Author Topic: My top 8 games of 2017 + others  (Read 5958 times)

Offline PriomBlazer

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My top 8 games of 2017 + others
« on: December 31, 2017, 12:34:08 PM »
The end of the year is upon us. And that means one thing. Top 10s made by people other than click-baity youtube channels. So last year a lot of people made their own top 10 games list and that was fun so this time around I felt like I'd be the first to start off.

Now if there was one word I'd use to describe 2017 it'd definitely have to be "stressful". A lot of important stuff in my life this time around so I wasn't exactly able to play all that many games this year. Which is why I'm doing a top 8 instead of a 10.

Just like before the list will be comprised of games I played this year and not necessarily games released this year. But unlike before, this time I want to mention some games that didn't make the list for one reason or another before I get to the actual top 8. So here we go:

Games that didn't make the cut:

Runestone Keeper: Not an overall bad game and it's a game I'd probably sink more time to if I was casually playing it on my phone or something. But when I sit on my PC I want to play a game with a bit more substance.

Darkisiders: Warmaster Edition: In the small list of games I played this year, most of the games can be put into two categories: Games that are so good that it's hard to put one above the other and Games I didn't bother to finish because something just didn't click with me. A lot of the games that didn't make the cut on the top 8 list including this one fits that category. I can't exactly pinpoint what made me finally decide to stop playing this game but I can say that for me, the characters and dialogue felt unintentionally cartoony, the gamefeel felt lacking, the visuals. Now for the visuals I do like it in some parts, the idea of a more fantasy-esque post-apocalyptic Earth is pretty cool and when the game focuses on that it can look pretty amazing but most the time the game looked visually bland. Add all this with the fact that you can't remap the terrible control layout and I guess that might be the reason why I decided to quit.

Akumujao Succubus: Now here's a more interesting game. Akumujao Succubus, as the name might imply, is an ecchi parody of Castlevania which is called Akumujao Succubus in Japan. In this game you play as Simone Belmont (ha ha) whose in a quest to stop the titular Succubus so she'd stop sending monsters to do exactly what you expect them to do in this game. And honestly, even without all the NSFW stuff which is the main draw point, the game isn't all that bad. But that being said I still didn't bother to finish it which is why it's not in the top 8 list.

Front Mission: Now here's a sad story. Priom tried to emulate the original front mission for the snes on his phone. Priom's phone glitched but he stored his save file seperately so he was hoping to just reinstall the emulator again and continue his game. But unfortunately Microsoft decided to remove all the emulator from their app store so Priom had to do the only snes emulator he could find for his phone. But that emulator didn't support the save file from the other emulator. So Priom became sad and stopped playing the game. THE END

Pokemon Revolution: A fan made Pokemon mmo that I played a bit before I had my big exam on April and then I never got back to it. The most notable things about this game are that it had Pokemon from the first gen all the way up to X&Y when I played, the battles are harder and requires actual strategy and all the npcs talk like smart-asses.

Shadow of the Colossus: Honestly I love this game. If I played this game in a single year it'd definitely be my number 1 game of the year. But in reality, I played it between the end of 2016 and the start of 2017 and I already put it in my 2016 list so I'm just gonna mention it here for this year instead.

AD&D: Eye of the Beholder:
The first person dungeon crawler genre of games were popular during early pc-gaming and made a resurface in recent times thanks to some notable indie games and their japanese turn based counter part. I'm not too familiar with this genre of games because I always thought these games would a bit too cryptic, confusing and generally player hostile for me. And unfortunately that's what I got with Eye of the Beholder.

And with that out of the way. It's time for the actual top 8. Here We Go:

#8: Heroes of the Storm:

A game I honestly probably wouldn't have even played if some of you didn't mention it on discord and also a game I haven't played enough to get good at. But it was still fun to play with ya'all while it lasted.


#7: Psychonauts:


I don't know why but humble bundle has a tendency to give away games that I buy for free a short while after I buy that exact game. Psychonauts is one of those games.

What drew me in to Psychonauts is the concept. The idea of going into a person's subconscious is just cool to me. But unfortunately, the games has a lot of problems of being an old platformer and the game has more of a comedic theme so I can't put it higher on the list.

But nevertheless, the game still does use the idea of entering peoples' minds in interesting ways and the controls aren't dated enough to be completely unplayable so overall it's not a bad game.


#6: Skullgirls:

Holy hell, let's talk about polish. This game is a visual treat! And the game's well detailed tutorial means that for the first time in my life I know what I'm doing in a 2d Fighting Game ...to some extent. But the reason why I can't put it higher on the list is because I only played some of the tutorial and online PVP so far because I'm waiting for my chance to get the 2nd Encore DLC which unlocks all the character and adds voiced cutscenes. And even then I haven't played PVP all that much. So hopefully I'd get around to changing that soon.
 
#5: The Legend of Dark Witch:


You know what, I've been feeling an itch to play all kinds of sidescrollers recently. I mean with both indie devs and some bigger gaming companies making more and more unique and polished run and guns, metroidvanias and side-scrolling platformers every year it's hard not to fall into the hype sooner or later.

So one of the first side-scrollers I played this year was The Legend of Dark Witch and I certainly don't regret it. The Legend of Dark Witch is a run and gun sidescroller similiar in line to the megaman line of games where you take the role of Zizou Olympia, a goddess who comes down to the mortal realm in order to catch a thief who somehow managed to umm...oh ya right

STEAL AN ENTIRE NATION'S ONLY ENERGY SUPPLY WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING SOMEHOW !

So ya, the game isn't all that serious on story but it manages to win the day with pure charm and solid gameplay alone.


