2015 in Games

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It's time once again to spend some time reviewing the games that have filled our free time in the past year. Last year's thread can be found over here- I'd be really interested to know if anyone played something from that list this year!

Surprisingly for me, I've not played many new games this year! I spent a while going back over retro classics I enjoyed previously, but as I've played them before I won't include them on this list. (You may do so if you like.)

I've been playing SIF all year, but I'm not going to include it in this list because it's mentioned at the end of last year, and although TF2 has had a lot of new stuff added and plays like a very different game I'm sure everyone knows I love that title to heck already and I don't need to go into it.

Let's go!

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Hatoful Boyfriend

This is a tricky one. Whatever I say about this game, if you haven't played it before you'll still think of it as “that goofy VN that has birds instead of bishies”. If I tell you the characters are all well-realised and enjoyable to get to know, you still won't take it seriously. If I tell you the worldbuilding is great and there really is a genuine and believable reason for it to be birds instead of humans, you still won't take it seriously. If I tell you that Hatoful Boyfriend is one of the darkest and most twisted stories I've ever known... you'll raise an eyebrow at me and scoff, and won't take it seriously. But, please... if you're in the “it's dumb because it's birds and that's dumb” crowd, just try it. It'll surprise you in the best of ways, just so long as you let it.

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Trails In The Sky FC

It feels like I've been playing this for a million years, although I'm still only 4/5 through it. This game goes HARD on the worldbuilding!

Trails (or if you prefer, TitS... no, lets stick with Trails) is basically a very barebones tactics RPG, but I feel that describing it as such is misleading. In truth, it's more like a slice-of-life visual novel with an occasional sRPG minigame. The story follows Estelle and Joshua, who are in training to join the private-hire army called the Bracers. Bracers spend their days righting wrongs and being commissioned by folks to clear out monsters, escort them places, and so on. There is an on-going overarching plotline involving their missing father, but it's certainly not in any hurry to get to the meaty bits of it- 80% of the game is spent just being Bracers and helping out normal folks in their daily lives.

It maybe sounds dull, and well... it can be. It's not one for those who don't like a VERY slow burn. It's the first half of a two-part story, so the plot progression comes in drips. But it's more than made up for in the frankly staggering efforts spent on worldbuilding. EVERY NPC has a name and a personality. I don't just mean, "even minor characters"- I mean, in a fight against a boss-guy who surrounded himself with mooks, every one of the mooks had a name and a distinct personality. I had never seen them before and in the 20 hours of gameplay since I haven't seen them again, and they literally only existed for that single fight to act as cannon fodder, but they still had development!

It goes beyond that, and after pretty much every single storyline event all the NPCs in the world have something new to say, will be doing something different, etc. People will have new things to say even in the brief space of time between talking to two plot-relevant NPCs who live in the same town. It's pretty overwhelming and I can only wonder how much of it I'm missing out on just by not going around the entire world every time I talk to a new significant person.

The battles themselves are... weak. I wouldn't sell the game to someone who just wanted sRPG fixin's. It's laboriously slow to kill even the simplest of encounters and there's an obnoxiously high chance to miss attacks, making them drag out even longer.

I've not finished it but I intend to, it's just hard to stay into it for long stretches. I do recommend it, but tentatively- and not to people who don't think reading is pretty much the best thing ever.

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Undertale

Haven't got far with this one! Everyone either already knows Undertale or is thoroughly sick of hearing about Undertale so I'll keep it brief- very charming, often laugh-out-loud funny game unashamedly aping Earthbound in style that will make you cry when you accidentally kill someone you love- and you will love them and you probably will kill them.

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Trine 2

I didn't play this single player- it handles live co-op with up to three players, so I played it through with my fiancee. It's definitely the way I'd recommend playing it, and there's so much potential for arguing and insulting each other and getting in fights that few other co-op games can quite manage- it's the way co-op gaming should be.

