Not sure what you mean. Revenge is a pretty powerful motivator. I have some issues with Last of Us 2, but can't think of any character motivation issues.Originally Posted by Del Murder
Not sure what you mean. Revenge is a pretty powerful motivator. I have some issues with Last of Us 2, but can't think of any character motivation issues.
I had a problem with a fair bit of the characterization in TLOU2 honestly. One of the biggest ones being that a particular characters motivation for revenge goes so far into horrific psychopath territory that it strains believability for me entirely. If I weren't already asking myself what the smurf was wrong with her up until then the fight at the end still would have sealed it for me. The lengths they go to throughout the game make very little sense honestly. Revenge may be a powerful motivator, but anger like that is something almost no one can maintain for weeks or even months on end, and most people aren't going to be so motivated by it that they can just straight up butcher as many people as they did to try and get it. Particularly considering said character never gave any indications of being this massively smurfed up and completely lacking a conscience before. I've got a fair few other problems with the story and characters, in addition to how completely at odds the message of the game is with most of the story and the gameplay, but that was by far the most egregious.
Joel being so smurfed up he massacres a hospital full of people who didn't deserve it in the first game made sense. This didn't. And honestly knowing about the employee abuse and how many were outright traumatized to make the game happen just makes it all the worse to me. Even if the game didn't have the problems I see it as having I couldn't name it one of my games of the year.
The fight at the end was smurfed up to the point that I kept walking away not wanting to continue it, but to say it doesn't make sense is pushing it. People can become consumed by a desire for revenge. It's not unbelievable just because it's inpleasant. Not with the kind of trout that happens in that game. Also, there's a potential other reason she's that smurfed up although it's purely speculative.
Out of the right new games I played I definitely will say Persona 5 Royal was my favorite. I was so hyped for it and even bought two copies one of which was the collector's edition. I just loved all the improvements they made to the original. After that I would give it to Final Fantasy VII Remake.
I'm really disappointed that I missed out on Animal Crossing New Horizons. It must've been magical when that game came out. It seemed like every nerd on my fed had the game and then it crossed cultural boundaries too!
2020 was actually a crazy year for video games. Look at all the dope trout:
Dreams
Street Fighter V Champion Edition
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Hades
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Doom Eternal
Nioh 2
Ghosts of Tsushima
Streets of Rage 4
Persona 5 Royal
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Cyberpunk 2077
Last edited by Depression Moon; 12-20-2020 at 04:10 AM.
I'm pretty sure I only played three 2020 games this year, which were FF7R, TLOU2 and Watch Dogs: Legion. All had some flaws, and none of them I would excitedly say "THIS IS THE BEST GAME OF 2020" like I might have a few years ago. If I had to choose, I guess TLOU2 had the most polish, and was the "best" game of 2020. I agree with some of the flaws listed here, and it won't be making any of my personal Top 10 lists, but I enjoyed my time with it and found it overall very engaging.
The actual best game I played this year, that wasn't released this year, was probably Death Stranding.
Yeah no I have to disagree. Anyone who (SPOILER)finds the person they've been trying to get revenge on literally strung up for who knows how long and looking downright emaciated and who asks them for help for no other reason than to save the person they were with, and still tries to fight them to the death instead of realizing they've suffered enough and it's not worth it, is definitely in full blown psychopath territory. That's to say nothing of all the other people, including people who weren't even involved, that she gladly spent the entire game butchering along the way. And no we're not talking just killing in self defence. She absolutely brutalizes some of them to a degree and with the sort of malice we've never even seen a hint of from her before then in either game. And frankly it only makes it worse as the game reveals she knew the whole time what Joel had done to bring this down on him in the first place. Hell, I couldn't even feel that bad about Joel dying because what he did at the end of the first game made it far more justified than literally anything Ellie does. Honestly I'd go so far as to say TLOU2 does a great job of making Ellie someone it's impossible to empathize with or relate to in any way. Top tier character assassination. I mean christ when the person the game clearly wanted you to want dead for the first half of the game is the more relatable, understandable, and moral character and your other lead is everything but you've gotten something pretty wrong there.
As per my usual rules with these things, I'm only counting games I played the majority of during this year. So no games I finished 80% of and then came back and topped off like Tactics Ogre, Birth by Sleep Final Mix, or Death Stranding. I also had to beat the game or get most of it done this year.
Alright, let's try to do this:
Final Fantasy Legend III - The weakest SaGa game so far in my long ass marathon. FFL3 is not bad as much as it's marred by bland gameplay, weak difficulty, and a poor translation that hinders the game's best element. I'm glad I played it, but not exactly excited to try it again.
