I can’t really embrace. I also feel like the aesthetic doesn’t really pop very well, so while the way they fill every single margin of the game with Red’s character and it’s rather brilliant, it just lacks the punch that should give it somehow. I’m not sure if I’m explaining it well, or even if that’s actually how I feel? But it’s my best approximation.
7/10
7. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch, 2018)
So funny story I’ve never played Castlevania III? But apparently this is basically Castlevania III with better character balance and more modes built in. So probably I could fix that but on the other hand I have SO MANY games and already did my aging classic for the year dangit. In any event the music and style of this definitely get me hopeful for the bull Bloodstained game. The two final bosses are SO GOOD y’all.
7/10
6. Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS, 2015)
It was perhaps inevitable that Bravely Second would disappoint. The precise conditions Bravely Default entered the world in are hard to replicate. And in that light I don’t want to be too hard on it: the new classes are cute, the core flaws of Default are well dealt with, and there’s a solid core of theme and character dynamics everything is bound to. The rest of the game shows so much visible strain of being a sequel to a game incredibly not meant to be sequelized, and while they *eventually* do interesting things with the new villains they take their sweet ass time getting to it. Pacing issues in new and exciting ways!
7/10
5. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions (3DS, 2017)
So my history with this game is weird to me. Long ago, I made a snap decision between this and Fire Emblem, and despite having really liked SMRPG I went with FE7. And then I tried to play it and just oof, those GBA controls get tedious. But this rebalanced game is pretty good! The non-sequitor humor doesn’t hold up as well as it could since I’d seen around half of it before on the GBA version, but still, pretty good.
7/10
4. Bastion (Switch, 2018
Ahh, okay, I dunno what all to say about this that’s not everything *everyone* says about this goddamned game. That narration! It is so bright and vivid and ALIVE (another utterly key area it dominates Transistor). The way the narration and the gameplay blend to provide backstory is something I’m particularly fond of, like aside from the two vocal songs it’s pretty much why it’s here. The Kid is a bit underdeveloped, and shoot this game would be sorta miserable without that free retry button, but yeah. Sorta sad I saw a video of that one scene still.
7/10
3. DeltaRune Chapter 1 (PC, 2018)
This is a game I immediately had to run out and type like 2000 words babbling about theorizing just to get it out of my brain where it could process. And to some degree like… y’know it’s a 2 hour game that’s clearly part of a larger project (or if that never happens, invokes that feel). So that’s going to be a big part of it obviously! But there’s definitely a self-contained game here that’s really quite charming and while not Undertale does distinguish itself well. Some parts that may not settle well for everyone but even still I kinda love Susie’s arc? And the Alice thing is almost always fun.
8/10 I guess? It feels weird to rate a demo (or demo-length) thing but.
2. Dragonball FighterZ (PS4, 2018)
So my favorite stretch of Dragonball Super is the Recruitment Arc leading up to the Tournament of Power. It is TOTAL filler and all about just faffing about with the supporting cast and giving them all a chance to show off and highlight their fighting style.
FighterZ is an whole game of that. I mean it is also the horniest on main I’ve ever seen Dragonball, like holy shit is there ANY other reason for Android 21 to be that? I remain the suck at fighting games so not gonna comment there, but it’s just hella fun as a Dragonball thing and came out at a time I wanted more of that in my life and is a bit more of a complete experience than some of the other games here so sure, why not.
8/10
1. Celeste (PS4, 2018)
Celeste is exactly a game I needed exactly when I played it. When I first groked what it was doing my first impulse was to laugh at the timing of it all. I actually haven’t played too many of this sort of precision platformer, so novelty might make a bit of difference in my appreciation. But even without that… I dunno. It does its thing so well, and even as I find its depiction of anxiety and depression is a bit muddled, the impact of them are spot on and so well integrated into the larger themes and presentation of the game it’s hard not to love it.
8/10
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Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology (3DS, 2018)
A second run thought Radiant Historia only increased my appreciation of it, and there was only so far it could rise because it was already REALLY GOOD. And in a way I may just be in a slightly different headspace in 2018 than in 2011, and a game with such overtly spiritual language around its main character and his role as savior of the world does in some ways speak more to me now than it did then. But even while on paper I can’t say any character in this game except Stocke and maybe Heiss rise above the level “I like them okay sure”, like characterization and growth aren’t huge priorities for the secondary cast, I found on replay I was intensely looking forward to doing their personal quests and seeing those lean arcs do their rounds.
And ultimately it’s just such a smart game, and so deftly avoids the writing holes so many other games fall into even now (Bravely Second is a fine example without even leaving this post!), and Stocke in particular manages to keep up with a bright player and keep things from bogging down or repeating themselves needlessly, it’s really rather impressive.
The remake swapping the music for Heiss’ sacrifice away from Red Locus was a weird ass move though. Actually that’s the biggest issue with the new content, that ending was so perfect and it does lose something with the changes. But eh, you’re also literally offered the option to turn them off at game start so y’know.
10/10 (but y’know this is also Radiant Historia except with more game grafted on, it doesn’t count against the other stuff)
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