Best of 2017

I keep an ongoing list of games that I play throughout the year, mostly to aide my failing memory around the end of it when I do these write-ups. Sometime around March I added a comment of “I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to pick a GotY this time”, and by December that’s ended up still being a huge understatement.

This year has been incredible for games; there hasn’t been a 12 month period this consistently strong and varied for at least 10 years, and 7 or 8 items on my list could’ve topped my previous years’ lists easily.

Also, as someone with a huge boner for great soundtracks, I’m happy so many of the 2017 releases had killer music & sound design. I could try to write up a top 10 alone of amazing tracks this year and still run into the same problem of trying to cut it down to ten.

Games that came out this year that I literally did not have time to play much of:

Nioh

Danganronpa V3

Games I literally did not have time to play even though trusted friends said they were great:

What Remains of Edith Finch, Night in the Woods, Gorogoa, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Steamworld Dig 2, Yakuza 0, Divinity: Original Sin II

No seriously, this year was crazy.

I’m making a top 14.

Joint 12^th

Dead Cells

It’s early access, but I was itching for a rogue-like and the art style + difficulty sold me on at least giving this a try.

Fire Emblem Heroes

I really like Fire Emblem games, but when I play them I go into spreadsheet mode and have to pre-plan my teams, what weapons I want to give everyone, who to pair off to optimise their offspring and generally become that Math Lady meme.

Heroes put that on mobile, simplified the combat while still keeping a degree of tactics to it and let me occasionally press a button to try and pull as many versions of Tharja as possible.

Joint 11^th

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

I am very bad at this game. Everything is kind of clunky and weird, the frame rate is tsundere as hell towards me and I don’t generally like shooters, let alone online-only ones.

I’ve played 40+ hours of this, purely as a medium to chat and play with a couple of friends and it’s been one of the most fun (and heart-pounding) things I’ve done all year.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

OST Highlight:

Roaming the Wastes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc92Kphmsrs

I am the anime JRPG lunatic in my friends group, finished this with nearly 80 hours into it and the fact it still couldn’t crack my top 10 is purely down to the quality of the stuff above it.

XC2 is a smorgasbord of design decisions that varied from ‘very clever’ to ‘have you even played a video game before’, with an anime aesthetic that goes between slapstick, great dialogue, bad dialogue and some genuinely touching scenes at the drop of a hat.

I could list a whole number of things that irritated, confused or bemused me but despite all these niggles the game somehow manages to be a lot more than the sum of its parts.

The battle system becomes rewarding once you get your head around it, and the world they’ve built is genuinely fun to explore. The voice acting I will maintain is generally good, though sometimes lacking in direction, but I’m happy to give a slight pass to a game that has a main cast with Yorkshire, Scottish and Welsh accents. Also they swear a lot, which to me is hilarious. I took more screenshots of that than anything else.

One part with no real complaints is the music. Like XC1, the OST is fantastic.

No. 10: The Sexy Brutale

OST Highlight:

The Sexy Brutale Main Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpUHtDBZWyQ

The Sexy Brutale is one of those games I recommend to people and usually have to follow up with an explanation of why the heck it’s called that.

Don’t let the name put you off, it’s an excellent little isometric puzzle game where you’re trying to stop a bunch of guests being murdered by following them and observing their stories, then rewinding time to start the day again and stop whatever malady affected them.

All of this is wrapped up in a really solid aesthetic, a combination of a masquerade and casino motif, set in this grand mansion with some neat gothic overtones, all while the soundtrack pumps out a variety of swing/electroswing music that times perfectly to capture a sense of dread for each murder that occurs.

It’s a really neat 3/4 hour murder-mystery game.

No. 9: Horizon Zero Dawn

OST Highlight:

Aloy's Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w9B7uwLZeI

One of the big ones that came out early in the year, HZD hits a lot of great world-building notes and looks gorgeous while doing it. Aloy is a fantastic lead character (Ashly Burch does a great job as usual) and following her discovery of how humanity managed to Fuck It Up™ this time, was the most engrossing part of the game for me.

I really enjoyed that sense of mystery surrounding how humanity fell, having it uncovered bit-by-bit and it was one of those few games where we could share theories about how it was going to end as we were playing.

The actual combat and world traversing was pretty solid, but wore out its welcome for me about halfway through the game – I felt like running past most of the new machines and eventually just mainlined the story because I really wanted to see how it would end.

Saying that, the story payoff is very well done, and hits some very good emotional moments and it’s well worth finishing. Also Lance Reddick’s voice is dope as hell and the only reason I could stand listening to Sylens for any stretch of time.

The soundtrack is another that’s excellent, not quite having the pomp and thunder of something like Xenoblade, but it has a very suitable score that enhances a lot of the story scenes in the background.