__link_princess_zelda_toon_link_cucco_linebeck_and_6_more_the_legend_of_zelda_and_1_more_drawn_b.jpgThe Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - This entry wins props for having the best Zelda so far in the franchise for me. She's a cool companion, is funny as hell, and I love how Nintendo poked fun at the way they've used her character in past incarnations with this one. The final battle is also quite cool and cinematic. On the other hand, the dungeons are a bit too easy, traveling by train is a bit stale, and with their second outing on the DS I feel it is safe to say that mapping all the controls to the stylus is a bad idea that made the rest of the game more of a chore because of it. While it is not the worst entry for me, it's certainly close to the bottom of my Zelda rankings.
Final Fantasy VII Remake - As I stated before in another thread, the VIIR is not a game designed for me. Not a fan of Action-RPGs, VII is not an entry I get super excited for, and I hate mission hub scenarios where a bajillion samey sidequests unlock. With that said, I feel the game is fairly solid. The battle mechanics offer more than usual for the genre and I liked that they differentiated the play styles of the party to make switching out characters more fun. Some of the new characterizations and characters were a welcome treat as well. The game is mostly hindered by it's poor pacing, lack of really exploring more of Midgar that the Reader's Digest version in the OG didn't do better for pacing reasons, and of course the damn plot ghosts that are largely ridiculous. I am also just not a huge fan of the soundtrack which quickly turned into background elevator music for me as I played the game.
Unlimited SaGa - US here edges out the VII remake by giving me a unique experience. While I can't necessarily say it was a great experience everyone should try, I still commend the game for being absolutely unique. It's major issues for me are simply the obtuse nature of all of it's mechanics which is what largely sends people away from the game followed by it's poor pacing with too many side missions and the game's board game mechanics slowing their pace to a crawl. The game is pretty fun once you get over the difficulty curve, but as SaGa and RPGs in general goes, that curve is pretty steep.
Final Fantasy Type 0 - Type 0 is a game that deserved more. Like a lot of SE's original titles for the PSP, the game could have succeeded more had it been built for a console experience instead of a mobile one. The narrative is fairly good, and the game actually brings the more mature writing I've longed for from the franchise for awhile, but the gameplay is stale and again the game turns into a hub world/mission dispensary for most of its gameplay. I also don't care for the fact you need to play the game twice to see everything. The game is enough of a time sink to not need to go through it twice just to get a Golden ending that's inferior to the original one.
Romancing SaGa Re; Universe - This game has caught me by surprise. And if I am going to be honest, this is the game I've put the most time into this whole year. Being a gatcha mobile title, it's obviously not done yet, but I have to commend it for going out of it;s way to downplay the worst parts of the medium. Character styles system makes it more viable to play all characters from trash pulls to SS rank super rares since low ranks tend to get the better stats boosts while the rares grant better skills that can be transferred. I still hate how the game overloads you with stuff to do that distracts from the main narrative, but I'm probably only annoyed here because the main narrative is actually pretty good for these types of games. Maybe it's because SaGa is a lesser known franchise, but I love how the game plays with the character interactions from all the cast members from different entries. The original characters are also not so bad (unlike WoFF) and the game actually has a great story so far that plays off being a direct sequel to RS3. It likely ranks so high because it managed to be a direct sequel and a silly crossover title at the same time, yet has managed to make it work. The gameplay is also solid and brings together the best elements of the series for a pretty fun experience as well.
Final Fantasy Legend II -My ''unicorn'' so to speak in terms of a game I played fondly one semester in high school. Only to get stuck and dejected, making me quit the game and return it to my friend. This entry has nagged me for years, and I finally conquered it. Suffice to say, I had a blast playing this game this year and I feel it holds up better than people would think. The translation is still wonky and the plot is a bit sillier than the two entries it's sandwiched between, but the gameplay is more solid than either entry.
Romancing SaGa 3 - It's rare to have a game hyped up, only to play it and find the hype is well deserved. The emulation community loves this particular entry in the franchise, and while it may not beat out RS2 for me, it is a solid title that refines a lot of the mechanics from the previous two entries. The cast is huge and fun to play with. The mechanics are a bit deeper, spells have been better balanced, and missions have more variety. The music is also pretty stellar, and honestly the best in the series so far for me.
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons - It was weird back in the day to learn that Capcom was being allowed to develop a Zelda game. Not that I don't have faith in them, but it was a beloved franchise. I'm mainly happy the game builds off of the design from Link's Awakening which managed to shake up the series mechanics in some fun ways and there is a strong focus on fun NPCs and puzzles. It was fun also seeing the elements that are clearly Capcom like the main villain design and his final boss fight. As well as getting a chance to see some classic bosses from the first Zelda return since the game started off as a Zelda 1 remake before being turned into a new entry. I do still need to check out Oracle of Ages...
