I surprised even myself this year. My 2019 list of gaming goals was moderately ambitious (mostly because I haven't completed 10 target games since 2014) but I took care of business! My stated goal was completing at least 11 out of 13 targets, and I managed that to fall short by only one. Yes, it's in large part because I included some 2019 games I really wanted to play and made sure not to overdo it on RPGs, but the strategy paid off and I almost made it. So here's another attempt. My 2020 gaming goals shall be approximately equal to my 2019 goals in quantity.
I avoided PC games in my 2019 list, which half-worked and half-backfired because A) I actually completed my personal goals; and B) my biggest distraction from the whole list was Final Fantasy XIV, a PC game. It turns out I *can* commit to playing PC games, so they're back on the list again. Here's how I plan to break down my 2020 goals: three PS4 and Vita backlog games, three Switch and 3DS backlog games, three PC backlog games, three 2020 remakes, and one retro title.
It's a little weird that several of my most-anticipated 2020 games were remakes. I decided to embrace it as a gimmick, and now "three 2020 remakes" are on the list. Said list has the same handful of caveats from last year: these games may or may not be part of Retro Encounter podcast episodes; these won't be the ONLY games I play this year; and games absent from the list below CANNOT count towards my official gaming goals unless there are extenuating circumstances.
I have the 13 targets listed below in alphabetical order, except for the retro game which is placed last. I tried to be a little diverse in my selection, but avoided fighting games (because beating an arcade mode in a fighting game takes a few hours at most and shouldn't count) and tried to keep JRPGs at under 50% of the slate. This list also has extreme recency bias, with only 2 of the 13 releasing before 2013 (and I'll be playing both of them on versions much more recent). And my official benchmark is the same as last year: A passing grade is officially 11 games beaten out of 13. I can do this again. I think. Here's the list:
2020 Gamers' Dozen
I played Far Cry 3 as part of my 2015 quests (it's been so long that I had to look up the specific year) and truly enjoyed it. I don't play many shooters, but Far Cry 3 had a good premise, some great characters, and a satisfying loop of exploration and firefights with Ubisoft's typical open-world trappings, which I'm not quite sick of yet. Naturally, I've been interested in trying more Far Cry since that successful 2015 step outside my comfort zone, and Far Cry 4 is an obvious choice. I'm intrigued by the Central Asian setting and the eccentric despot of a new villain. Plenty to work with here.
At the risk of sounding like a stereotypical gamer raised in the 1990s, I was completely blown away by Final Fantasy VII at the time of its release. I was 11 years old for most of 1997, and everything from the graphics to the audio to the story of FF VII seemed a level of technical and tonal sophistication above the RPGs I grew up with. Now, well over 20 years later, I still like FF VII but maybe with less intensity than back in the late 1990s. The remake, which has been a long time coming, looks and plays beautifully. I was STUNNED by the demo I played at E3 in June 2019. I don't know in how many parts the FF VII Remake will be released, but they have my money for the first episode.
I played Trails of Cold Steel this past summer, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Avoiding spoilers, Cold Steel I ends on a cliffhanger that sets up some huge drama for the sequel, and I'm very game to experience that drama firsthand. Cold Steel I was mechanically solid, had a great cast of characters, and some excellent world-building. Cold Steel II is the 7th game in a 9-game cycle (!?) and has expanded the story beautifully with each installment (of which I've played 3). I think Cold Steel II is positioned to pay off what Cold Steel I set up, and I'm 100% here for it.
This usual suspect has appeared a whopping five times in the previous seven annual lists (2013 through 2019), and I still haven't made it past the first few hours. I also bought the snazzy 3DS port of the game in early 2018 intending to play it later that year, but never started it. This is unreasonable of me, as I enjoy most of the Zelda games I've played (enough for a top ten list over a year ago) and no longer have major hang-ups about 3D Zelda (which I documented on this blog in 2011 and 2012). Majora's Mask is an offbeat Groundhog Day scenario black sheep of the Zelda series, beloved by fans, and the favorite Zelda game of at least three of my friends. Maybe the sixth time's the charm?