Knightly Pontius, wizardly Amadeus, and thiefly Zoya get told by a magic lamp they have to kill all the goblins and so they do it because magic lamps never lie, and in the process get embroiled in a bitter rivalry between two princesses, at least one of whom is a rotter. To defeat the goblins and the witch, they must solve a barrage of physics puzzles and convince the knight (me) to stop throwing his thrice-damned hammer into the carefully-placed tower of blocks just as the wizard (her) is about to solve the puzzle you absolute bastard. Players can freely switch between the three characters and, as the thief is the best at getting into secret areas, players are also free to argue about which one gets to be her.

It's an astonishingly pretty game even on minimum settings- genuine 'wow's from both of us. The whole affair is very storybook and fairytale so it's a family-friendly title as well, if swearing at each other isn't the way you play your co-op (???). It's absolutely recommended to anyone who has a partner or two to play it with.

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Gunpoint

A quirky jumpy-stealth-em-up, this game favours quick action over sitting in boxes for hours. Guns have been banned, and local arms-dealers are a little less than happy about it. Richard Conway is hired to help rival companies one-up each other as they develop new technologies to replace weapons. Equipped with his Leapfrog trousers and no guns, he crashes into action.

The jumping is incredibly fun in itself, offering new ways to enter your marked building and also escape it when things go awry. Another tool in Conway's arsenal is the ability to rewire security systems to his own ends. Door won't open? Wire up that security camera to the button that opens it and jump in front of it- now it'll open the door instead of sound the alarm. Rewire light switches so the guards get confused and run around trying to turn them back on while you slip past in the darkness. Rewire a guards gun so it activates the gun of the guard behind him and make him accidentally shoot himself in the back. The puzzle element this adds gives the game a lot of its substance.

The story and dialogue are genuinely funny and often had me laugh out loud. Gunpoint is very cheap and comes recommended infinitely. Get it right now!

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Shantae Risky's Revenge DC

Good goggly blimey but the sprite art in this game is phenomenal. This game belongs in a gallery. There is even an animation that plays if you stop walking on Shantae's other foot where she adjusts her step to match her standing sprite.

Oh, right, the game. It's a metroidvania-but-not-quite which sees half-genie Shantae collect things from across the globe to battle the fantastically-named Risky Boots. The controls all work very nicely and the music suits the theme very well, although the story isn't any great shakes. My one major major grievance with this game is its travesty of a map. I have no idea how it made it to the shipped game in its useless current state- I'm not alone complaining about it. Use a fanmade map if you want to use the map at all, it makes sweeping up missed collectibles a chore otherwise.

Game is still great though.

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Worms Golf

This was a tag-along from a Humble Bundle many moons ago that I just kinda glossed over. It's pretty fun- as you might expect there's more to it than just a golfing game. Each course has various collectibles that add a fair amount of replay value to them and the puzzle-like designs are well made. Main niggle is that the shots feel kinda weak and also don't ever seem to follow the shown prediction arc even approximately- a real pain when trying to get in a small gap.

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Alien Breeds 123

These are lumped together as they are pretty much all the same game. There's no development or evolution between them aside from a few of the weapons are slightly different, so I'm treating them as a single title.

Well, I wasn't impressed with this at all. I played the original Alien Breed on the Amiga all those years ago, and it's remained a fan favourite since then for its tense and fast combination of arcade shooter and survival shooter. These modern rearrangements go big on the “survival” but really forgot about the “fast”. Gruff McSpacemarine plods about at the speed of a tectonic plate as he roams around what feels like the same spaceship corridor over and over again. The game revolves around following the markers on the map to reach your destination but for some reason EVERY SINGLE TIME there is a door in the way, requiring backtracking. This isn't exploration- you get a waypoint marker that will take you to a door, and then a new one that takes you back to a corridor nearby to get the key, and then the first marker comes back, and nothing happens during any of this. It's just filler. It would be excusable if there were enemy encounters on the return journey or something but it was quite often the case that it served no purpose other than to make the level longer.

Other annoyances include a waiting time when searching lockers and bodies for ammo and items, as well as activating doors, switches, terminals... pretty much everything you can interact with requires at least one second of charging time, usually nearer three. Again, this would be fine if there was a present threat because then decisions have to be made, can I open this door before that alien eats my head, etc. But again it was so often the case that there was literally no reason to make me wait. One situation in particular required three switches to be flipped to open a door. The switches were all within three steps of each other, all took several seconds to flip, and absolutely nothing happened between them. Very dull and tedious and boring and slow.

