Another year has quickly gone by, and frighteningly enough, so has a decade. 2019 was really special for me because I finally got to go to Japan, I feel like I've become a little closer to those around me, I've been feeling very inspired and created some truly unique remixes and audio work this year, I finally took on my first real job since the beginning of the decade, and I played some really fun games this year. So let's get down to it!
My Top 10 Games released in 2019 I finished:
10) Police Stories [PC] - I bought this game for myself and a friend so I could play 2-player co-op online with them. Police Stories is a narrative-driven, top-down tactical-action game where two police officers take on an ever growing case that seems to get worse the more they learn about it. Instead of straight-up shooting everyone on sight, you have to follow the procedures of a police officer and have any suspects or civilian surrender to make an arrest. Shooting at an unarmed suspect lowers your overall score. I really enjoyed the game as it's the closest any game I've ever played has come to having the same formula as SWAT 4.
9) Risk of Rain 2 [PC] - Technically, this game isn't even officially released yet as it's still in Early Access and is far from complete. Despite that, the amount of potential can be seen and felt even at such an early stage of development. I loved Risk of Rain and was intrigued by the idea of turning the entire game from a 2D format to a fully realized 3D format. It works, and it works well.
8 ) Spin Rhythm XD [PC] - It's been a very long time since any music rhythm game has had any innovation or meaningful change to the formula unless you go to the arcades with the special controllers. So it was a huge surprise to see a game called "Spin Rhythm XD" release with a whole new way to play music rhythm games that was somewhat familiar, but altogether a new experience. I was skeptical at first glance, but was immediately interested when I found out I could use my DJ board to play the game as it was designed around that controller. It's the kind of Music Rhythm arcade experience I've been looking for that I could play at home.
7) PuyoPuyo Champions [PC] - I was pretty excited when I heard they were going to localize this game, and they sold it at $10! The game is fairly barebones with no arcade/story mode. You can play against the computer in a single match, survival mode, online with friends or against others around the world, or take on some challenges. Despite taking PuyoPuyo a bit more seriously in 2018 after the release of PuyoPuyo Tetris, it was in PuyoPuyo Champions that I really took the time and tried to learn how to chain better, how to make cleaner setups, and finding alternative strategies. I was recently able to create a 10-chain, but it took quite a bit of time to actually build it. There's still so much for me to learn from this game, and I think that's what makes it so fun.
6) Katana Zero [PC] - Year after year, I saw this game advertised during Awesome/Summer Games Done Quick, and yet it never seemed to have a release date. It finally released and I caved in and bought it when it had a small discount and really enjoyed it. I feel like it's best described as Hotline Miami played as a 2D platformer style. The game is fairly short, but has a lot of style, personality, and satisfying gameplay. There's apparently more to the game that the developer wants to add, but gave no estimated date on when they'll release it.
5) Daemon x Machina [NS] - It's been a very long time since I've played any mech games, and I've been itching for them the past 2 years. I was a bit concerned when I played the beta demo for this game, but still took a risk and pre-ordered the game anyways. While the game isn't mind-blowing and amazing, it still scratched that itch for mech games I wanted. Mech games are pretty niche nowadays, so it was nice to play one with such a high quality.
4) Dragon: Marked for Death [NS] - This game was so much fun, but it's very difficult, long and grindy. It has quite the nostalgic presentation that reminds me of games from the Sega Saturn era of games. With 4 playable characters, each with different variations, there was plenty of replay value. I really want to play more of this game, but my backlog calls to me and has pulled me away from playing beyond the main story line for one character I finished.
3) Devil May Cry 5 [PS4] - I'm a little conflicted on this one. I don't really like some of the character redesigns (with Nero in particular), I don't like some of the story elements, I don't think there's enough dynamic variation in environment or that it stands out as much, but I loooove the gameplay. This iteration of Devil May Cry has you playing 3 different characters, and you switch between them so often throughout the game that it never quite feels repetitive or boring. There are so many crazy things you can do and combo into that I can see the appeal of playing through it more than just one or two times.
2) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night [PC] - I was very worried about the launch of this game. With how poor Mighty No. 9 turned out (even though I really enjoyed that game), and the way the game was looking from the teasers and trailers they've put out for the game, I couldn't help but feel like it might not live up to expectations. So I will say that art direction/graphics could've been better, music isn't as incredible as I had hoped, and boss fights could've been way more creative and interesting as demonstrated in Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon; however, I had a ton of fun playing the game. I played through all the difficulties, 100% everything, got all achievements, and even then I still have an itch to go back to it and play it. Despite some flaws, the game is as addicting and fun as previous Castlevania games. There are still 3 characters, an extra mode and a few other bonus content that haven't been implemented into the game yet, so I can see myself revisiting the game more than once in the future.
1) Code Vein [PC] - Oh man, I wouldn't have thought I'd put this game as my number one game for 2019 as the game has a decent amount of mediocrity to it (that, and also there are a ton of games I played that I loved that I didn't finish and so they didn't make it onto this list). I wanted an anime Dark Souls with a unique experience to it, and it somehow delivered exactly that. What I wasn't expecting was how emotionally invested I was going to be with the characters and story of the game (most Dark Souls games have ambiguous stories). Individual character stories of sacrifice, despair, and acts of kindness along with the music all tugged at my heartstrings. Honestly, the characters and stories are rather cliché and sometimes ruins the mood, and yet I didn't seem to mind. The gameplay had a lot of layers to it that allowed the player to have an easier time or really take on a challenge. I still want to play more of the game, and it still hasn't released the content for the season pass yet, so I think I might still be playing it in the future.
Honorable mentions:
-Senran Kagura Peach Ball [NS] - It was entertaining, and it made me miss pinball.
-It Lurks Below [PC] - Developed solely by the creator of Diablo 1, 2, and Hellgate: London, It Lurks Below is the Terraria RPG I've been looking for all these years. It has a lot of the same addictive elements as Diablo games with the addictive nature of Terraria with building, farming, and exploring. It's a game that easily eats up hours, and I want to play more. But my backlog has pulled me away from it ever since I've finished one playthrough of the game.
-Million Arthur: Arcana Blood [PC] - I wasn't sure if they were going to localize it, but I'm glad they did. It's obvious it didn't sell well and doesn't have a large following, but I found the game to be beautiful and has a satisfying gameplay experience.
-Halo: Reach [PC] - Omg, I finally got to play Halo: Reach after so many years. I'm sooooo happy Halo: Master Chief Collection has released on Steam PC for just $40. Every few months I'm going to have a new Halo game to play this year, and that just fills me with joy (I haven't played Halo since 2010, btw).
Top 10 Finished games not released in 2019:
10) Splatoon 2 [NS] - So I finished the main campaign and had bought the extra campaign. The main campaign did feel a little better than the first game, but it also didn't feel particularly special. I'm not done with that extra campaign, but it definitely feels more challenging.
9) Touhou Luna Nights [PC] - With an obvious influence from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, I couldn't help but get this game. The retro-style graphics and effects felt nostalgic, and had mechanics different enough to stand out on its own. There was extra content added after I completed the main story, but I haven't checked it out yet. I was very impressed with this game's quality, gameplay, and the short amount of time it was in development.
8) Groove Coaster [PC] - When it first released on Steam, I lost interest in it when I saw just how expensive the game would be with all the DLCs. But while I was in Japan, I enjoyed playing all the music rhythm games at the arcades with Groove Coaster being one of them. Wanting to bring a bit of that arcade experience back home, I decided I would pick up Groove Coaster on Steam whenever it went on sale. One week after I got back from Japan, it was on sale. Yeah, the game is a lot of fun on PC, especially over the iPad version. But it's still not the same as playing it at the arcade with those booster controllers. Also, the game is still extremely expensive with all the DLCs. Definitely worth it if you play a LOT.
7) God Eater 2: Rage Burst [PC] - I really didn't like the story to this sequel, but I loved the gameplay. There is so much more to combat with all the Blood Arts you could obtain and utilize. I also didn't like the flow of this game as it would abruptly have a difficulty spike that required farming for more materials to get stronger before you can progress.
6) Full Metal Furies [PC] - Asking my friends on a whim on whether they'd like to play this game together, I was quite surprised by how good of a co-op experience this game had.
5) SoulCalibur VI [PC] - Honestly, this is quite possibly the best SoulCalibur I've played since SoulCalibur 2. I spent over 60 hours creating characters, there are tons of single-player content, and the little changes here and there with the familiar formula really revitalized the series for me.
