I figure it's late enough in the year to make our judgements. :p
I will do mine in the form of a top 11 list. Not to celebrate coming into 2011, nor a Nostolgia Critic referance, but because I did a normal top 10, finished it, and completely spaced a game (The one that will be at number 6) and didn't want to delete my summary of what was then number 10. So, here you go. My top 11 games of 2010.
11. Final Fantasy XIII
This game has quite a bit going for it. If it fits your taste, the battle system is very enjoyable, though it doesn’t have a wide stretching appeal. As for me, I did enjoy it, though the game was slightly bogged down by the Eidolon fights.
It had some really well done graphics, and some of the series best character development. The problem, however, is somewhere along the way the creators forgot that they were suppose to be developing a plot, all of which got shoved into the last stretch of the game.
Though it did give us some awesome characters, Snow being enjoyable to watch, though Sahz was the games show stealer.
Overall, a decent game that’s held back by a few glaring flaws.
10. Bayonetta
Yeah, a lot of people will disagree with this I’m guessing. But as far as humour goes, this game had me hooked the moment the short fat guy pissed on a dudes grave. I won’t complain about plot, cause at no point does it take itself seriously. The characters may be shallow, but are very funny to watch, as well as some great graphics and visuals.
The gameplay is smooth and solid, nothing special but enjoyable none the less.
The games biggest problem is the only real plus is the humour, outside of that it ranks at a decent title with nothing else to make it stand out.
9. FallOut New Vegas
This game was bounds better then Fall Out 3. The addition of the gun upgrades was fun, as well as the hardcore mode. Outside of that, not much has changed to the games gameplay.
The biggest bonus is a much more developed world and conflict. Where as 3’s plot was lackluster at best, this games overall story was much more compeling, largely in part to one of my favorite characters in the game, Benny. On a whole, the characters in the world were a lot more varied and held way more personality then 3.
The reputations with each faction were also superior to the more one sided Karma system in Fall Out 3.
Though what holds this game back more then anything are the some of the same issues in Fall Out 3, the first being how incredibly buggy the game is. And my god is it bad. I don’t think I need to go into details on this given how well known bugs are in Bethesda games, but they seriously need to stop giving us :bou::bou::bou::bou: this bad.
The other one is that the characters still have almost robotic movements when the run around or speak, especially when they speak. All in all its uncomfortable to watch..
Though on a whole, still a solid game.
8. Blaze Blu: Continuum Shift
Continuing in the path of Calamity Trigger, Blazeblu easily had the best story of any fighting game I’ve played to date. The characters have depth and personality, and out of all of them I can’t think of any I don’t enjoy following.
The graphics are still solid, and while they weren’t updated from the previous title, given it only came out at 40 instead of 60 like most new games, I can let the lack of improvement slide given it’s still looks great.
The gameplay is just as solid as before, with a few additional quirks to the gameplay to change things up, and a few new characters adding to the mix. The new characters play very differently then any other, which helps to expand on the variety of play styles allowed in the game.
7. Dragon Quest IX
Ah yes, the wonders of the Turn Based RPG. While others have grown to hate them, my love for them is forever here to stay. DQ IX has a decent story with decent characters. In all honesty it’s plot lags behind titles like DQ VIII and especially V, but manages to keep you hooked. Nothing spectacular, but nothing really bad. It still contains many cheesy puns, which greatly amuse me.
I would actually put the battle system as my favorite of any DQ game though. Leveling the jobs separately to learn their abilities, as well as putting points into mastering weapon skills separately give you many different options to building your characters.
The biggest issue here is that regardless of how many options they give you, for anyone who’s played a DQ game before, or for that matter anyone who is a big enough RPG nut, you will have no problems whatsoever with this game. For all the options you have, the challenge is no where near enough to make fully exploiting the system.
6. Rune Factory 3
Yeah, you may all laugh at me, but damn this game is fun. It is, in every way, the best Rune Factory game to date. The dungeon crawling is improved with the option to bring in townies to fight along side of you, as well as being some of the smoothest running combat in the series. The different areas are a bit livelier, and the townsfolk are by far the most entertaining to date. My favorites being Sofia, Karina and Pia.
Really, there isn’t much else to say on this game. If you’ve never like Rune Factory, you’ll not like this one. If you are a fan of the series, you’ll love it. If you’ve never played one before, I have no Idea how to convince you a farming simulator with some dungeon crawling is a good Idea to play. But trust me, it is glorious.