Nier: Automata
One of the surprise critical successes and cult hit RPGs of 2017, Nier: Automata seems like an incredible accomplishment of game design. I haven't played the original Nier, but Automata is so popular and acclaimed that I think I should skip ahead to the more recent phenomenon (though I may yet go back to the original later). A parable on the nature of existence and being, played out by beautiful robot assassins and with some truly subversive narrative and gameplay ideas? Hell yes. I bought this copy off a friend who was selling parts of his game collection in 2018 (shoutout Marcos) and now is the perfect time to play it.
One of the surprise critical successes and cult hit RPGs of 2017, Nier: Automata seems like an incredible accomplishment of game design. I haven't played the original Nier, but Automata is so popular and acclaimed that I think I should skip ahead to the more recent phenomenon (though I may yet go back to the original later). A parable on the nature of existence and being, played out by beautiful robot assassins and with some truly subversive narrative and gameplay ideas? Hell yes. I bought this copy off a friend who was selling parts of his game collection in 2018 (shoutout Marcos) and now is the perfect time to play it.
One of the three unplayed games from my list of 2019 targets, Persona Q2 is a dense dungeon-crawler in the mold of the Etrian Odyssey series of cartography-RPGs, but with Persona-inspired combat and monsters, a Persona Gaiden-chapter narrative, and characters from Personas 3, 4, and 5. Lot of Persona in PQ2. I was a big fan of the first Persona Q, especially since the dungeon crawling preserves the fun map-building of the more-hardcore Etrian Odyssey games but smoothes out the difficulty curve. The only things preventing me from getting to PQ2 in 2019 were Final Fantasy XIV and time, so maybe I can finally make it happen in 2020.
I'm not the biggest fan of 3D Mario (!). This is mostly because my Mario fandom is almost entirely rooted in the 2D NES games, several handheld games, and most of the Mario RPGs, but also partly because I never owned an N64. I just don't have much nostalgia for 3D Mario, and even though I liked Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy a lot, I didn't play them until many years after they were new. Thus, I wasn't clamoring to buy a copy of Super Mario Odyssey at launch, but I did pick it up with credits earlier this year and I'm excited to give it a shot. I absolutely cannot resist a Mario game with a zone called New Donk City.
One of my greatest temptations to get a Wii U for cheap became one of three hotly-anticipated 2020 remakes for my list. I never ended up getting a Wii U; three of my five most-wanted games for that console already have Switch ports, so I felt I made the right decision. Anyhow, TMS#FE is a Persona-like RPG made by Atlus starring teenagers working at a talent agency, who balance life acting in TV shows and singing for audiences with summoning Fire Emblem characters (!?) to fight evil or something. One of them is trying to be the next Fake Kamen Rider and I 100% support it. I don't totally know how it all works, but I'm into it.
I've played several Tomb Raider games (a few that I own, a few at sleepovers in the 1990s), but never finished one. I picked up the Tomb Raider reboot on Steam a few years ago because it had a lot of positive buzz, and also because I figured this fresh start was an ideal time to really try to get into the series. If I really like this one, I'm sure I could find Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015) at a decent price and have it on deck. Or maybe make it past the first 20 minutes of Tomb Raider: Legend.
The artist formerly known as Seiken Densetsu III received an official worldwide release in 2019 as part of the Mana Collection for Nintendo Switch, rebranded "Trials of Mana." Simultaneous with that announcement was a full remake for modern systems, for the game's 25th anniversary. SD3 is one of my favorite games of all time, and I happily bought the Mana Collection so I could permanently retire my old bootlegged ROM version. I'm excited to try the new remake, especially if Duran is less sluggish and Kevin is still awesome. Look at that beautiful new character art!
By far the briefest game on this list (unless the SNES game at the bottom is shorter than 8 hours), Transistor is the second major title from SuperGiant Games (after Bastion) and I'm extremely intrigued by the programming-inspired skill system and cyberpunk setting. Bastion is the only SuperGiant game I've finished, but I've owned Transistor for a few years and I hope to finally get to it in 2020. I've heard mixed reactions to Transistor and I feel that I need to form my own opinion. Now's the time.
