Well, we’re coming to the end of the year. This year has gone by so fast. Like a blink of an eye, and it’s been the worst year of my life thus far. I lost my soul in February, and I have not gotten it back again. I keep on keeping on, but I feel empty inside.
I have never been in a less festive mood (even though I’m happy for those who celebrate), but I want to do my weird-ass end-of-the-year game awards, anyway. I want to remind everyone that this is not the best games of the years or anythin close to that. This is my list of games that I enjoyed the most this year. I thought there weren’t many games I played, but when I looked at my Steam library, there were more than I had remembered.
Today, I want to talk about three games that I quite enjoyed–and they all came in the second half of the year (for me). Two are indie games whilst one is Triple A. Let’s talk about them in the order that I played them. None of them are my game of the year, of course. There can only be one in that category, and that will be a post on a later date.
Let’s roll.
Best knock-off Hogwarts game with no awful transphobia clinging to its very marrow
Spells & Secrets (Alchemist Interactive).
This is an indie game made by two guys. That’s impressive given the scope of this game. It’s an RNG roguelite adventure tale set in a wizarding school, and that’s basically the gist of the story. In fact, the story is probably the weakest part of the game as it’s just you’re a novice wizard in your first day of wizarding school, and something is wrong with the school. That’s it. Nothing deeper than that. You have tons of classmates, but they’re just randomized characters. I do like the customization of my character and that I got to unlock clothing and a few pieces of jewelry for different achievements. And I could color my hair whenever I wanted. Although, for whatever reason, I could not make my hair true black–why is this a thing? I have found that to be true in more than one game. Black is more like dark brown.
Anyway, the layout of the rooms is procedurally generated, but there are a limited amount of rooms on each floor. Each room has a secret, but there is only one you can solve per floor (the others aren’t activated). I figured out maybe half on my own and had to look up the rest. Also, by the fiftieth time, the innovativeness wore off. I’m not complaining about that, by the way, but just noting it.
I really enjoyed learning the different spells and mixing and matching. However, and maybe this is just the way I play games, once I uncovered all the spells, there was one spell I stuck to the most–barrage. Each spell has eight artefacts you can fine that are modifiers for that spell. I used barrage, shield, and ascend roughly 80% of the time. There were some I never used, which I consider a weakness of the game. I get that different people like different builds (it’s like that in FromSoft games), but there are some spells that I completely ignore (unless I need them to solve a puzzle). I’m sad that the flame spell, bombard, just isn’t that viable for me because it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to cast.
It’s an impressive game, especially as it was made by two people. as is my wont, I played the hell out of it for weeks until I suddenly was done with it. That’s how I do. I got most of the achievements, but I could not get the last one (other than the ‘here’s the achievement for getting all the other achievements’ achievement, otherwise known as The Dark Soul achievement (because that’s what it’s called in Dark Souls, obviously). Worse, I didn’t know why I could not get it–or how to get it. I Googled it, but I could not find a reliable answer. So, in my mind, I have the plat. More to the point, I’m done with the game. I thoroughly enjoyed it while I was playing it, and then I was done with it. You really can’t ask for anything more than that.
The most stridently solid (and gorgeous) AAA open world game that I enjoyed playing, but will forget when I finally beat the last boss of the DLC
Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR’S CUT (Sucker Punch Productions).
Whoooooooo boy. What do I have to say about this game? I’ll just throw it out there at the start. I don’t think it’s a masterpiece like most people do. Like the VAST majority of people who have played it do. Like, so many people have it as a top ten PlayStation/Sony game of all time. I think that’s wild! I would not put it in my top ten games of all time. Probably not even my top twenty. I think it’s a solid open world game that is better than most. That’s not saying a lot, though, given that I do not like open world games in general.
I gave it a 7 or so, and I stand by that. The combat is engaging (but frustrating for me because of my limitations). I played it on normal mode (the second mode) and it was the right mode for me. If I’m not playing a From game, then I’m not looking for difficult combat. I know that people gushed over all the different stances in Ghost of Tsushima as well as all the throwables you can use, but I did not like having to constantly switch stances during the combat. It’s much more fluid than in the Nioh games (cough cough), but it’s still annoying to change for every enemy. I know that for some people, they felt it made the combat much more interactive and realistic (as it were), but for me, it made me just want to chuck things at them instead of fight. Or use stealth so I could chain-assassinate them.
In addition, by the fiftieth camp I had to clear out, I was BORED. So fucking bored. There are too many enemies in each camp, and it’s just…why? Why make me fight twenty enemies in a five-foot square? Cut the number of enemies by half and make each fight actually matter. And, yes, I know I’m just asking for it to be more like From games, which is not fair.
I had difficulty with the lock-on throughout the game. I had to turn it off and on because it wasn’t comfortable either way. Without it, I struggled to keep up with the camera. With it on, the camera would bounce all over the place. It was very clear that they were resentful at having to add a lock-on. I probably kept it on 75% of the time and turned it off the other 25%.
I was relieved when I was OP because the combat was never my jam. When I had all my skills maxed out, yes, I felt like a badass. But I also felt like it wasn’t me. I wasn’t earning anything because the skills were that powerful. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad that the parry was so generous once that skill tree was maxed out. I like being OP when I’m not playing a From game! But there was just something missing.
I am not going to talk about the story and how it went in the toilet at the end of the second act/through the last act because I’ve written several posts about that. Suffice to say that if it weren’t for the fact that they got the last bit of the story right, I would be ever more bitter about it. It felt like such hack writing, and I’m still not over it.
I probably should have waited to play the DLC because I was t-i-r-e-d of the game by the time I finished Act III. However, I jumped right in because that’s how I do. That’s on me, and I fully realize it’s my own damn fault.
Having said that, I found the DLC lacking. It was just more of the same. Yes, there was a new big baddie, but they did not interest me in the least. Charismatic, manipulative narcissists leave me cold as characters. That’s a personal bias, but it left me feeling numb as I played the DLC. I just went through it to finish it, but then, another game came along (which I’ll get to tomorrow) that made me quit Ghost of Tsushima’s DLC cold turkey. Right before the last boss. I have no interest in it. I’ll probably go back and do it at some point, but only to get it out of the way.
I know this sounds pretty negative for a game I claim to have enjoyed, but it did give me about 60 hours of mindless fun (in stunning environments) with NPCs I mostly really liked, and Jin turned into a much more interesting person in the third act. Too bad I felt completely betrayed by the story at that point to care.
I will say that I got some really badass armors, and I really enjoyed strutting around in those. I loved getting every armor. Ghost of Fashionima, more like. Ok, it doesn’t work like Fashion Souls and Elden Bling, but I’ll roll with it.
I’m done for now. I’lltackle the other big game that got it hooks in me (and still has them dug in, and made me drop Ghost of T) tomorrow.