Chris' Top 10 games of 2019 and other things I enjoyed!
by thechris
Here we are again! It's that time again where we list a bunch of games and argue wh ythese games are so much better than the games you thought were great through some arbitrary means of fake accolades. But who cares if these lists are seemingly meaningless, because it's fun, so let's have some fun. Here are the things I enjoyed playing, listening, watching, you name it, in the year 2019. 4 Good...
Here we are again! It's that time again where we list a bunch of games and argue wh ythese games are so much better than the games you thought were great through some arbitrary means of fake accolades. But who cares if these lists are seemingly meaningless, because it's fun, so let's have some fun. Here are the things I enjoyed playing, listening, watching, you name it, in the year 2019.
4 Good Games That Didn't Release This Year
You know what we lack in our video games today? Comedy. Now there is plenty of wacky little comedic antics to be found in your average western, and or japanese RPG definitely in western RPGs one among which I'll be talking a bit about in detail later down this list. But rarely do we see many video games where the aim is to make the player laugh, have a good time, and maybe even move them emotionally a little bit--This is the soul and DNA of LucasArts classic adventure titles to which Telltale owe much because Tales from the Borderlands feels closest in spirit to that old age of adventure titles. While the plot of TftB seems a bit muddled in retrospect, the framed narrative as it is presented in the first couple of episodes certainly feels like it was gearing towards something the writers had planned but eventually scrapped for something else. But that's okay because Borderlands is fun, the story is engaging enough largely due to the great dynamic between its characters and the hilarious laughs it generates. It's a game worth returning to every year if you are feeling a bit down.
Until Fallen Order came along the Jedi Knight series were by far the best Jedi simulator out there. While the controls haven't aged well, particularly the shooting which in no way works on the recent modern console ports that came out this very year. If your blaster's reticle isn't lined up precisely with the enemy (where it glows red) then your shots simply won't hit and you might as well be a stormtrooper trying to hit wampa's butthole, because sometimes it feels like a stormtrooper simulator; It's frustrating. But swinging a lightsaber around, while parkouring off walls, and pulling off some neat special moves remains as satisfying as it ever was. Outcast doesn't have nearly the same fun factor as its sequel Jedi Academy, but it does carry a more engaging by-the-books Star Wars story with overall better pacing than the more level selective based story of its sequel. The atmosphere is good but the level design is showing its age in the worst possible way, and sometimes I find it downright impossible to know where to go without a guide. Looking past the warts, the Jedi Knight series is still fun and serves as a reminder of a time where Star Wars video games were at their best, and by extension Star Wars itself.
2. Bayonetta 2
You know what I love? Action games with a stylish combat system, yeah that's right, that's what I'm gonna frickin call them. Sue me! I love action games like Devil May Cry where the heart of it all is to annhilate your enemies while looking as cool as possible. Heir to the Devil May Cry throne Platinum Games have long since tried their utmost in taking the legacy of a beloved series into new and exciting directions in form of games like Vanquish, Metal Gear Rising and of course Bayonetta. The latter being the closest to the classic type of action title. Bayonetta 2 is everything its predecessor was but better, more weapons to experiment with several unique combos that can be chained together to make for a fantastic spectacle and just make you feel good if you manage to pull it off. I don't think I need to emphasize too much why these games are great, but I gotta say I do really dig Bayonetta herself as a character, she's fun, she's sassy and uses her sexualtiy as a weapon of empowerment in contrast to how the a-typical male protagonist would. If you are looking for a good time, or a game that aught to challenge you then look no further than Bayonetta 2.
Original Sin 2 might just be one of the best RPGs I've ever played, in no small part due to the absolutely amazing amount of work that went into the game's mechanics and design. Original Sin 2 lays out all the tools for players to make their own D&D campaign, while also presenting a professional developed campaign in form of a classic CRPG, which can even be played in co-op and still feel organic. If you play it co-op you aren't necessarily forced to follow your fellow players around, no "gather your party before venturing forward" alerts for you. You can go and converse with NPCs, start quests and have your own adventure or do it in pair like a classic party set up in a single player RPG. Original Sin offers free rein and plenty of tools that don't always seem obvious until you try it for yourself, use teleportation gloves to skip an entire section? Sure, why not. Use your boney fingers on your undead character to lockpick doors? Sure. All of this and more like your classic dialogue stat checks, or your carefully crafted backstory, can serve as tools to persuade your way through obstacles that might otherwise need to be brute forced.
