I mostly have long words for my top 5 because I had it made a while back, but I do have other games to add in here
1. Kingdom Hearts 3 Re Mind - Limit Cut and the Secret Episode are the type of things that remind(hehe) me why I love gaming in the first place and what made this DLC my personal favorite piece of gaming content this year.
I adore high quality boss fights and I'll break down what I want from a boss fight here and how Re Mind hits those criteria. The underlying game mechanics need to be solid and the bosses need you to use those mechanics , Base KH3 had the mechanics barring a few tweaks that landed when the DLC dropped. What base KH3 didn't have was enemies worth using those mechanics on because the game was so easy. Re Minds bosses are tough as sin, with few openings and attacks that are difficult to avoid. Utilising the games mechanics such as parries, attack cancels, form changes and unique elemental interactions let you find new ways to avoid and deal damage. You can't brute force your way to victory, the bosses here actively punish sloppy play and mashing the dodge and block buttons, through unique unblockable attacks as well as feints and delayed timing attacks. You are forced to learn patterns and properly use the games mechanics to make your life easier, this learning process being extremely satisfying.
Next is visual spectacle without sacrificing player input. Most games blend cinematic aspects and moments into their boss fights to deliver cool looking moments but in doing so, sacrifice player agency using quick time events or by dumbing down controls. The best boss fights manage to do both at the same time, leaving you with your full set of tools at practically all times and making you and your enemies actions still look good. Xemnas' laser barrage Desparation move could be simplified to a quick time event like in KH2 but here, instead you time your blocks and your dodges in between all of it for a far more satisfying moment. This is just one example; almost everything your enemies do has a level of anime JRPG ridiculousness but your blocks and dodges are still needed, making avoiding those attacks all the more satisfying.
Last is fantastic music. I don't need to say much here because its Kingdom Hearts and its Yoko Shimomura composing but yeah, you need great music and the remixed tracks here are all some of the best this year.
Put all these together and do it 14 times and I ended up with the most addictive gaming experience I had this year, replaying the fights over and over and over even after beating them. It's the kind of experience where I just forget about everything around going on and let the game take and consume me completely for days. Re Mind might not just be the best boss battle experience of the year, but its amongst the best of all time.
2. Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition - The next gen version of my 2019 GOTY. The big attraction is Vergil who is also DLC for the last gen version. And that addition sees DMC5 find it's way onto this list once again.
Vergils is an extremely technical character with highly intricate mechanics that promote a calm and precise style of play befitting of the character. Playing that way builds his concentration gauge(affectionately known as the motivation gauge by fans). Building this gauge makes Vergils existing moves stronger and unlocks new attacks. This direction towards this play style gives Vergil a very distinct feel compared to the other 3 characters and makes the game feel extremely fresh. Figuring out encounters with his kit and play style is some of the most fun I've had this year with me ending up playing the game over and over across multiple difficulties without noticing the hours go by at all.
But adding a new character normally wouldn't be enough for me to put SE on this list. What pushes it over the line is a very slight adjustment to the campaign. Capcom changing the last 2 stages to be all new fights against his Legendary Devil Hunter Twin Dante.Like with KH3R, Boss fights like this are my favorite things in gaming. Figuring out openings, how to do the best forms of damage, dealing with an extravagant moveset and all that. The learning and optimising process of a high quality boss fight, while also being easy to replay over and over appeals highly to me and Capcom provided that to me yet again after doing it last year.
This slight change, the overall fun involved in the character and the Quality of Life with faster loading and Turbo mode made DMC5SE one of my favorite games this year and further cements DMC5 as the best action game ever made for me.
3. Persona 5 Royal - Persona 3-5 are very special games to me. The unique gameplay loop blending social sim, visual novel, dungeon crawling and demon fusion into one coherent package always hooks me in and does not let go. Persona 5 back in 2017 was supposed to be the final evolution of this gameplay loop in some ways, fixing some of the previous games criticisms by starting faster and adding plenty of quality of life functions from its mother series Shin Megami Tensei and for the most part I found it successful at that.
P5R seeks to address some of the further snags and annoyances P5 still had while adding enough new content to turn it into the ultimate Persona experience. The loadtimes are improved, some new mechanics are added, theres some more side activities to enjoy with the cast and most importantly, you're given more free time to engage the social sim parts of the game without your talking cat telling to you to go to bed. Small small changes that really add up to enhance the experience.
Where P5R truly shines though are in its brand new characters and plot. 2 new characters are integrated into the main game and after getting to where the game would normally end, you're given one more month of in game time for a new scenario with those characters at its centre. Atlus has not been very good at this in previous games, the Answer and Marie's stories in P3FES and P4G being kind of questionable, but that's not the case here; P5R's new month is not just comparable in quality to the main game its arguably even better.