No. 8: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

OST Highlight:

Menu Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_XTdmiz4pE

I don’t tend to play shooters unless there’s a good story/hook attached, but after so many people spoke about ‘moments’ in Wolfenstein II I figured I should probably give it a go. Melting Nazis with a giant laser was also a pretty big draw, mind.

Mechanically, it’s a fairly standard FPS, and I found most of the levels where you’re doing actual shooting just a vehicle to go from one story moment to the next. If you asked me whether I enjoyed playing Wolfenstein I’d probably shrug my shoulders – it has some odd difficulty spikes, and a lot of the levels are fairly confusing and uninteresting to navigate.

However, if you asked me whether I enjoyed the characters and/or story of Wolfenstein then holy shit does that game go places.

All of the little conversations and details between the shooting sections are really well-done, I wanted to talk to every member of my submarine family and read all of the newspapers/journals I came across. A lot of thought went into the world-building and coming up with a believable alternate history, Roswell being the highlight (the KKK guys learning German, the US woman slagging off Austrians for not being ‘pure’).

It’s hard to talk about moments in Wolfenstein vaguely, because there’s so many amazing bits in that game which somehow manage to flow between hyper-violence and brutality, to heart-wrenching flashbacks, to wandering around the old farm house, to the audition etc, and it does it all with some of the slickest cinematography and camera work I’ve seen in a game (The ‘debate and drink’ with Horton especially).

I would wax on about the moments in this game for ages, it’s just got so many good ones.

Here’s a spoilered list of things I just need to shout about:

Rolling around in a wheelchair shooting Nazis

Exploring the old farm house, killing the hell out of your horrible dad and then being lifted into the sky

Being executed and them CATCHING YOUR HEAD AND PUTTING IT ON A NEW BODY AND WTF!!

The entire Birthday party

The Audition on Venus, a 10 minute scene where you AUDITION TO HITLER, ON ANOTHER PLANET while he’s a paranoid, senile old man. BJ’s amazingly-bad acting is also amazing.

Oh and I know musical taste is subjective and all that, but the credits song might just be the biggest wtf of the whole game.

No. 7: Pyre

OST Highlights:

Path to Glory - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQhbktFT7HI

The Herald -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMPFutkr_-g

After the announcement of Pyre I didn’t know whether I’d really like it, but at this point in time I’d try anything that Supergiant puts out as I thought Bastion was incredible and enjoyed my time with Transistor.

As it happens, I really like Fantasy Basketball Visual Novels.

The gameplay of the Rites is a cool idea, and one that only wore out its welcome for me right as I was finishing the game, but it’s everything else around it that really stands out.

One of the things I appreciated the most after finishing the game was this story felt very well-tailored to my personal playthrough. I chose which characters to speak more often to, who left at the end of each cycle and the fact there’s no ‘perfect playthrough’ really pushed the idea in the ending that the combination of events that occurred were entirely because of my agency as a player.

The fact it never really surfaced to me as any set of mechanical choices only spoke to the strength of the writing, and when I finished the final rite all I wanted to know was what happened to all of my favourite characters, which was the vast majority of them.

I praised Trails of Cold Steel last year for having such strong character writing that I could remember many of the details of even the NPCs. Pyre is just as strong, and I can remember more names and personalities from this game than probably any other game I played this year.

The soundtrack. I don’t really know how Darren Korb keeps doing it. I’m going to keep running out of ways to say ‘it’s very good’, but the background tracks suit the vastness of the Downside, the vocal tracks give a great personal lift to the specific character moments and all of the various Team tracks fit so well with each of their vibes.

No. 6: Super Mario Odyssey

OST Highlights:

Steam Garden Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFecEIv5TEw

Pre-Final Boss Level - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBZPSjF982E

Super Mario Odyssey is just pure, distilled fun. I can’t really describe it in any other way.

Each of the levels are so varied, the things you possess mix-up the gameplay in some really creative ways and it’s so difficult to stop when you’re falling over ways to get moons.

Odyssey met the bar of my expectations after seeing all the reveal footage, and the contained level designs are peppered with small nods and references which feel specifically aimed at people like me, who’ve been playing these games for 25+ years.

The combination of the new style of levels and also call-backs to older Mario games were some of my favourite parts of the game. New Donk City sums this up overall, from the finding all the band members to come together to play the original Mario theme, controlling an RC car while a remix of the SNES Mario Kart music plays, having Pauline be the mayor, and then finally building up to this festival where you play 2D Mario and beat Donkey Kong.

The end of the game made me break into the biggest smile - Possessing Bowser and watching all the past versions of him, from SMB, SMB3, SMW etc, fly through the air before you run around smashing walls and breathing fire.

No. 5: Persona 5

OST Highlights:

Life Will Change (when you're about to pull off your heist) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAFc2VzZXU0

Life Goes On (the school exams theme) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKGvl9fVnmk

While I’m used to ignoring information on games that have already released in Japan, Persona 5 was on some mass level of hype that I’m honestly amazed I managed to avoid any spoilers for it prior to release.