Best Scum of Villainy
Emet Selch: You know as we drew close to the year's end I thought I had a pretty good idea of who my favorite villain would be out of all the video games I played this year. At first I thought I should settle with a single "best character" category but there've simply been so many fun villains this year that I couldn't settle for just that. Plus it's mine list, I'll do what I want! It's actually only been 2 days since I finally finished the latest expansion, Shadowbringers, for Final Fantasy XIV. I went into this whole MMO extravanganza solely due to the Nier content, but I got so much more from it. Disregarding all of the rich story, lore and characters from Heavensward and Stormblood, I was blown away by Shadowbringers very mature and carefully considerate storytelling in no small part due to the presence of one Emet Selch. I don't know much about Final Fantasy's overall roster of antagonists, or how they go about them except for when they don't do so well with the antagonists of Final Fantasy XIII, where I'm not sure who the antagonist is, or really much of anything that goes on in that game but it's pretty much the only one I played other than this game and XV. Emet Selch, somewhat unexpectedly, dashes all prior preconceptions long-time players or people who just finished going through the earlier parts of the story might have had of the seemingly enigmatic yet cacklingly villainous Ascians. Where one might expect a villain who shows up on inconvenient moments to laugh in your face, maybe even throew a huge ass monster in your direction, then scoot away like Kingdom Hearts' Organization XIII; Emet Selch is anything but that. In his very first meeting with the heroes, he actually goes out of his way to introduce himself to the player, and litterally says that it did cross his mind to simply side with the big bad of the current arc, and kill them, but he knows that is no different from what his predecessor Ascian did-- which didn't end so well. So what does he suggest? Cooperation! "A war waged without knowledge of the enemy is no war, it is mere bloodletting" he so candidly points out. Emet Selch doesn't seek to abandon his goals in ending the world so that he and his fellow Ascians might attain the world they desire, but he doesn't seek to hinder the heroes either. It is his hope to discover whether the goals him and his truly contradicts that of the heroes (the Scions). As he regales the story of his people you begin to see a different side to him, a side less like Kefka, and more human--One of sorrow and hate towards those the heroes worship, feelings of anguish he's had to stew in for eternity. It is quite unprecented for me to think that such a good villain could come out of an MMO yet here we are, there is of course a lot of lore and breathing room to draw from compared to a single self-contained game. Don't worry, Emet Selch, I won't soon forget you.
Honourable Mentions: Kyohei Hamura (Judgement), Cuno (Disco Elysium)
Da List 8-10
Life is Strange has always been a bit of a strange one to me, I'd never considered this series to be awe-inspiring. As video games that wants to tackle the emotionally heavy burden of being a high school student goes, I'd always prefer the Persona games. But thankfully Life is Strange, unlike Persona, isn't held down by having to do things by the book and instead opts, funny enough, for a road trip story for its sequel--The very thing that Persona 5 was originally conceived as by its director, now that's a fun fact. Life is Strange 2 doesn't always succeed in what it sets out to do, but it does do one thing. It portrays the cruel reality of not being born privileged, as someone who regrettably has to work twice as hard as most people simply to win at life.
Two brothers on the run for a crime they didn't commit, but no matter the truth, the masses have already decided their own truth feels more important than ever. If nothing else, because most games simply neglect to have their protagonists be a minority. While the choices you make on the brother's journey, that help shape your little brother as a person, seem vast and complex--They ultimately feel hollow when he resorts to being a little shit throughout most of the episodes no matter what solely because of the game's need to arrive at a single cohesive story point thoughout by the writers. It is a common issue I have with video games wanting to adapt the complex mechanics of RPGs. In terms of likeabiltiy, Daniel is no Atreus from God of War. But ultimately, Life is Strange 2 sticks the landing with a very satisfying ending that doesn't feel like a cop-out like its predecessor. And that in of itself might be why I really ended up liking it as much as I did.
I have no real history with beat 'em ups beyond the Yakuza series though said series have expanded so much with its content that it could hardly be classified as such. A pure to the bones beat 'em up is something you'll fine with the River City or Kunio-kun series which in this day and age is now spear-headed by Arc System Works a developer known for their incredibly stylish and fun fighting games. On the development side though, River City Girls is actually handled by esteemed western based developer Wayforward known for their metroidvania esque titles like the Shantae series, and this game presents a match made in heaven between Arc Systems and Wayforward.
The combat is simple, and as you gain more moves you can lay down the law on your enemies in the most brutal and satisfying fashion. I love the idea alone about you playing the girlfriends of the series long time protagonists, who is out to save their boyfriends from peril, a nice contrasts from the usual standards set by video games were it not for the game's infuriating ending I would have retained these feelings. But ultimately the experience is still satisfying, the animation is beautiful in all its modern 2D pixels glory and the soundtrack is pretty bombing. But that ending though is what keeps it near the bottom of the list.
