Games (from any year) which I finished playing in 2020.
Showing 1-10 of 38 items
----- MINOR SPOILERS ---- 01/13 -- Astral Chain has fun beat 'em up combat and a cool visual style. The "legion", attached to your protagonist's wrist by a chain, adds some cool twists to the gameplay. You can wrap enemies up in the chain or "throw" the legion at an enemy to pull yourself to it. The legion is also controlled by the left bumpers, which are used for "sync" actions like combo attacks and timed counterattacks. Outside of combat, Astral Chain's supporting elements are hit or miss. For example, exploration sections sometimes used legion mechanics in clever or interesting ways, but also leaned into a lot of pointless collectibles. This sort of filler, plus inventory management and upgrade menus tended to bog down Astral Chain's pace.
----- MINOR SPOILERS ----- 01/18 -- I enjoyed playing Outward co-op, but I probably wouldn't have single-player. Games are often better with a friend, but Outward's core gameplay actually might be more fun multiplayer. One example is the combat. One-on-one fights in Outward were usually slow and defensive. (Some games do this well, but Outward feels pretty clunky.) Multiplayer fights by comparison usually involved a lot of moving around, tag-teaming enemies and trying to create or exploit openings. Two players also meant building distinct playstyles -- like my knockdown attacks or my brother's bleed effect. And when we found something new, one of us was more likely to be interested in it. Outward's combination of ARPG and survival systems don't always mesh (like the complete lack of fast travel), but it can create some interesting and challenging situations. The best example might be the game's first quest. You have five in-game days to pay off a debt or lose your starting house. It pushes you to go out, explore and think about how to gather and manage resources.
----- GAMEPLAY SPOILERS ----- 01/27 -- Even though I enjoyed Dragon Quest Builders quite a bit, I was a little wary of its sequel. Bigger isn't always better and the new mechanics seemed to lean into more sandbox gameplay. DQB2 certainly has more ways to build, but it still manages to avoid feeling too open-ended. DQB2 still centers around laying blocks, and it has the iterative additions you might expect: new blocks, new recipes and a new, DQ2-themed story. There are also quite a few new mechanics. New tools like the glider, the transform-o-trowel and the "bottomless pot" make faster movement, laying/swapping groups of blocks or managing liquid tiles possible. The room and base-building systems have been reworked. Residents now have full routines and can reward you with "gratitude points", a sort of currency. The new Isle of Awakening acts as three bases and as a central hub for visiting other areas (including the new Explorer's Shores). It's mostly a sandbox area themed after the story missions, but a list of "tablet targets" provides acheivement-like mini-goals. I didn't engage with any of the new social features but it was still cool to stumble upon a "Buildertopia's Best" in the wild. DQB2 does have a few misses. The campaign doesn't quite hit the tricky balance between structured and sandbox gameplay. (Early on, it teaches you a lot about the gameplay and stands pretty well on its humor and supporting cast. Later, it starts to drag with repetitive, linear gameplay loops while gating Isle of Awakening content.) The room systems can be finicky in non-obvious ways. (And it's a bummer when the game doesn't recognize a room, or a resident sleeps on the ground.) The expanded item is a bit overwhelming to navigate (at least on console), especially since monsters can spawn and attack pretty frequently in some areas.
02/08 (Switch Online) -- Breath of Fire has a funny history as a Virtual Console game. It wasn't available on the Wii, even though Breath of Fire 2 was. It became available on the 3DS but only on the "New" version. Maybe I just missed it? In any case, appearing as a Switch Classic was a pleasant surprise. BoF has some of the clunkiness of an older JRPG. It's also tricky to play without a walkthrough, due to (I assume) poorly localized hints. Some of its elements hold up pretty well though, including the colorful cast of characters, "lock-and-key" secrets (based on character abilities) and convenient auto-battle system. Even though I remembered certain things pretty well, I'd forgotten a lot.
02/08 -- Hrm. Fallen Order has a lot going for it but its problems are sometimes glaring. It took some time for me to start really enjoying it, and the final section reinforced the most annyoing elements of the combat. The (way too many) polish issues certainly don't help, whether it's bouncing off of a wall or a texture loading in close-up dialogue. The combat design also feels a little confused -- Fallen Order presents itself as a dueling game, but waves of enemies and punishing unblockable attacks make dodge rolls and Force powers an almost strictly better option. Frustrations aside, I like a lot about Fallen Order. It uses the Star Wars setting to tell a genuinely interesting story with a lot of great character moments (even for your chirpy droid sidekick, BD-1). The levels are also fun to poke around (and the collectible customizations are a nice touch). One of my favorite gameplay stretches was actually revisiting two of the planets, casually hunting for secrets late in the game.
02/15 -- Somehow, Untitled Goose Game made me want to act like a jerk bird. The worst kind of jerk bird.
----- POTENTIAL SPOLIERS ----- 02/15 (Sword) -- There seems to be a lot of negative sentiment towards Pokémon Sword (and Shield). I didn't find it too bland or iterative, but it is still a core Pokémon game... maybe fans expected something else? One thing Sword has going for it is a diverse Pokémon cast. (Pokémon Sun fell flat here, which isn't a good place for the franchise to be.) My end-game team (Cinderace, Grimmsnarl, Toxicitry, Dreadnaw, Corviknight, Eldegoss) was all brand new Pokémon, which is a pretty good sign. Some of the new regional variants are also pretty cool (like a smokestack Weezing or a tap-dancing Mr. Mime). Sword may be less focused than a Let's Go!, but I also found it full of charm and personality touches. The Galar region has a lot of neat references (including idioms, various landmarks and nods to Arthurian legend), and the sport and stadium themes are a perfect fit for Pokémon's gym training story beats. Speaking of personality touches, some of Sword's trainers really stick out. Especially the colorful cast of rivals and gym leaders (check out Raihan's hilarious selfie throw). Hop may be an annoying rival, but he shows how much it stings to lose in the finals. Sword has a few new ideas, but some more gameplay innovation wouldn't hurt the franchise. I like the wild areas as a less linear space where you can bump into Pokémon well above your level. Sword's postgame looked pretty familiar (and Pokémon postgames tend to be major grinds).
02/18 -- Assuming Star Fox 2 was almost finished, it's kind of a crazy "what if?". A lot of its ideas ended up in Star Fox 64 (or later titles). It's cool to see the SFX chip pushed, but Star Wolf dogfights (for example) have a much better camera, controls and frame rate in their 64 version.
02/25 -- Eh, not one I'd recommend. It didn't quite click with me, despite the unique audiovisual style. The gameplay is also pretty short and straightforward.
03/01 -- Minit adds a neat twist to the classic 2D adventure. That's the main thing it has going for it.