4) Rise of the Tomb Raider [PC] - I remember liking the reboot a little more in terms of presentation, story, and progression. But Rise of the Tomb Raider really deserves all the praises it was getting for delivering such a high quality action-adventure experience. Combat is so satisfying, dynamic, and flexible. I think my main complaint for this particular game was some parts felt slow or dragged out. These new Tomb Raider games have made me a fan.
3) River City Ransom Underground [PC] - This actually took me a while to get around to finishing. I do like the game a lot and it has a lot of the same elements of addictive gameplay and expressive humor, but I really hated how vague objectives were and how difficult it was to navigate around the city. There are a lot of characters with different playstyle and abilities, so I think I might play more of it in the future.
2) Chaos Legion [PC] - Because Astral Chain reminded me of Chaos Legion, I had decided to reinstall Chaos Legion once again and really gave it my all to finish the game for once. It was a bit of a grind to get up to level to finally complete the game, but man I still love this game so much even after all these years with its obvious dated graphics and clunky controls. One of my favorite games of all time with one of the most influential soundtracks in gaming.
1) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night [PS1] - Even older than Chaos Legion, I finally got around to playing and finishing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. With no surprise, I absolutely loved the game and knew it'd be one of my favorite games. I was actually surprised by how difficult the game was compared to later Castlevania games that came out after it and was surprised by all the special moves that weapons actually had. An absolute classic.
Honorable mentions list: Dead Space, Celeste, Fighting EX Layer, Salt and Sanctuary, Bloody Trapland 2, D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die, Crawl, Death Road to Canada, Tetris Effect
Games I loved but didn't finish released in 2019:
-Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal [PS4] - The story is still the same as the original, but utilizes the mechanics and concept of the Versus titles. Because this game felt more like revisiting an old title than exploring a new one, it became less of a priority to finish. I do want to complete it though.
-Fire Emblem: Three Houses [NS] - Omg, this game is so great! The graphics, the music, the characters; it has it all! The problem is that there is a LOT of walking and talking which makes this a very long game. I already have a lot of hours into it, but I'm nowhere near done...
-Astral Chain [NS] - I immediately fell in love with the game the first time they showed it off, and I knew I was going to pre-order it when I learned it was from Platinum Games. The presentation is spectacular, and the gameplay is fluid and exciting; however, this game also has a LOT of walking and talking.
-God Eater 3 [PC] - I've barely started the game since I got it two weeks ago. This is the first God Eater to be made on consoles without the limitations of handheld. It looks really nice, the characters are already more likable than the second game, and the new mechanics is a nice change.
-Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice [PC] - This game is so cool! Fast, strategic, open-ended, and god dang challenging. I have 10 hours into it so far, but I feel like there's still quite a bit of ways to go before I finish it.
-Darksiders Genesis [PC] - I was trying to finish Darksiders 2 and 3 before this released, but I couldn't even finish 2. The story is disjointed enough where it won't affect my experience, so I've already started on it. I really wanted to play through it alongside my friend, but he went and finished it already.....
-River City Girls [PC] - Wow, this game is way better than I thought it'd be (and my expectations were already kind of high for it). I love the presentation and the game is familiar enough to be considered a River City Ransom game, but it's also unique enough to stand on its own.
-Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX [PC] - I was originally going to buy this on Nintendo Switch, but when I saw Blaster Master Zero 2 also releasing on PC, I ended up buying that and this game at the same time. I haven't touched Blaster Master Zero 2 yet, but Luminous Avenger iX is great so far.
-Kingdom Under Fire II [PC] - Please, give me the time to actually play this game! It's been so long since I've played an MMO, and I've waited for this game to be localized for 7-8 years already. I'm a bit iffy on gameplay in the beginning so far, but presentation is still impressive to me considering how old it is already. I really want to find the time to sit down and play more of this.
-Muse Dash [PC] - A friend picked this up for me for Christmas and I was full of doubt and skepticism for this game. My friend tried to convince me that the game would be one I liked by describing it as "super cute" and "having quite a few Drum 'n Bass songs". I was still skeptical and was going to wait for a sale, but he picked it up for me anyways (and I'm glad he did). The game's graphics is clean, cute, and vibrant. The song choices is so much better than I anticipated and experienced from other Chinese developed music rhythm games.