It tackles a far more nuanced situation than any in the main game, presenting a more emotional and personal conflict for our protagonist. The main game tried to make personal conflict in its final arc too, but does not manage to do so nearly as well due to the black and white nature of what's going on. Here, the games huge length and the relationship building you do with the new characters make the final crisis one that really hits hard in it's best moments. Fleshed out with a more bittersweet ending following from the new month and it gives a whole new lens to view the Phantom Thieves through. One could argue its not as satisfying a conclusion, but it's definitely more impactful and one that'll sit with me for a long while.
4. Final Fantasy VII: Remake - Despite literally having the name remake in the name, FFVIIR is the closest thing to an entirely brand new game bar 13 sentinels on my top 5. What at first glance is a cash grab padding job to make the 1st act it's own game, it quickly reveals itself to be more. FFVIIR does what most remakes do: upgrades the graphics and presentation to be modern; upgrades the core gameplay to be modern; expands upon characters, events and writing to flesh them out more. Those are 3 tiers of what you can get from various types of remakes but FFVIIR goes further beyond, including meta aspects and story changes which will have you question what the word "remake" even means. It's a brave thing to do with such a beloved game, and I commend Square Enix for that bravery
All that could have gone wrong very easily if the rest of the package was not good though, and thankfully that's untrue. FFVIIR is Square Enix building a very well rounded package; superb battle system, lovable expanded characters, fantastic graphical presentation(some odd textures aside), high quality cutscene and dialogue direction and an absolute clinic of a soundtrack left me feeling satisfied and eager to see the uncharted waters the "Remake Series" heads to.
5. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - Easily my surprise of the year.
I like Vanillaware's work but I was disappointed to hear that their next game was basically a passion project visual novel with RTS/tower defence gameplay when it released in Japan last year. Impressions out of japan were extremely positive despite this fact, the game garnering plenty of praise from importers and when it came worldwide this year it quickly became a game everyone was praising and recommending.I was sceptical but eventually I bit and was greeted with a mind blowing showcase of storytelling in videogames.
The games story locks are placed strategically to keep you engrossed in the story, answering questions, while creating new ones. At the end of every story section, you learn something that leaves your mind blown but at the same time makes you so curious that you have no choice but to keep going. It's difficult to describe how masterful the manner in which the game hides and gives information is without spoiling the story but all I can say is that the level of care put into crafting the world and many of its aspects to keep players engaged is above many games I've played over the years.
The RTS sections are surprisingly fun as well. Audio-visual feedback is superb and the game let's you feel like you're controlling your own mini squad of mecha like few others. Its may be hit or miss by its nature as an RTS, but even this is part of the games world building and story telling and as the story goes on, the context around these sections makes them and the visual novel parts even better.
It's a game thats more than the sum of its parts. Everything comes together beautifully and by the time the credits rolled, I realised that I had just played a masterpiece. I can't recommend this game enough.
6. Demon's Souls - I view Demon's Souls in a far better light after this remake, the QOL and enhanced visuals really help me appreciated the extremely solid core game more.
7. DOOM Eternal - I hate to put this game so low on the list because of how absolutely stacked this year is. I haven't this much with an FPS ever.
8. Nioh 2 - I disliked the looting in the first game. Some QOL and me coming to terms with the systems in general made me really enjoy this game a lot more.
9. The Last of Us Part II - Fantastic feeling gunplay, well thought encounter design and an ambitious story wrapped in production values only matched by Rockstar made this my favorite Naughty Dog game ever.
10. Ghost of Tsushima - Not only did the very solid combat surprise me, the story and themes and how the game marries it with the world is surprisingly well done too.
Honorable mention: Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - Was honestly a toss up between this and GoTsu for number 10. I like Shulk's story arc and the exploration the most in this game.
- [PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind
- [PS5] [Action] [Capcom] Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition
- [PS4] [RPG] [Atlus] Persona 5 Royal
- [PS4] [Action RPG] [Square Enix] Final Fantasy VII Remake
- [PS4] [Adventure] [Vanillaware] 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
- [PS5] [Action RPG] [BluePoint Games] Demon's Souls
- [XBO] [Shooter] [id Software] Doom Eternal
- [PS4] [Action RPG] [Team Ninja] Nioh 2
- [PS4] [Action Adventure] [Naughty Dog] The Last of Us Part II
- [PS4] [Action Adventure] [Sucker Punch Productions] Ghost of Tsushima
