Sarah's Game of The Year List

I’m no one important, but I hear the “in-thing” the kids are doing nowadays are game of the year lists. So here is mine for 2015! You can also follow me on twitter @sarahnizzle

Games that came out in 2015 that I totally bought but didn’t really play but I bet they’re pretty good

  1. Witcher 3 – I didn’t play the previous Witcher games but played maybe 5-6 hours of Witcher 3, decided to wait on the patch, didn’t end up playing it at all.
  2. Fallout 4 – I made my character, got out of the vault and… then got distracted by other video games! Yay!

Game that came out in 2014 but didn’t end up playing until 2015 and it would’ve gone on last year’s list

  1. Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth – More Persona fanservice? YES! I’m not a huge fan of Etrian Odyssey games but Persona made the gameplay much more palatable. Also, Group Date Café dungeon. GROUP DATE CAFÉ DUNGEON!

Special mention games!

  1. Heroes of the Storm – It’s no Dota 2, but it’s a fun, fast, casual game that sunk its hooks into a lot of my friends this year. There’s an added bonus of a ton of Blizzard nostalgia on my end as well.

Games I really liked in 2015!

10) Neko Atsume / You Must Build a Boat

Two mobile games share my number 10 spot because after I’m done checking my usual Twitter/Facebook/Reddit posts on my phone, I’ll immediately check up on my cats (finally got you, Joe DiMeowgio!) in Neko Atsume and then play a quick stage in You Must Build a Boat. Neko Atsume isn’t really a game but there are loads of cat puns and YMBAB is quite a game but I also suck at it, despite having beaten it three times. Phone games! They’re a thing!

Favorite music track: Neko Atsume Theme

  • Because hearing it endlessly loop for hours SUCKS YOUR SOUL AWAAY.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuFwZISZ6g?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque]

9) Crypt of the Necrodancer

I played so much of the Early Access version, immediately dropped off of it, and came into the 1.0 version absolutely lost. New items! New modes! The soundtrack is kickass! Okay, it’s mostly here just for the soundtrack.

Favorite music track: Grave Throbbing (2-2)

  • Awesome chill track with a sick beat. Plus the shopkeeper version is great.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BtY9-pAJko?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque]

8) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Although I haven’t finished this game (but I did properly spoil myself), this game made me feel like I was actually good at stealth games! Kind of! It really put my improvisation skills to the test as I got caught plenty of times, but there’s nothing sweeter than having your chopper play The Final Countdown or Buck Bumble when it’s coming to extract you.

Favorite music track: Buck Bumble Theme

  • Really the only choice as your chopper music.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDFydCDN7aw?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque]

7) Ori and the Blind Forest

I respect platformers from a healthy distance because of my
incompetence at the genre and metroidvanias aren’t my first genre of choice, yet Ori and the Blind Forest managed to make me feel like a god at both genres. Sure, there is a level of difficulty that made me want to bang my head against the wall, and those autoscrolling sequences are a BITCH. But the amazing handpainted visuals and the swelling orchestral music pushed me to finish this game because I wanted to see it all.

Also, you’re a monster if you didn’t cry in the first 10
minutes.

Favorite music track: Light of Nibel

  • The soft vocals and the swelling music, along with just running along with Ori. One of the most beautiful tracks I’ve had the pleasure to listen to.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN_LvY97Rco?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque]

6) Life is Strange

It took every single bone in my body to resist playing Life is Strange before all 5 episodes were out. I always tend to drop off on episodic games but after playing a bit of Episode 1, I knew this was a game I didn’t want to drop off on. So I played the game of patience and I’m really glad I did because HOO BOY.

It’s just what I wanted, to relive my time as a teenage girl in high school. Except murder, drugs and lots of time traveling is involved this time around! The joy of Life is Strange is the exploration, but nothing beats messing up a dialogue choice and having the convenient choice of rewinding time to fix it. Fitted to an awesome indie rock soundtrack, Life is Strange goes into some ridiculous twists and turns that had me stunned speechless and dreading the decisions I made, decisions that even convenient time rewinding can’t fix. The ending is a bit messy, but boy, the journey towards it was a fun and deep experience.

Favorite music track: Obstacles by Syd

  • Honestly, the entire soundtrack is great. Just choose one and go with it.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrXpFh2IHZY?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque]

5) Bloodborne

Despite my fears, I decided to stream/record myself playing
this game, even though I am typically REALLY BAD at the Souls games. It proved to be a wonderful experience as I subjected people to four hours of beating my head against Amelia, or screaming my head off running away from snakes.