-Neoverse [PC] - I got into Deck-Building RPGs very recently and this was my very first one to explore this new genre. The graphics are nice and seem so much higher quality than the sketchy 2D graphics of other games like it. I haven't played that much of it yet, but I can see the appeal. I can also see a lot of hours gone from playing games like these.
-Remnant: From the Ashes [PC] - Oh wow, this game is addicting! I was expecting 3-player Left 4 Dead 2 co-op with Vermintide-like progression. But it's actually Dark Souls with guns in a deep and meaningful way. Out of all the games I bought the past 2 months, I've put the most hours into this one so far.
Games I haven't bought/played yet released in 2019 (that I'm interested in):
-Blaster Master Zero 2
-Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
-Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
-Resident Evil 2 Remake
-Kingdom Hearts 3
-Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
-Far Cry New Dawn
-Jump Force
-Metro Exodus
-Death end re;Quest
-Anthem
-Left Alive
-Dead or Alive 6
-Total War: Three Kingdoms
-The Caligula Effect: Overdose
-Tom Clancy's The Division 2
-Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of The New World
-Yoshi's Crafted World
-The Princess Guide
-Zanki Zero: Last Beginning
-Our World is Ended
-Mortal Kombat 11
-Days Gone
-Rage 2
-Team Sonic Racing
-Dragon Star Varnir
-Super Mario Maker 2
-Shenmue 3
-Oninaki
-Control
-Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
-Death Stranding
-The Outer Worlds
-Pokémon Sword and Shield
-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Reboot)
-Luigi's Mansion 3
-Untitled Goose Game
-Borderlands 3
-Cadence of Hyrule
-The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Remake
-Sayonara Wild Hearts
-Samurai Shodown
My Top 10 Games of this decade:
10) League of Legends / DotA 2 [PC] - So I'm cheating a little on this one by putting LoL and DotA 2 together. League of Legends means a lot to me in many ways. I came from playing DotA with friends and friends of friends to playing this new standalone game that has all the best parts of DotA without the limitations of the Warcraft 3 engine. It was new, exciting, and a ton of fun to play. It kept me connected with a friend that went to train in the army. Later, it helped connect a bunch of mutual friends together and I ended up making a lot of close friends because of it. I thought I'd be playing it for a long time, but it changed to a point where I no longer wanted to play it anymore. People were toxic, meta made the game more predictable and repetitive, and at one point I was playing it every single night for an entire year. I got sick of the harassment of pub players, the monotony of the game, and eventually stepped away with the desire to play other games. DotA 2 is a game that I didn't play much of online, but playing against computers and playing the other modes were so much fun that it's a game that I continued to play up till now. So while LoL has a special place in my heart, it's DotA 2 that I'd be willing to play nowadays over LoL.
9) Guild Wars 2 [PC] - Hands down, one of the greatest MMORPGs I've ever played. They designed it in a way where you can hop on any time and have fun with it as opposed to most MMOs where you have to grind to max level before you start to have fun. My backlog prevents me from playing this game much, but every once in a while I'll still hop back on to play for an hour or two.
8) Diablo 3 [PC] - Diablo 3 had a rough launch. Constant disconnections, shady auction house deals, unbalanced endgame, and a myriad of other problems. Before I got a new computer, there were times where I couldn't even see enemies on the screen. Despite all that, Diablo 3 was one of the most memorable and fun games I've played this decade. It's satisfying, addictive, and full of possibilities. It was designed to be a lot more casual than other games like it which was great for people who play more sporadically (like me).
7) Demon's Souls/Dark Souls [PS3] - Demon's Souls was one of the first few games I bought right out of graduating college and I was very excited to play it. I still remember being disappointed when I first started it up because combat was a slow and methodical rather than fast-paced and exciting, there was no music playing throughout the stage, and enemy placement was fixed. But as I got further into the game, I started seeing "possibilities". "What if I did this? What if I build into that?" It was all very new and exciting. But I was a bit sad that all of the areas were separate from one another rather than having a large open-world experience. Then Dark Souls was announced and fully realized the potential I had for Demon's Souls. These two games are definitely classics.
6) Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- / BlazBlue Centralfiction [PC] - What a great ending to the story arcs of each game. I got into Guilty Gear kind of late around college when Guilty Gear XX had released. I was brought into the series from listening to the music and really liking it. So when I learned that Arc System Works no longer had the rights to Guilty Gear by that time, I was sad that I would never find the answers to the story like "Who is 'that man'?" I was pretty excited for BlazBlue and immediately wanted to support it, but I wasn't expecting such an intricate and expansive story from a fighting game. I already loved the music, characters, art style, and gameplay of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, but it was their story telling that really pushed it to greatness. With Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- and BlazBlue Centralfiction in particular, both games were great for very similar reasons with tons of content, balanced and dynamic roster of characters, and one heck of an ending for their current story arcs. The biggest complaint that most people would have on both games is nothing have rollback netcode.
5) PuyoPuyo Tetris [PC] - Upon hearing about the creation of PuyoPuyo Tetris, my first reaction is "how does that work?" I love both games a lot, but wasn't sure what the game really had to offer. When it was announced that a PC version was going to release, I asked some friends about picking it up to play together. Surprisingly, they all did and 4-players was not the best experience for online play. Still, this game brought me into a whole new world of playing Tetris and PuyoPuyo as I took the games a bit more seriously and really tried to learn how to play better at them. My interest in getting better at fighting games contributed to it, and I felt like it has helped me a bit in growing as a person and not just as a gamer. To take something I knew before and show me how little I actually knew about the game was a bit intimidating and somehow exciting when I realized there's so much more to these games that I thought. I imagine PuyoPuyo and Tetris being games I'll play my whole life.
4) Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] [PC] - I'm really tempted to put down Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code as Melty Blood was the game that got me back into 2D fighting games and really gave me that little bit of push of wanting to get a bit better at fighting games. Despite learning a lot about fighting games and improving throughout the decade, it was this past year of playing a lot of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] with two friends of a much higher skill level that I really dug deep and learned some advanced techniques and tried to learn some combos. Much like Melty Blood, Under Night In-Birth has an incredible presentation with a diverse cast of characters, memorable music, stylish graphics, and a deep combat system that isn't overly complicated. This was a really tough choice to put on the list because there were so many fighting games I loved throughout this decade.
3) Killing Floor 2 [PC] - I'd really like to put Left 4 Dead 2 here considering how much I've played that game and still play that game, but it was released at the end of the last decade. Killing Floor 2 was a huge improvement over the first game and offers a much deeper progression system that got me coming back to the game year after year. They often have seasonal events, new content, and a modding community for playing on new maps to keep the game fresh and relevant.
2) Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [PC] - Counter-Strike: Source was an okay sequel. It somewhat improved the graphics but mostly felt like the same game as the original. Global Offensive; however, feels like a huge leap into modernization while still retaining its identity of the original. Even with just this iteration of Counter-Strike, Global Offensive has gone through countless changes since its launch with constant balancing, new maps, new weapons (when they can), and events that keep the community involved. Global Offensive is an incredible representation of the Counter-Strike franchise and provided a ton of great gaming nights for me and my friends.
1) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate [NS] - It's no surprise that a Smash Bros. game is on here. I love Super Smash Bros. and it's one of those games where you can play for hours on end and still want to play more. With Ultimate having so much content, so much thought, and so many years of work put into it, I can't imagine another Smash Bros. being as great as this one.
-Phantasy Star Online 2 would've been part of this list had it ever released in the West within the decade. After so many years of disappointment with no word from Sega, many of us thought the localization to be dead; however, it was announced in 2019 that the game would finally be coming to the West in 2020 with all the latest content from the Japanese servers. I'm super looking forward to playing PSO2 this year.
Honorable Mentions in no particular order:
-Destiny 2
-Grim Dawn
-The Evil Within
-DOOM
-VA-11 HALL-A
-Monster Hunter World
-Rainbow Six: Siege
-Overwatch
-Tree of Savior
-Melty Blood: Actress Again Current Code
-Torchlight 2
-Sonic Generations
-Resident Evil Revelations 2
-Tekken 7
-Dynasty Warriors 7
I'm probably missing a lot of games on this list for the past decade. I counted it up and I've completed 991 games between 2010-2019 (not counting any games I've started but haven't completed or some games I just happened to forget to record), so it won't be surprising if I missed some games I really loved on this list. It's been a great year and a great decade in gaming, if not a bit rough for the industry as a whole. I'm looking forward to seeing what we'll get to play in this upcoming year and decade.
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