I haven't played many open-world urban-action games (basically just ~50% of GTA: Vice City and all of Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, unless inFamous counts, in which case the number skyrockets from two to... five) but Yakuza has slowly chipped away at my resistance to trying a new one. The cult favorite series looks unique, hilarious, and intense at various points, and I bought Yakuza 0 on sale earlier this year. I'm a little hesitant on this one, since Yakuza is comprised of seven huge main-series games and several spinoffs, and if the Fist of the North Star game I recently finished is any indication, that's hundreds of hours. I'm worried I might get in too deep if I end up adoring Yakuza 0, but I'll risk it.
Super Metroid
Here it is. I finished Suikoden II in 2018 and Super Mario World in 2019, so now Super Metroid is my unquestioned most-embarrassing game missing from my played list. I rented Super Metroid once or twice in the mid-to-late 1990s but never even found Kraid (I think I was just before that boss battle, doing research on it decades later). I'm also not the biggest Metroid fan in general, and the only game in the series I've beaten is Metroid Fusion (which was excellent). So I'm going to correct that injustice, and play Super Metroid using my SNES Classic later this year. It's been too long coming.
Contingency Plan: if any of the 2020 titles above are delayed into 2021 (mostly staring at FF VII Remake here), I will replace it with Hollow Knight. This is the second time Hollow Knight has appeared in this space as a contingency plan game, but it's the perfect balance of "this game looks cool and comes very recommended" and "it's kinda long and I'm not sure I'll love it" with just a hint of "I'd definitely like to cross it off the old backlog list." Ideal backup title.
I really, really wanted to add Ys IX: Monstrum Nox to the list, but it doesn't have an announced North American release date; it dropped in Japan in September 2019. If Ys IX does come out in the US in 2020 (which is possible), it would be in the second half of the year. Alas. If it comes out I'm definitely playing it, but I didn't have enough confidence in that to add it to the list, and had no difficulty at all thinking of other 2020 games I'll want to play upon release (three of them happened to be remakes). Bravely Default II was another consideration for basically the same reason, but it isn't even out in Japan yet and lacks a confirmed worldwide release date.
I'm also about 90% sure I'll get back into FF XIV and beat Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers in 2020, but I hesitated to put it on the list. My FF XIV fandom is strong, but unpredictable. Plus, I put Heavensward and Stormblood on my 2017 list and that went about as poorly as it possibly could've. So Shadowbringers stays off the list, even though I'm pretty sure I'm going to revisit my favorite (and pretty much only) MMORPG.
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So that's that! 13 target games, plus 1 backup, 2 wild cards, and the admission that FF XIV will fuck things up again. If I finish 11 of those 13 targets I'll call it a win, and hopefully increase my gaming goals consecutive wins streak to a whopping 1. Happy New Year!
I really, really wanted to add Ys IX: Monstrum Nox to the list, but it doesn't have an announced North American release date; it dropped in Japan in September 2019. If Ys IX does come out in the US in 2020 (which is possible), it would be in the second half of the year. Alas. If it comes out I'm definitely playing it, but I didn't have enough confidence in that to add it to the list, and had no difficulty at all thinking of other 2020 games I'll want to play upon release (three of them happened to be remakes). Bravely Default II was another consideration for basically the same reason, but it isn't even out in Japan yet and lacks a confirmed worldwide release date.
I'm also about 90% sure I'll get back into FF XIV and beat Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers in 2020, but I hesitated to put it on the list. My FF XIV fandom is strong, but unpredictable. Plus, I put Heavensward and Stormblood on my 2017 list and that went about as poorly as it possibly could've. So Shadowbringers stays off the list, even though I'm pretty sure I'm going to revisit my favorite (and pretty much only) MMORPG.
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So that's that! 13 target games, plus 1 backup, 2 wild cards, and the admission that FF XIV will fuck things up again. If I finish 11 of those 13 targets I'll call it a win, and hopefully increase my gaming goals consecutive wins streak to a whopping 1. Happy New Year!
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