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Jigoku Kisetsukan

It's unashamedly Touhou and it's not trying to be anything else, lets get that out of the way from the off. Comparisons are not only inevitable, but clearly the intent since the earliest stages of development. If you have played and enjoyed a Touhou game in the past, you know what to expect here and will slip right in. It's completely free, so I will already say I recommend giving it a go.

The one thing Touhou has which this lacks, and I apologise if this sounds a bit purple-prose but it's true, is soul. The characters are fun, but where Touhou expands on a character's theme through their attacks, and their music, and the in-depth lore behind their existence, Jigoku doesn't bother with any of that. Most disappointingly, although there are enough boss fight themes to go around, the characters are not given their own unique theme- the first boss you fight has the same music no matter who it is. It seems a small criticism, but the level of attention Touhou gives these small details, it really stands out.

Another criticism, and one that is more general, is the frankly ridiculous difficulty spike during the last boss. Again there's a different final boss for each character but they share the same pool of attacks... which are so much harder than anything else the game throws at you it's unbelievable. I know the point of these games is to learn the patterns and figure out how to beat them over time, but when I can literally play through the entire rest of the game without taking one hit and then suddenly have to use continues on the final boss, something isn't right with the balance.

This is another area where the lack of thought shows, as each player character has a unique shot type and movement style but the only unique battle they each have doesn't pay any heed to this. Why does the character whose shot is only as wide as she is and whose movement speed is the slowest get the same rapid sideways-movement dodging attack that the fast character gets? Why does the close-range-only character face an attack where she literally cannot get close enough to the boss to deal any damage?

Aside from this though, the patterns are REALLY fun to play against. I did genuinely have a good time with this title despite my above misgivings. This has some of my favourite danmaku in the series. ...So to speak.

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Touhou 15 Legacy Of Lunatic Kingdom

tl;dr: GOTY.

The demo version released earlier in the year had left me uncertain how much I would enjoy this game as it's a pretty big departure from the norm, but I needn't have worried- Touhou 15 has become one of my absolute favourites in the series.

The new addition of Pointdevice Mode marries the concepts of Spell Practice with the main game, creating something alike the sidegames (Impossible Spellcard comes to mind). There are no lives- instead, you have to repeat each pattern, spellcard and stage “chapter” until you can clear it without being hit. Essentially, the game becomes like a TAS, with every completion effectively a “perfect” run of the game (although, it won't be!)

The new system allows for some really interesting and astounding new patterns (animated gifs warning) to be thrown at you. Also, incredibly hard! This is without doubt one of the hardest games in the series on any difficulty. Despite that, it's fantastically fun- each spell becomes more like a puzzle to solve rather than a simple barrage to weave through, each one requiring some study and testing to figure out the optimal strategy. Each spell you clear is a huge victory and you can feel yourself growing with each step in a far more noticeable way than the other titles.

Pointdevice also allows you to save your progress and come back to where you were so you don't have to burn yourself out on That One Spell You Just Can't Clear. Getting stuck on Clownpiece's first survival spell will immediately show the benefit of being able to drop out- dizzy!

Speaking of Clownpiece, she's fricken adorable and I love the story behind her outfit choice. The fandom kinda exploded when she first showed up and were denigrating her design for being too wacky, but trust in ZUN- he knows what he's doing and, with context of the translated details, even American Flag Fairy makes sense. I could go into it here but I guess that's too much for this article huh? (Please ask please ask)

I'm also really impressed with how the Pointdevice Mode was integrated into the story, and reflected in the music too. The battle against Junko is, to all parties, a fight the player can't possibly lose- so rather than the usual hard-hitting Huge Fight Against Unhappy Odds heard in previous titles, the final boss theme carries an almost arrogant sense of triumph.

The final stage is so cool, and has a wonderfully cinematic moment over the Sea Of Rains (which incidentally is a very cool callback to the SSiB manga) as the Earth rises in the background timed perfectly to the swell of the music and incoming barrage.

