My GOTY 2019 List
Hey, here’s my list. Not all of them “came out” in 2019, but they were all new to me this year.
List items
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I’m a pretty big Fire Emblem fan and this one does some good things. I spent 140 hours playing the Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind routes. If there’s a game that I’ve spent the most time on this year, and it’s not that fucking Fire Emblem phone game, it’s Three Houses. This game is very weird. Early on, you get a gambit called Stride that lets affected units to move an extra 5 spaces and it’s bonkers. White magic refreshes each chapter, so you get a lot more use out of things like Warp and Fortify, which would have been staves that you would feel like you have to hoard all game in previous entries. I think there can be too much setup for the maps in this game (you spend a lot of time in this Fire Emblem game not playing Fire Emblem). But the setup is also key to the insane amount of customization that this game allows. I’m looking forward to a Maddening Blue Lions playthrough sometime next year. Gotta find out what them Dimitri’s and them Dedue’s is all about. Also, the map themes for this game are fire.
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This is the best Pokemon game I’ve played in some time. It’s kind of amazing how much they ripped off ideas from Pokemon, but I’m kind of into how similar it is. There’s a lot of monsters to imprism/capture and options for them to transfig/evolve into. As they level up, they learn new skills/moves and you can even teach them new moves from seeds/TMs. The monsters are well animated and feel fresh. And then there’s stuff that Pokemon never even thought to do, like, skipping cutscenes. Fast forwarding through battle. You don’t necessarily have to weaken a monsters HP to catch them. Sometimes you do, but most have different conditions that make them easier to catch like ‘do water damage to them’ or ‘inflict [status effect]’ and some more which I found interesting. Your party size is waaaay bigger and the stacking system allows for a lot of customization and hilarity. There’s some (mostly) funny irreverent nonsense in the story and intervention battles that I got down with. There’s this, there’s that, I really can’t recommend this game enough to Pokemon fans.
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I beat this game on Devil Hunter, then went on to beat Son of Sparda and then I decided I’m not good enough at video games to beat Dante Must Die, which is a shame, because I really want to play Heaven or Hell because you kill everything in one hit and it was really satisfying to do that in DmC. Uh, I like this game a lot.
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I tried this for a little bit in 2016 after hearing a lot of praise and watching a few too many Giant Bomb videos. I kind of bounced off it after I beat Paris the first time and I’m not sure why. Then I found myself watching the 2018 Hitsmas and thought I’d give it another whirl. And then I became hooked. I think I’m at least at Mastery level 11 for all locations and I’ve mastered Marrakesh, Bangkok and Colorado. Seeing all of the opportunities in this game has been a real treat.
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I tried playing this game like 3 years ago. I thought it probably had some potential but Episode 2 had two rotten gameplay sections that made me stop playing. I stopped playing at ‘the bottle section.’ Fast forward to this year and I found GBE’s playthrough of Life is Strange. Turns out I like this game way more when Vinny plays it. I found myself clutching a pillow for a lot of scenes that happened near the end of episode 3 onwards. Time-travel stories are hard, but I feel like this game comes pretty close to nailing it with some really emotional scenes. I think I’m interested in seeing more from the stories these guys tell, but I’m not sure that I want to ‘play’ them per se.
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You know what’s a fun video game to play? Super Mario World. Sometimes this game lets you think you’re playing Super Mario World and that’s pretty nice of them. I’ve also had a lot of fun making levels. I have like 7 now of varying quality. I tried to make good ones. I really did. Sometimes they were good. Sometimes they were Thwomps Chirstmas. Also, I had a really good time with the Ninji Speedrun I did. I’m not actually very great at Mario but found trying for a better score to be fairly addictive, which isn’t something I normally do in Mario Maker levels.
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I’ve played a looot of Borderlands 2, but I wasn’t sure if I liked this game for basically my entire first playthrough. I was very up and down. I dug the look of the guns and gunplay, but the game didn’t run well at all in the couch co-op mode. I was interested in the new skill trees, but wasn’t sure where the story was going. I feel like I started with the least fun character. After I switched to Zane, I had a much better time. I’m all about his skills and trees. And his blue tree has a kill skill that grants movement speed, which is the best stat as far as I’m concerned. I’m not sure that I really came around on the story, but I really dig the loot-shooting. I think I’m just glad that I have more Borderlands to play.
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Yo, this game's really fun. Completing your list of skillshots as you shoot your way through the campaign is pretty satisfying. The dialogue shouldn't work as well is it does. It's extremely juvenile and sounds like this game was made for a demographic of 12 year olds who just discovered the 'f' word. But it ends up being...legitimately funny. Like, it's so bad, that it's good. And I ended up getting..attached to the characters? ...And kind of interested in the sequel that the ending to this game foreshadows?
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I'm in the camp that Pokemon Shield could have been better in some ways and the lack of features compared to past Pokemon games is a bummer. But I still had a solid time with this one, and really dig some of the new designs. Falinks is my current favorite.
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I've been playing "Metroidvanias" for a while now, but this year was my first time playing Symphony. That game still holds up pretty well, and the graphics have aged waaaay better than most PS1 games (though I am a sucker for good sprite work). Unfortunately, this version of the game doesn't have the hilariously bad voice actors that Symphony is known for and opts for...good VAs but I suppose that works in it’s own way (you know, the good way).
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