But the one thing this game did is give me a false sense of being able to competently dodge attacks. Bloodborne may have taken away my trusty shield and heavy armor, but it made up for that by giving the player a much increased combat pace that felt fluid and dynamic. Yes, the game was still pretty hard and I banged my head against it one too many times but it still gave that refreshing sigh of relief after you finally beat a really hard boss.

Favorite music track: Cleric Beast

  • This sticks out to me because I spent so much time on Amelia like an idiot!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICSk8-pJkX8]

4) Undertale

I was told this game was like Earthbound. It’s nothing like Earthbound.


Really, if I had to make a comparison to one of the Mother games, it’s mostly comparable to Mother 3. Not because of the general quirkiness that Mother games have (although Undertale is plenty quirky), but to me, there’s something profound about utilizing the battle UI, music, and text to convey emotions in your story and Undertale emulated that aspect of Mother 3 perfectly. Not to spoil Mother 3, but the way the text pauses mid-sentence during the final battle, the way the music changes from a disjointed time signature (29/16!) to a somber, melodic tune, the way the actions you take is followed by a heartbreaking response from the main character…

Anyway, before I start tearing up thinking about that, Undertale did that in spades. Sure, the humor is silly and sans is probably the best character there and TSUNDEREPLANE! and boy, that story goes places with the subverting of expectations! But for me, it’s the marriage of music and UI during the battle scenes that makes it much more satisfying to me. But also, TSUNDEREPLAAAANE.

Favorite music track: Megalovnia

  • You’re gonna have a bad tiiiiime.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2jVbSI9H4o]

3) Destiny: The Taken King

Who cares if this is technically an old game? I really loved playing original Destiny last year, but the release of The Taken King took the loot farm formula and essentially made it better. I wasn’t sure how the game was going to bring me back after I spent 70+ hours last year, but I’m pretty sure I spent more hours playing TTK this year. There’s actually a coherent story! I actually know the name of the NPCs! I actively sought out lore from Bungie.net! My addiction to Three of Coins knows no bounds! Oryx was actually a fun raid fight! Bungie has done a lot to satisfy the current fans of the game and also managed to bring in some new people for the fun.

Favorite music track: Last Stand

  • Listened to this an awful lot while trying to kill Oryx!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2fpifLn0ns]

1 and 2) The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second
Chapter / The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

As of writing this, I binged hard on Trails of Cold Steel and beat it in ~65ish hours. I had to edit my list to reflect this late inclusion because this is how strongly I felt about both of these games set in the same universe.

Second Chapter was a pleasant surprise, since no one was really expecting a Western release of a PSP game that released in 2006. But it boasted a massive 700k word translation and boy, does it show. The immense level of detail given to the world of Liberl and the massive amount of character interactions between the playable party members and NPCs displays the level of care and love from the XSEED localizers. SC drops you right back into the events directly following the First Chapter’s shocking cliffhanger, and it only hammers home the point that this is not just a mere sequel—it’s a direct continuation of the same story while also improving the systems of the first game. In short, this is the bigger, badder, and much more awesome version that blows away an already solid FC out of the later.

From FC to SC, you can see everything blossom into the world that Falcom set to build—a country still recovering from the effects of an
earlier war while teetering on the edge of the precipice of another, while puppeteers from the shadows tugs at the strings.  Not only is this reflected in the character development of your playable party members (and it shows with the dialogue and chemistry between the characters), but it is reflected in all the NPCs that litter each town. Not to give away any real spoilers, but the story twists and turns, a narrative that is fairly easy to follow and while it may be fantastical in some places, much of it is grounded in a reality mired with political ramifications and consequences that many games in this genre fail to acknowledge.

This is especially true in Trails of Cold Steel, which is comparably a very recent release (2013 Japan release). I mention this because while it is a very anime game with a military high school setting, there are many instances where the character witness a very tense seesaw between the major authorities of power. While these authorities are quick to flex their superiority with weapons and tanks, Class VII and many NPCs express uneasiness, especially at the reveal of weapons of mass destruction that can obliterate an enemy town from miles away. The game isn’tshy of its allegories, but it certainly aids in the world building.

Both Second Chapter and Cold Steel
are essentially the same kind of game (even the FFX-like combat system is
nearly identical barring a few minor differences), but I love both of them for different reasons. SC offers the resolution we so desperately needed after FC and Cold Steel offers a new insight into another world (while leaving me with yet another cliffhanger!). As Falcom continues to build this world, I truly hope the Western audiences are allowed to come along for the ride.

Favorite (TitS: SC) music track: Silver Will, Golden Wings

  • One of the best boss themes in the game, now with vocals!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ0wIEI3xlA]

Favorite (ToCS) music track: Glint of Cold Steel

  • The basic battle theme, high paced and badass.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qimVJSMapAo]

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