My (very) late 2017 top ten list

Since I’m already late on putting this up I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this preamble. We all know how great 2017 was for games, and how bad it was in everything else. So, lets get to the list!

10 – Battle Chef Brigade

While I haven’t played a ton of this game, I really love the way it looks. The positive tone and supportive characters are welcome, and the mix of match 3 cooking / brawler ingredient gathering was a fun and rewarding gameplay mix.

9 – Cuphead

I love games that make me master the mechanics, and boy did Cuphead take mechanical mastery. Learning all the bosses and what weapons I liked using on them was a blast. The fact that it looks so darn cool doesn’t hurt either.

8 – Pyre

I like Pyre for a lot of the same reasons I like Fire Emblem. I want to care about the characters I use beyond how good they are. Pyre let me play a sports game where I genuinely care about my players. The main gameplay loop is also engaging and as hard as you want to make it, not to mention very stylish. Darren Korb also managed to create another soundtrack I'll be listening to long after I've beaten the game.

7 – Hollow Knight

I’m not the biggest Metroidvania fan anymore. I tend to get bored of the backtracking and stop playing after a while. Hollow Knight’s world drew me in deep, I loved finding new areas to explore and then not knowing exactly where I was in them until I found the map bug. The combat was simple but felt good. All the upgrades were meaningful. In the end I guess Hollow Knight reminded me why I used to love this genre.

6 - Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds

However debatable its originality is PUBG is a strong execution on a battle royale style multiplayer game. Simplifying the controls from its Arma mod origins, and removing crafting helped draw people in who would normally be too intimidated or disinterested in this type of game (it certainly worked on me). Beyond being a good game PUBG is important to me because it became the go to game for me and a couple of my old roommates to play together. The rhythm of a standard PUBG match allows for plenty of time to catch up and joke around with friends before the action kicks in, and then its serious time while everyone is focused on trying to survive. Some of my favorite memories of 2017 are playing PUBG, and that alone is enough to earn a spot on this list.

5 – Super Mario Odyssey

This game is part of a special memory for me. I had just finished my final term of College and was waiting for my graduation confirmation. While I was confident there was still some stress/anxiety in the back of my mind for a couple of weeks. One night my parents surprised me by gifting me a Nintendo Switch and Super Mario Odyssey. Odyssey’s joyous tone and polished gameplay helped push back the stress until I finally got my confirmation email. So, thanks to my parents and thanks Mario for helping me get past those stressful weeks.

4 – Yakuza 0

I got to experience the brilliant story and characters of Yakuza 0 twice in 2017 thanks it being the first game I bought in 2017, and the beast in the east series on Giant Bomb. Yakuza 0 was a fun ride from beginning to the end (barring some frustrating battles with guns later on), and it was a game I could play no matter what I was looking for. I’ve since played through Kiwami, and am excitedly waiting for both 6 and Kiwami 2’s western releases. Also, that Majima introduction is easily my best video game moment of the year I mean god damn!

3 – Persona 5

I love this series. I first played Persona 3 Fes after a PSN sale during the summer after my freshmen year of College. I had a lot of free time and Persona 3’s tremendous length helped keep me from going stir crazy. After beating 3 I immediately bought 4 and played through that on PS2. Then I bought a vita specifically so that I could play Golden and P3P (FeMC playthrough is the best). So, with my very condensed discovery and love of this series I was very excited for 5, and for the most part it delivered what I wanted in spades. Since I played 3 first 5’s darker tone didn’t bother me as much as people who only played 4. I also think 5 has some of the best social links in the series especially the ones outside of the main cast. Mechanically 5 is by far the best game in the series, and its just oozing with style. However, 5’s story has some serious problems in the middle, and towards the end in terms of pacing, and structure. The palaces in the back half of the game are weaker than the first half, and the main cast just isn’t as memorable as 4 which in fairness might be due to how long we’ve had 4’s cast shoved in our faces. Despite all of this, I still really enjoyed it even if my heart will always belong to 3. Hell, I played through it three times in 2017 that’s got to count for something right?

2 – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I was sure this game was going to be my number 1 for most of the year. I some ways it still is. Look I’ll level with you here, my top 2 games might as well be tied for number 1. I’m confident in saying Breath of the Wild is my favorite Zelda game. The sorrowful tone of the world tinged with a bit of hope really worked for me. Breath of the Wild’s soundtrack is woefully underrated despite how good it is and, how well its used. While the execution isn’t the best I still liked the story a whole bunch (even the not so great voice acting), and they built the most fun open world to explore in video games (seriously I’m not sure I can go back to not having a para-glider). I almost never try to do everything a game has to offer, but I found all 120 shrines, and I’m still thinking about finding all the Korok seeds because that’s just how much I want to be in that world. At the end of the day, Breath of the Wild is the best game I played all year, and I hope other designers working on open world games take note.

1 – NieR:Automata

So, if Zelda is the best game I played all year why is it #2? Well beyond the previously mentioned tie for number 1 in my heart I guess I should explain why I chose NieR:Automata for the top slot. NieR is certainly not the best game I played all year. I don’t really enjoy character action games and after coming back to NieR after several months I just turned the game down to easy and mostly let it play itself (thanks auto chips). After coming back though I started to do some of the sidequests and find little short stories that really stuck with me. I already knew what happened after you beat route A, so at that point route B didn’t bother me that much, and I thought seeing the story from a different perspective was neat. Then route C started and that’s when I realized how much I liked this game. From route C to E NieR continued to crush me emotionally (especially that part… and that other earlier part), and at the end it gave me that all important feeling of hope, and that to me at least was beautiful. I also appreciate the ways NieR plays with the structure of video games to tell a story in a way only games can. So, NieR isn’t here because it’s the best game I played in 2017, NieR is here because it’s the most important game I played in 2017.

Remember: You’re not alone, stand up as many times as it takes, you can do this!