Top Eleven of the 2020 Gamers Dozen

I guess I only write two or three blog posts a year now, but damn right one of them is going to be about my previous year of video games.  

2020 was one of my best gaming years in a long time.  I knocked out a nice chunk of the backlog, indulged in some new experiences, and (mostly) completed the goals I set out to do.  Sure, the government-mandated pandemic lockdown was a factor, and I didn't have a single game dominate my time like Heroes of the Storm in 2016 or Monster Hunter World in 2018; but I'm happy with how my 2020 went, strictly in video games.  In other respects, 2020 can fuck off forever.  

Like I do every year, in late 2019 I made a list of gaming goals for the following year, and this time around it was 13 games, with finishing 11 out of 13 being a "passing" grade.  Last year I shocked the world by getting a pass for the first time since 2012!  Naturally I have thoughts about the 11 games I finished as part of my personal goals, as well as a handful of other games that I played separate from my list of goals.  So let's discuss that second set of video games first, then organize that first set into a ranked list of eleven.  Here goes: 

Unplayed, Embarrassingly

Far Cry 4 (pictured)

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I got about 4 or 5 hours into Majora's Mask, and a more robust 15-18 hours into Far Cry 4, but ultimately got distracted by a few newer games (some of which I'll talk about elsewhere on the list soon). Worse, my PC overheated and crashed twice near the end of my Far Cry 4 play experience and I lost a few hours of gameplay. I concluded two things: I need to build a new PC, and I need more than a weekend to properly get into Majora's Mask. I was definitely enjoying both games before dropping them, so I may get to them this year, or the next. 

My Newest Gaming Obsession

Yakuza Kiwami

Yakuza: Like A Dragon (pictured)

I played three Yakuza / Ryu Ga Gotoku games in 2020 (the third of which is shows up further down this piece) and holy hell did I enjoy them. The first seven Yakuza titles are evolutions of a Shenmue-style open world and a Final Fight-style beat 'em up, with convoluted, melodramatic crime stories punctuated by truly absurd side quests and an abundance of optional content. I liked my first Yakuza game (below) so much that I ended up playing two others (above) and have already finished another two in 2021 (Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 3). I particularly loved Like A Dragon, which is now among my favorite turn-based RPGs of recent years. It's too late now. I'm a fanboy. Please bring over Kenzan and Isshin, Sega. 

Played For the Podcast

Mother 3

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium

Final Fantasy X-2

Pyre (pictured)

I played eleven games for the Retro Encounter podcast in 2020 - five in the caption above, four in the list below, and two replays (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Bastion). Retro Encounter is my passion project, and has grown into a long-running podcast with a dedicated audience. All five of the games above made for great episodes, I was glad to have all of them crossed off my personal backlog, and I enjoyed my time with... four out of the five (with apologies to all the FFX-2 fans out there). 

A Few 2020 Surprises

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Hades (pictured)

These are two games I knew about before 2020, and was somewhat interested in (being a casual Supergiant fan and VERY aware of 13 Sentinels' history of delays and press coverage), but ultimately bought on whims in late 2020 and ADORED when all was said and done. 13 Sentinels is one of the most entertaining visual novels I've ever played and Hades was my personal Game of the Year, a brilliant union of roguelike structure, RPG customization systems, and a beautifully-written story with dozens of great characters. If these two had been on my original list of targets, they would both be in the top 5 of the list below. 

So that's enough hors d'oeuvres, let's get to the main course. The eleven games I completed last year that were also part of my explicit 2020 goals, ranked in order of how much I liked playing them: 

Sollosi's Top Ten Eleven of the 2020 Gamer's Dozen

Number Eleven

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth

I think Persona Q2 placing here is illustrative of how much I genuinely enjoyed my 2020 in video games.  Q2 is a pretty good dungeon crawler with a boatload of playable characters (at least 25!) and sound mechanics. I thought the story was decent, but not as poignant as that of PQ1 and definitely reaching the lowest common denominator of Persona narratives and Persona characters' personalities. I love Persona and I like dungeon crawlers, but PQ2 is just an OK version of both of those things. I played a lot of great games in 2020, so it ranks only 11th on the list. 

Number Ten

Super Metroid 

By far the most blasphemous entry here, I hacked through Super Metroid (occasionally using a guide) and came to the realizations that: I overall prefer Castlevania; I rarely resonate with empty, bleak nonlinearity; and goddamn do I hate an excess of backtracking in games like these with no fast travel mechanics. Super Metroid has good controls (when I wasn't driven mad by clumsy wall jumping and grapple beaming) and some excellent boss fights (especially Ridley), but I think I played Super Metroid too late to be truly blown away by it. It's a great Super Nintendo game, but in 2020 I admired it more than I enjoyed it. Glad I can say I've actually beaten it, though. 