Last edited by Wolf Kanno; 01-02-2021 at 06:27 PM.
True beauty exists in things that last only for a moment.
Current Mood: And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe. Maybe this year will be better than the last. I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself. To hold on to these moments as they pass...
Interesting, after that post I'll have to check out Romancing Saga Re Universe. I don't have anything against gacha games at their core as long as they do it in a way that doesn't bug me too much.
On that note, another game I forgot to mention in my post is Genshin Impact. Also a gacha game, but as long as you don't try to min-max and just enjoy the game for what it is, the gacha part doesn't interfere with the experience at all, since even guaranteed story characters can do the highest-level content (not to mention of course the game throws a fairly steady stream of gacha currency at you). Beyond the Gacha aspect, it's actually one of my favorite open worlds in games, and the combat's really fun (unlike most open world games, I would say)
genshin is fun, chill world, pretty, but frig the story and paimon suck for me
Games I've played this year and loved and still think about regularly:
- FFXIV
- FFVII Remake
- NieR: Automata
- Ring Fit Adventure
- Persona 4 Golden
Games I've played this year and had fun with but currently feel indifferent toward:
- Breath of the Wild
- Genshin Impact
- WoW: Shadowlands
- KH: Melody of Memory
- Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition
- Call of Duty: Cold War
- Overwatch
- League of Legends
Games I played this year and was underwhelmed by/hated:
- Borderlands 3
- Valorant
- Legends of Runeterra
The game plays like a more user-friendly version of Record Keeper with an actual story mode and less of the gatcha bulltrout. You don't need to draw for equipment, instead they are rare drops from missions or rewards for missions. You also don't need to craft skills, with abilities being directly linked to a character's particular style. The closest you get to it is that there is a method to use some rare items to reduce the skill cost for using abilities, but like equipment, most of these can be gained from just doing missions. The game also has special training missions you can send characters on to raise their stats without actually using them and the game is extremely generous in handing out special tickets to instantly return them from these missions. Like the highest missions ticket cost I have is 6 tickets for a 12 hour missions, and I have close to 2000 instant tickets to use... Likewise, the game is extremely generous with giving you the token items used as the game's form of energy currency to do missions. Again, I have enough to keep playing for days on end without stopping if I chose to. The designers actually built the game so you could potentially beat the game with your first draw of characters regardless of their style rank. The only thing you really need to prioritize getting is someone with a healing spell, which I believe the game has a special event for first time users to acquire one who is an SS ranks top tier one.
I will say you get the most mileage out of it if you are familiar with the SaGa franchise, especially RS3, since it is heavily referential. Likewise, for people who disliked the main series for being light on character will be surprised to find this game does a good job of giving some real characterization to these characters.
True beauty exists in things that last only for a moment.
Current Mood: And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe. Maybe this year will be better than the last. I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself. To hold on to these moments as they pass...
I have played a fair amount of gacha games and I still play one so I feel qualified to say that gacha makes every game it is in MUCH worse, even the "good" implementations. It IS possible to make a game good enough to still be worth it despite the self-sabotage, but it is also definitely self-sabotage. Please never pretend otherwise.
I think it’s less an issue of it being objectively worse and more some people being much more predisposed to being repelled by gacha games. For me personally, there are a ton of gacha games that I really wanna get into but I just physically cannot. Now I don’t know if it’s my ADHD or something but generally speaking I am 100% immune to gacha games
Game of the Year, FFVII Remake, for sure. It's not perfect, it does some stuff that I would probably prefer, on balance, that it did not. But the highs were as good as video games get, and it's something that I appreciate more as I put more time into it. Please please PLEASE don't wait us too long for the next part, and don't screw it up. I'll feel retroactively bitter about part 1 if it takes them 15 years for the whole thing or they otherwise ruin it somehow.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Persona 4 should probably be here somewhere but to be honest I haven't played deep enough into either of them
I'm playing Hades at the moment and... it's good but... not convinced it's quite that good yet.
Real shame I can't put Resident Evil 3 on here. It was just not as good as its predecessor in all the ways that matter.
See Genshin Impact. I really like what I've played of that so far but DAMN if it couldn't do with half a dozen fewer currencies
I have to agree with this. I was and am extremely against some of the choices made, which I feel were bad enough for the game on its own and fear will be even worse for the next parts. At its worst it felt like some KH style BS to me, but at its best it was breathing new life into fondly remembered scenes and beloved characters from my favorite game of all time. It's hard to beat that, even after adjusting for the negatives.
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