8. Astral Chain
Platinum Games is a really good developer, while they've dished out a couple of average to pretty mildly contemptible titles post-Bayonetta 2 it feels like they are slowly starting to find their footing again. One thing I wanna say about Astral Chain is that I appreciate Platinum's desire to expand upon their the usual action portfolio, it's just that the things Astral Chain does well is pretty much the action but not so much anything else. Let's get the greviances out of the way--The decision to make the playable protagonist a mute, no matter which of the twins you pick, despite them individually having a voice and being fully articulate when the players is NOT PLAYING AS THEM, is just absurd. You are not allowed to use the excuse of "We want the player to be able to immerse themselves into the protaognists shoes as their avatar" because the protagonist is predetermined with an actual backstory and everything that goes beyond the usual blank slate. It didn't make sense in Digital Devil Saga either, and it doesn't make sense here, and it certainly doesn't make sense in another 2019 game I'm going to talk about later. Bayonetta had a voice, the protagonists of Nier Automata had a voice, these games don't allow much roleplaying to handwave these recurring complaints away this time.
My other issue with Astral Chain is that when you're not in the action, you are spending time exploring the incredibly dense, and uninteresting streets of the game's world (I forgot the name of it). Usually this is when you are investigating crime scenes, as you are a police officer I guess. The investigations amounts to the usual shenanigans popularized by the Arkham games, where you recreate the crime scenes through heavily scripted and hand holdy "mind palace" esque holograms. In a post Obra Dinn world this is honestly getting old, the story and characters are for the lack of a better word incredibly generic and anime with none of the depth that Yoko Taro had to offer with the Nier follow up. And my god the platforming, it's like somehow even worse than Devil May Cry. Astral Chain was close to being relegated to a disappointment but I have to say that after a while I started to like the combat once you unlock the game's equivalent to that of a "Devil Trigger" your character starts fighting like they are Bayonetta and it begins to feel as flashy as any other high quality Platinum product. Astral Chain might not be encouraging but it is ultimately still a fun romp with cool action set pieces, decent combat, and pretty art aesthetic.
Best Films of 2019
I didn't get around to go to the cinema as much this year, I usually frequent the smaller cafe cinemas/art cinemas since most blockbusters that are recurrently showin in the big ones aren't all that interesting to me. But what I did watch was really good so I'll list them in a no particular order below.
I Heard You Paint Houses or The Irishman if you will
At the age of 77, Martin Scorsese reverts back to his younger self back when his portfolio consisted largely of hardboiled gangster flicks, but that isn't giving him credit. Martin Scorsese knows how to make gangster films better than most people, and he really has fun when he does it. The phrase "I heard you paint houses" is shown at least twice in this movie, and uttered by few of the characters it is clear he finds it amusing as much as I do, very dark and cold akin to that of Jack Nicholson's "Gee, she fell funny" line from the 2006 Scorsese movie The Departed where he nonchalantly executes a couple on a beach. And this is a indeed a dark film, and the title is probably also more appropriate than what we ended up with--It is the title on the book which the the film is based, and also because protagonist Frank Sheeran (played by an old Robert DeNiro) spends most of the 3 hour length time painting houses with the blood and brains of his employer's enemies.
In the old days, a Scorsese film would end the moment its protagonist escapes the criminal underworld, whereas in the Irishman we are left to linger on what happens next given its design choice to be a framed narrative told by an old, decrepit, Sheeran. DeNiro's character relays his story to an unseen party, whose identity isn't revealed until the near the end of the film, about his decade spanning life as a hitman for notorious mob boss Russel Buffalino (Joe Pesci), his involvement with union leader James Riddle Hoffa (Al Pacino), as well as his strained relationship to his daughter Peggy (the only one who could see him for the monster he is). We are initially introduced to the character via a continuous travel steadicam shot that guides us through the halls of the retirement home all the way to where it is sitting, a fun little homage to the Copacabana Night Club scene from Goodfellas.
In one moment Sheeran remembers back to him first meeting Buffalino in the 1950s, the transition from meat supplier to deadly hitman based on a coincidental meeting, in the next moment he recalls a long drive Sheeran partook with Buffalino and their wives, seemingly innocent scene of levity until the purpose of the drive is revealed later on. Scorsese seeks to establish this almost mundane tone to reflect on Sheeran's own mental state which is that he believes that none of the stuff he does for Buffalino is wrong, it's just a job like any other, until he is eventually confronted by it through the eyes of his daughter. The Irishman might not be the greatest flick Scorsese has ever dished out, the application of CGI and special effects to make Robert DeNiro look as young as he is in Goodfellas, makes for some weird uncanny moments like that time when they brought Grand Moff Tarkin back in Rogue One with a completely different voice. A lot of it is noticeable, but sometimes it also works like it does with a slightly more aged Joe Pesci, or the retired, decrepit Frank Sheeran who is telling the story. "It is what it is" as Joe Pesci says. The links that are drawn between President Kennedy's assassination and that of the mob, possibly connected to the famous feud between his brother Robert (then Attorney General) and Hoffa makes for some interesting speculation. All in all, The Irishman is a good film that doesn't excuse its protagonist from his deeds because nothing is worse than having your own family, let alone your children, think of you as a monster.