Finally, on a fanboy note (hahaha just kidding this whole screed is fanboy-powered), Sanae returns as a playable character and I love her so much. I'm so, so happy she got to go to the moon.

All in all Touhou 15 is a superb entry in the series and if you've never played one before, absolutely do not start here as you will be crushed into powder.

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Oracle Of Seasons

Oracle of Ages was in last year's Games Of, but I didn't finish this one! I think I played it too soon after finishing Ages, and it also felt like the weaker of the two titles. The season mechanic didn't grab me much, although the underground dudes are really cute. I should get back to finishing this game really, but it'll be some time before I do. Since it uses the same everything as Ages, I imagine my impressions will be the same as that, so read my entry for that in last years thread!

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Prof Layton 2

It's Layton again! No, really. It's the same game, with different puzzles in it. That's no bad thing, it just makes it hard to talk about it in a way that isn't repeating myself. The story's resolution was absolute tripe again just like the first game, but it did include a very exciting sword fight.

Also- Professor Layton is an absolute asshole. He gets away with it because he's so polite and nonchalant about it, but he really is a cock when you pay attention to what he's actually saying. I love it- he's one of the best-written arse-bastards I've ever known and it's wonderful.

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Nintendo Badge Arcade

Extortionately expensive F2P, but the physics of this crane game are really nice to play with and you do get a generous amount of free goes at it. It's nicely presented with a rabbit clerk talking to you throughout, and each crane machine has a different layout to play. Don't have much else to say about it really- you probably already know if collecting badges for display on your menu is your kinda thing.

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Pokemon Rumble World

Fun enough in small doses- it's pretty mashy without a lot of variance, but it's a nice timewaster. Possibly because it's early on, I'm finding that the enemy pokemon level up really fast which is annoying- I no sooner catch a decent level pokemon I like than it's already too weak and I have to go catching again. Also the randomness will get annoying to collectors, with boss pokemon catchable but only a low chance of it happening.

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Pokemon Picross

Argh! Okay, let me preface- I fricken LOVE Picross games, and I fricken LOVE pokemon, so this was really exciting for me when it was announced. It was the most exciting thing in that Direct for me and I realise that makes me lame and I don't even care.

The free-to-play stuff is frustrating beyond belief, but also admirable in a way... Pretty much everything you do costs in-game currency Picrites to perform. Picrites come to free players in drips but really, there's no way you can rely on free ones. I'm actually stuck in the game because I ran out of picrites and can't afford to unlock any more levels to get more. There's a daily puzzle that awards 3 picrites (up to 13 at later levels) and the next 5 or so missions will cost 70 to unlock... Yeah, it's like that. Honestly I'd prefer they'd dropped the first level batch as a free demo and made the game a standard retail title or released it as Generation Packs rather than this carrot-stick style.

There's some really nasty money-sinks that the game throws at you without much explanation that I will warn you of here. Firstly, you will be told about the Alt-World early on, in excited tones which make it sound like a good deal. Alt-World puzzles are the same puzzles in the normal game with harder rules- you don't get any rewards for completing them and they are all repeats. It costs twice as much as opening up a new set of puzzles does and is only at all worth considering after you've done everything else.

At some point you'll find a mega pokemon puzzle, but to do these you need to buy the 500 picrite Mega Pencil. I have seen a total of two of these mega pokemon puzzles in 10 worlds (out of 30-odd). Again, only worthwhile when you've run out of things to do. These two sinks are so connivingly placed and sold that it really left a bad taste in my mouth.

Then again, you can't buy more than $30 worth of picrites as the game will give them to you free of charge after this, which is the cost of a standard retail release, so that's pretty neat... it makes the drip-feed stand out more, though. For reference, I bought 800 picrites with the special one-time offer there is available- was about £3.50. I feel like that's a reasonable price for what it's got me, without spending on the alt-world or megas.

But, you know, it's Picross. If you like Picross, you'll love it. And I do.

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Transformations

Oh, no, wait, I didn't play this yet... or even start making it. Heheheh, but you're gonna love it when it's done. Trust me. Be excited.