I don’t need to speak too much about the menus and vibe of that game, it wins ‘Most Stylish UI’ for me hands down and even after 100 hours with it I still didn’t get tired of the battle cycle – which is almost entirely down to the music.

The dungeon designs are mostly excellent and they do a good job filling out the personalities of a lot of the characters, even if a lot of it is buried behind the confidants and some of the main cast are given the short end of the stick because they’re introduced way too late (looking at you Haru).

Sojiro and Ryuji turn into some of the most solid characters in the game, the interactions with Futaba and her dungeon were genuinely touching and when the game catches up to the intro it honestly did fool me for a few seconds whether I’d cocked up the choices.

On reflection, P5 doesn’t quite top P4 or P3 for me overall, but I had a lot of fun playing through it and at the end you get to shoot a god in the face so I mean that’s rad.

Makoto best girl.

No. 4: Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

OST Highlights:

Crimson Fighter (The Ancient Species battle theme) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuRpYFwMzHw

A-to-Z (True final boss theme) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz9yQ-qzWiM

As the aforementioned JRPG lunatic, I have been an actual lunatic to not get around to playing most of Falcom’s catalogue until last year, including Ys.

Other than The Sexy Brutale, this is the only other game on the list where I didn’t know whether it would be for me and decided to take a punt anyway. It ended up easily being the most pleasant surprise of the year.

Ys VIII is one of the snappiest and most fluid action RPGs I’ve ever played, and there’s an amazing sense of flow and speed the entire time whether you’re in combat, running around the island chopping your way through monsters or even just traversing the environment. There’s no real ‘walk’ speed in Ys, you race around the town and overworld at the same pace you fight and it’s strangely liberating to just…not stop.

The soundtrack only accentuates this with some delightfully fast-paced guitar tracks, where some of the overworld themes are so awesome they’d easily fit in as boss music in other games, which only makes the boss themes in Ys even better when they do show up.

The first track I linked has jumped into one of my favourite battle themes in an RPG. I’m a sucker for fast metal for boss themes, but throw in violins and that relentless drum beat and I’m sold. That’s not to say there aren’t quieter moments in the soundtrack and the game as a whole, the OST overall would be my favourite of the year if not for my number 1.

I was told prior to playing it that Ys was more focused on action, with the story taking a back seat, yet I think they did a really great job with the intertwining narratives and Dana is probably the most likeable, well-rounded character in the whole game. For someone that could come across as the ‘naive maiden in a skimpy costume’, she’s smart, dedicated and incredibly endearing.

The only negative on the experience was the clunky localisation. It ended up not affecting me a huge deal, as I can forgive a whole host of mechanical/dialogue problems with a game if I’m really enjoying it, but it’s rough in spots and can bring you out of the experience at a few points. It really felt like there wasn’t anyone in charge of keeping the localisation together, instead having multiple translators just literally translate texts without a lot of context.

Apparently they’re completely redoing it as a free patch, which in itself is kind of bonkers, but I’d honestly recommend it regardless.

THAT BATTLE MUSIC THOUGH SERIOUSLY.

No. 3: Tales of Berseria

OST Highlight:

True Will (Pretty much Velvet's theme) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXNe_nwqlak

Hey, it’s Tales! Anyone who knows me has heard me go on at length about how this is my favourite series, warts and all, and I’m still so happy to see it’s doing well enough in the west that they keep making (and localising) them.

After a host of in-drama, the fan-base panning of the last entry and the old producer leaving, this is the first Tales headed by Yasuhiro Fukaya and came with the uncertainty of whether they could deliver on ‘fixing the faults’ of the last entry.

Berseria is the best Tales game they’ve made in years.

For its negatives you can tell they’re still working on a budget, as the dungeons are generally linear/uninspired and the equipment management is still fairly convoluted (though still miles ahead of Zestiria).

The main draw of the Tales games are their character interactions and personalities, particularly between all the party members. Tales games have ‘skits’, which are overworld conversations between characters that occur while you’re playing that really add to the flavour and dynamics of the cast.

Thankfully, Berseria has one of the best main casts in the series with the standout being the protagonist, Velvet, which makes it even better than this is the first Tales game with a solo Female lead.

Part of what makes the cast and story so refreshing is that you’re not playing the noble heroes out to stop the bad guy. Velvet’s motivation of just really, really wanting to kill Artorius begins from what happens to her at the start of the game, and while it falters and bends slightly as the story progresses ultimately that drive carries its way through the entire game.

I also don’t want to sell her motivations short as a simple ‘revenge’ plan though; there’s a hugely pivotal moment about 2/3rds through the game where her thinking is completely turned on its head, which culminates in an absolutely fantastic and emotional scene to carry the plot on.