5. God of War III
To begin, I really enjoy the plot. They fixed the oddity that was ‘Pandora’s Box’ from the first game, and gave us a pretty epic, albeit short, plot full of amazing graphics and artwork. No real issues with the plot, and it made for a great way to end the trilogy.
The gameplay, at it’s core, remains God of War, while adding some new tricks to keep the gameplay fresh. One of wich is being able to switch between your Blades of Exile (This games blade on a chain) and three other weapons you’ll unlock throughout the game, each one having a very unique style.
Another fun aspect was the third bar. You originally had health and magic, though this third bar is a recharable gauge for using various abilites of Items.
Overall this amounts to another solid entry in the series with few problems that has managed to keep the gameplay fresh even after three games.
4. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
I am a big advocate of Golden Sun, and was estatic to see this title released. It picks up years after Lost Age, revealing the after math of the Golden Sun Event. The story moves along at a very solid pace, constantly adding to the stories and characters. In this regard it’s probably better then the last two entries.
The only real issue is from the first time you see him, you already know who the hell the guy in a mask is, at least if you played the previous games, so keeping his identity secret so long is just annoying, but that is a minor gripe.
The best part is the Djinn system has far more uses now. Mixing and matching Dijinn to different adepts is a far more usable option then in previous titles. Only my main character did I have just the straight Earth Djinn with, everyone else had 2 or 3 different types on them.
Though at it’s core, not much has really changed about the battle system. The game maintains a fairy easy level of difficutly, though an unexpected jump happens for the last boss, though nothing as extreme as in FF IV.
3. Heavy Rain
Screw the haters. The story of this game is suspenseful, solid, and it has a lot of amazing characters. That aside, the gameplay is solely dependant on the person, and I cannot blame anyone for not liking the purely quicktime style of gameplay it offers. I believe Yahtzee said it best in that it’s a lot more movie then most games, but not enough to be judged as a movie, it’s kind of a different thing all on it’s own. Not really his words, but I believe that was the gist of it.
I don’t know how to say anything else about this really, which kind of bothers me since this is one of my top3 games, but what can you do?
2. White Knight Chronicles
This game is amazing. I know a lot of people disliked the story, though for many reasons I loved it. I’m not bothered by stories that aren’t finished in a single game so long as it’s good enough to warrant my interest. This game is basically the prelude to the events to come, and it did an amazing job at setting it up. Some awesome characters, Kara, Ceasar, and The Black Knight being the games show stealers. It may end on a cliff hanger that gives far more questions then it answers, it sets up a high intrique for those answers.
The gameplay looks very action based at first, but it still fits far more into a turn based system then it seems. That being said, I have no issues with turn based, and it actually handles very well, giving you plenty of fun combat options. The combo system to link attacks together is very fun to use, and you are capable of customizing your characters in a variety of ways.
The online is actually quite fun as well, and I never suffered any problematic lag while playing either. They are fun things to do on the side, and you have an insane amount of control over how your character looks, I’d argue it’s an even better character Generator then you are given in Saints Row 2.
The art design ranges from pretty good to awesome in this game, it’s clear in many areas they payed a lot of attention, though they did slack off a couple times.
In the end though, definitely one of the best games this year.
1. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
Even I was a bit surprised when I decided on this game, but here you go, my game of the year. Expanding on the story of Travis, he is now out to seek revenge on those who killed his friend, unable to escape the life of an assassin for an organization that kind of never existed, depending on how you look at it.
The story, while taking itself a bit more seriously then the first, is still just as, if not for, funny then the last game. With some of the most entertaining bosses, as well as a couple returning, it makes for an awesome experience.
You even play as a couple other people though a few segments of the game, which adds quite a bit more variety this time around. The minigames as well are far more enjoyable, as well as having a bit of retro-charn, as they are all done as old NES style gameplay.
The boss fights remain imaginative, and on a whole the game is a bit more challenging then it’s predecessor. The graphics have improved, the story is better, overall it’s improved on the original title in every way.
True, the dropping of the world map entirely after the terrible failure it was in the first game seems a bit cheap, but at the same time I won’t complain about something bad being dropped entirely if it doesn’t take away from the experience.