#4: Momodora 1,2 and 3:




Hold on, I know what you're thinking, "Priom that's like 3 games. That's cheating ! I wish I could hug you and pet you and..."
Ok maybe not that last part. But here's the thing, all 3 of these games aren't particularly lengthy. The first and 3rd game are more linear sidescrollers and the 2nd one is a sort of mini-metroidvania, if you will.

So why are these short games higher than The Legend of Dark Witch ? Well it's rather simple. They're an inspiration. It's not exactly uncommon knowledge that I'm kinda trying to be a game developer. So seeing a game made by a small team go from making a short Cave Story clone with a simple yet touching story, to a metroidvania with it's own identity and then finally to a fully polished game is just nice too see.

If I had to choose I'd say the 2nd one was my favourite just because how clear it was at that point the series got it's own theme and identity. Other than that, it's just personal taste. I like Metroidvanias more and I can't wait to get a chance to play the 4th installment of the series "Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight"


#3: Path of Exile:


Now me and my younger brother has this sort of tradition where we play an MMORPG sometime during or after christmas season together for some time and then just forget about it and Path of Exile was going to fall into that category. But what happened was, he quit and I didn't, I got hooked into the game and played the entire game on standard difficulty and I'm hoping to come back to it again if I ever get the time. This game got me into two genres of games that I had a passive interested in but never got really invested in,
The Diablo-esque top down action rpg and of course MMORPGS.
And this game deserves to be so high on this list for this reason among other things like it's amazing f2p model, gradual updates, community market,game feel and the likes.


#2: Transistor:


You know how I mentioned most of the games I played this year could be put into two major categories. Well this is the perfect example of that.
If I didn't finish the game that's on #1 this year this game would've definitely made it to number one easily. Because holly hell, this game is GOOD. I never thought Supergiant Game would surpass Bastion but I couldn't have been so easily wrong. Being no less than Bastion in terms of story, visuals and music, Transistor goes one step further by making the actual gameplay from being something acceptable in Bastion to an important and no less a fun factor in Transistor.

Although with this much quality comes the lack of quantity. And honestly I'd have the former anyways. But to combat this the devs made it so that you'd have to play the game for a 2nd time to be able to do amazing combos, complete all of the side-challenges and get all of the abilities necessary to get all the details of the game's character and world. Which honestly, isn't completely terrible. I mean I DID actually play the game twice due to how enjoyable it was. But I feel like there's a lack of actual replay value here which is the excuse I'm going to use to make me feel less bad about not putting this game on first place.


And now for number one which you guys/gals might already know:


#1: Breath of Fire 3:


Honestly, what else could be on my #1. I am a huge fan of JRPGs and this game is no less of a reason for it. I have mentioned that this year was particularly stressful and a game that helped negate some of that stress is Breath of Fire 3.

A lot of people tend to think (my younger brother included) that, Jrpgs and particularly old JRPGs are a bit same-y, well this game is a testament to the fact that that notion is kinda wrong. There's so much charm to this game and it doesn't follow a traditional "Chosen hero saves the world" type of story. In fact, a running joke between me and my brother was the fact that I often said that I was close to finishing the game when in fact I wasn't I just didn't understand that because of how different the story is. And considering all the things you can do, from fighting an Australian robotic dolphin to asking a homeless man what a prostitute sells to starting your own business empire by employing a buncha rude, naked fairies the story certainly isn't lacking in charm.

And even in the gameplay side of things there's a lot of puzzles and minigames and there's also Breath of Fire's signature dragon transformation to add some uniqueness to the traditional turn based combat system(which I guess is one of the main reason for people saying JRPGs are a bit same-y) to negate the samey-ness  a bit.

Since I mentioned at least 1 negative thing about every game on this list I guess it's only fair that I mention I'm not too fond of this game's soundtrack. I mean it's not bad but I have high expectation for JRPG osts and most of this game's music have a sort of jazzy-vibe to it that I'm not particularly fond of. But there are a few music pieces that stand out and by the end of the day I love this game to bits. I think I had either 75 hours or 85 hours which is way higher than most games on my steam library. This game was an experience, a part of my everyday life as to say and I hope I get to experience more games like this and really all the other ones on my list.


With that being said 2017 is coming to a close so I hope everybody has a pleasant new year.
I mean realistically speaking I know at least I probably won't but hey let's at least hope the games are good.

And with that I end my list.
« Last Edit: December 31, 2017, 12:37:57 PM by PriomBlazer » »

Offline NekoJonez

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Re: My top 8 games of 2017 + others
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2017, 12:56:21 PM »
You did a great job mate! :)
And it looks like my list turned out quite a lot different. I'll post mine on my blog around 8PM Brussels time.

Offline PriomBlazer

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Re: My top 8 games of 2017 + others
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2017, 12:59:56 PM »
You did a great job mate! :)
And it looks like my list turned out quite a lot different. I'll post mine on my blog around 8PM Brussels time.
Yay, I did earlier than you this time

Offline Kiss x Miz

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Re: My top 8 games of 2017 + others
« Reply #3 on: January 01, 2018, 11:42:30 AM »
Shoulda put your own game on #1

Offline PriomBlazer

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Re: My top 8 games of 2017 + others
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2018, 09:29:46 AM »
Even I'm not that narcissistic

Offline Swagmaster

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Re: My top 8 games of 2017 + others
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2018, 09:33:26 AM »
So I actually wrote most of a top games 2017 a week ago but i never uploaded it because i was too lazy to add pictures and finish the rest/edit. seeing yours made me motivated to finish it so stay tuned lmao

Offline PriomBlazer

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Re: My top 8 games of 2017 + others
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2018, 10:42:51 AM »
So I actually wrote most of a top games 2017 a week ago but i never uploaded it because i was too lazy to add pictures and finish the rest/edit. seeing yours made me motivated to finish it so stay tuned lmao

yay~

 

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