The Voice Acting in the game and the dub is actually pretty stellar, and Cristina Valenzuela nails the voice of Velvet in that scene particularly.

I’ve only covered Velvet and I could rave about the characters all day, Laphicet has a wonderful growth through the game, Eizen is an excellent ‘cool older-brother’ figure with very dorky interests and Magilou is Magilou. The crew come across as this ragtag family and it's super endearing to follow them.

No.2: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

OST Highlight:

The Cooking Jingle! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X49Xn8KI70w

After writing a thesis on Berseria, writing less about Breath of the Wild is less about the quality of the game and more that it’s a known factor why this game has really clicked with me.

Skyward Sword was the first Zelda I played but never finished, and after putting in 100 hours into Breath of the Wild it’s clear that the change of direction was exactly what I needed.

Sure the story is piecemeal and not great, the VA is all over the place (Sean Chiplock and some others being the exceptions) and the difficulty spikes of the rain do nothing to temper the sheer awe and wonder of exploring the world.

I struggle with some open world games that have lots of side quests/points of interest, because I want to meticulously go through the environments area-by-area to make sure I don’t miss anything. Breath of the Wild let me completely break free of that mind-set and just…go somewhere and explore.

Being able to climb anything sounds simple, but is so empowering and it just let me forget about the rest of the actual world for the entire time I played.

No.1: NieR: Automata

OST Highlight:

The entire Soundtrack.

Copied City - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOU7ZuSJBh0

Vague Hope - Cold Rain - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT2wfhCCpRo

A Beautiful Song (The Opera House boss theme) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMKskuvJTcs

NieR: Automata is equally very hard to recommend to people, and one of my favourite games of all time.

You can deconstruct NieR down to its mechanics and find a relatively decent game.

The combat is a satisfactory Platinum offering, boosted by the customisation + flexibility of the chip system, but was never especially difficult or engaging outside the optional fights. The environments are solid, though not spectacular.

The thing is, you really have to play it all the way through to the end.

30+ hours, with one of the playthroughs being very similar to the first. It’s a caveat that usually brings a lot of scorn, I mean if a game can’t keep your attention to get all the way to the ‘good part’ then is it even any good? I think bouncing off NieR because of this is completely understandable, I enjoyed my entire time with it but there’s a lot that won’t click with people.

With that said, NieR really hit me in a way that very few games have, and I still think about the experience of playing it long after I completed it. It’s almost impossible for me to cover everything I like about it, and my best attempts have been 20 minute rambling sessions because there’s so much to talk about.

The thing I think of most when going back to the game are the character moments and little stories that exist all over the world. You see themes that are dealt with as you play the game like religion, sex, pacifism and the nature of humanity – it all sounds pretentious as hell but it’s handled really well, and the majority of it comes through all of the different robots, androids and communities that you encounter in the game.

All these little stories prop up the entire atmosphere and feel of the game - you find robots struggling with why they even exist, imitating various aspects of humanity in their search for meaning to their lives. Some form religious cults, some choose to fight, some form communities and try to live as ‘families’ and it’s just fascinating seeing all these different ethoses that are manifested in these little talking bits of metal.

I haven’t even mentioned the soundtrack so far, but as someone who rates the OST for the original NieR as one of my favourites I wasn’t disappointed. It’s beautiful, I regularly listen to it and I really can’t say enough good things about it.

On top of that, they created an entire fake language to sing in!

There are seamless 8-bit versions of nearly every track!

The end of the game ties into the soundtrack in a spoilery way that really shows they paid attention to the music!

While actually going through the game, the structure of the game itself and the way the larger plot plays out is also fascinating. The ‘multiple playthroughs’ part sounds daunting but is vital to the pay off at the very end (and it’s effectively just new chapters of a single story anyway, with one exception).

Going through that world and all those moments with the main characters, repeating sections of the game from a different perspective with additional context giving you more information about the grander picture is incredibly satisfying.

All while this somewhat depressing and thoughtful story is playing out, the game messes with you in how it even presents itself as a game. You switch from character action sequences to a vertical scrolling shoot-em-up, you hack into robots while the soundtrack seamlessly shifts into an 8-bit rendition of whatever was playing, you have bullet-hell sequences, twin-stick shooter segments, and there is literally a part in the game where they play back a recording of something you did 10 hours earlier. It’s just super cool.

There are big moments that are really affecting, and I can point to a number of story beats that were really emotional, but the final ending feels like a culmination of everything you did to get to that point.

It’s in all a very touching moment for the plot of the game, a clever usurping of game mechanics, and a thought-provoking question about people that makes you think there might just be some good in the world.

One of the best parts about the final ending of the game is that it does things that only a video game can do. There’s no equivalent with films, comics or other media, and I find doing something this unique and personal with my hobby something that’s really, really amazing.

It won’t click with everyone, but I absolutely love NieR: Automata.