Number Nine

Tomb Raider (2013)

I invariably have to compare Tomb Raider to Uncharted, which overtook Tomb Raider as the premier tomb raiding / cliffhanging / antiquity adventuring series in the late 2000s. Tomb Raider has similar firefights, climbing segments, and item collecting to Uncharted, but is less mechanically sound or technically impressive visuals-wise. I really, really liked TR's open-world environments and its cast of main characters; Lara Croft's new look and attitude are great. I've heard the sequel is better, and I'm certainly interested in checking that one out. The Tomb Raider reboot is a fun open-world first-person shooter. Not much else I can say, haha. 

Number Eight

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore

Tokyo Mirage Sessions feels like a Persona game, with the dungeon segments populated by twisted apparition versions of Fire Emblem units and the school segments replaced with the inner workings of a Japanese talent agency; as a hardcore Persona fan and midcore Fire Emblem fan playing TMS was a great time. I loved the turn-based combat, satisfying gameplay loop(s), and vivid color palette of TMS, and had more mixed feelings about the hyper-optimistic portrayal of Japanese show business. But this is a hella-satisfying RPG as long as you have an idea of what you're getting into. 

Number Seven

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

This was perhaps the meatiest game I played all year, with a total runtime of more than 80 hours without indulging in a ton of side content, but it's a solid conclusion to the civil war storyline set up by Cold Steel I and has great turn-based combat with an extremely likable main cast. I think the game went on a bit too long and the epilogue segments were worrisome compared to the great main story, but this is a *very* good entry in one of the best JRPG series of the 2000s and 2010s. Trails of Cold Steel II made me that much more interested to try and play Trails in the Sky 3rd and the Crossbell duology (maybe some 2022 targets?). 

Number Six

Transistor

It took me at least an hour to figure out Transistor's base mechanics, but once I had a few skills to plug into the menu and took time to appreciate the incredible art direction and dialog of Transistor, I really enjoyed it. Very smart twists on action RPG gameplay, truly gorgeous style and setting, and a contender for the best final boss on this list along with the top three games. I overall prefer both Bastion and Hades, but Transistor is a lovely entry into the Supergiant catalog and helped make me a fan of theirs for life. 

Number Five

Trials of Mana (2020)

I was concerned about the Trials of Mana remake, as the 1995 original is one of my all-time favorite games and the recent Secret of Mana remake was a disappointment. But 2020 SD3 was great! It was a faithful recreation of the story with a hugely entertaining expanded job system, and beautiful portrayals of the six main characters, which is one of my favorite JRPG casts in history. I played through TOM three times in a row (!?) to see every ending and get the Platinum PSN trophy, and I have no regrets. Hell, I wouldn't mind a fourth run, sprinting through another New Game Plus. 

Number Four

Final Fantasy VII Remake

I was somewhat less concerned about this remake than the Trials of Mana remake, but only because I played a demo at E3 2019 and was blown away. Whatever misgivings I had were replaced with genuine hype, and the final product mostly delivered. FF VII-R is a bold, exciting RPG that preserves most of what's cool about the opening chapter of Final Fantasy VII with some changes that are mostly good - I won't defend certain Compilation continuity characters or Sephiroth's new role, but I liked several of the new characters and activities and LOVED the combat and stage design. This game doesn't replace original FF VII, but it's a remake that's worth playing for both new players and old curmudgeons like me. 

Number Three

Super Mario Odyssey

I can't remember the last time I played a platformer with as much JOY as Super Mario Odyssey. The zones are colorful and beautiful, the mechanics are smooth and delightfully wacky, and the game is always surprising and rewarding the player for exploring and experimenting. The New Donk City area is platforming perfection, and the final boss battle is brilliant. I'm not the biggest 3D Mario guy, but I am definitely a Mario Odyssey guy. 

Number Two

Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0 has an awesomely dramatic main story, some pretty great brawler action gameplay, and great hard-boiled dialog, but those mandatory segments miss the point. Yakuza is about the setting and the side content. Yakuza 0 takes place in two different cities in 1988 Japan, which are brilliantly realized and both celebratory and critical of the excesses of the boom economy of 1980s Japan. And the side content, holy smoke. The subplots driven by real estate business simulation and cabaret club management are excellent, but the DOZENS of mini games, arcades, and side stories are downright incredible; Yakuza does side content better than any other series, and Yakuza 0 has the best-written, funniest, and most varied side content in Yakuza. This is the game that turned me from Yakuza-curious to Yakuza-obsessed, and I think it's one of the best games on the PS4. But it's yet eclipsed by...

Number One

NieR: Automata

Maybe the most thought-provoking, emotionally raw video game I've ever played. NieR: Automata is ostensibly about a war between humanoid androids and alien robots on a post-apocalyptic Earth, but eventually descends into a bleak tale of duty, self-sacrifice, and what it means to be human. And on top of that, the moment to moment writing is excellent, the gameplay is fun when it's "normal" hacking and slashing, and said gameplay crosses the line into truly insane when it plays with top-down-shooter elements in both alternative theatres (like flying missions and hacking segments) and narrative structure (not going to explain why or how, sorry). NieR: Automata is special and it has permanent real estate in my brain. Managed by Yakuza. 

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So it only took me... five months to write this? Yeah, that fits the pace and release schedule of this blog. I'm still busy with video games, podcasting, and my career in manholes,