My Games of 2013, The Runner-Up and the Winner

By some stretch of luck or simple decisiveness, picking my top game of the year has not really been a difficult prospect the last few years.  Unfortunately, this was the first year where I simply didn't have a Yakuza game to place, which is all Sega's fault and damn them for it, and such a game would have made my pick this year -very- difficult.  However, in the end, there were two games that stood out for me this year for hilariously opposing reasons and you've probably guessed them already, which means you probably understand the silly juxtaposition they make.  Of course, if you're still a bit in the dark, I'm about to make it a lot more clear as to what I mean.

2.  Rune Factory 4

As I've never neglected to mention even once, Rune Factory 4 is literally the game that was the tipping point in my 3DS decision.  All of the Pokemons, all of the Animal Crossings, all of the this and the that, that all made the purchase tempting, but it was something I wasn't prepared to really consider until Rune Factory 4 was announced for a localization.  That clinched it and, in a way, I'm exceptionally happy that it -did- force me to buy a 3DS, as I've had a lot of fun with mine.  I still prefer the Vita by miles, but the 3DS is plenty capable in itself and it makes me wonder just what the -next- Nintendo handheld will be able to do, but that's neither here nor there.  What -is- here and there is just how enjoyable Rune Factory 4 was, and how disappointed I am that it's probably the last iteration the series will see.

Rune Factory, as a series, only seems to get better and better with each iteration and that held especially true with Rune Factory 4 which was such a marked improvement over even 3 that it was almost staggering.  Combat was refined, farming was re-thought and improved and hell, even the Relationship System was revamped between games.  It was a complete tear-down and re-build of what you'd expect a Rune Factory game to be and even though there were a few elements added that didn't quite reach their full potential (the party system, in my opinion, and the Storefront) it did so many things so incredibly right that I couldn't -not- love it.  There was a reason why I sunk an excess of 100 hours into it, after all.  Well....two reasons.  That it was fantastic was the important one.

The other reason was due to Rune Factory 4's one misstep.  There's a random event system in the game, which is a great idea actually, but the way it's handled is abysmal.  The Random Events occur randomly as the name suggests, but the chance of an event beginning on any given day has to be around 30% if not lower.  Thus you find that a lot of your days are uninterrupted, allowing you to simply focus on your duties or the story if you haven't cleared it all yet.  However, in the Events pool are the events that lock away Marriage to the candidates, meaning you have to unlock it as a possible event (by getting to the appropriate relationship level with that person) and even then, it's only added to the random event pool.  So you could, as I did, be stuck with your lover at 15 hearts (when the Marriage requirement is like 8-10 hearts) and all the proper furnishings, but still get your proposals turned down because the event hasn't flagged and allowed you to experience it.  More annoyingly, the event that kick-starts the third act of the story (the epilogue, really) is...well, a random event as well.

That would be more of a problem if Rune Factory 4 were a chore to play, of course.  It's not, however, and the amount of fun you can have playing it really does help to mitigate the frustration you might feel from playing day-in and day-out without hitting the event that you want or, indeed, an event at all based on the low chance.  It doesn't remove it completely - nothing could as it's a legitimately frustrating idea - but going "Damnit, no event, oh well, I can still do this, this, this, this and that today" at least distracts you and keeps you from simply spinning your wheels and waiting for it.  Use that time to get to know the incredible cast of characters that the game has to offer.  Train your combat skills with the new and improved fighting system.  Try and harvest materials that you then try to figure out crafting recipes for, or buy them and try to work up to being able to craft them with no difficulty.  Simply enjoy all of the bounty that Rune Factory 4 has to offer within its small confines, because it's a damn great game.

And now, without some sort of crazy build-up or further ado, I bring you...

Game of the Year 2013 - Metal Gear Rising:  REVENGEANCE

I'm sure this comes as no surprise. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that if you didn't see this one coming a mile away, you simply weren't paying attention.  I talked about Metal Gear Rising a lot and the bulk of that was simply stating and restating just how much goddamn fun I had with the game.  It bordered on 'indulgent' and if I was worried about not being able to put Soul Sacrifice down, I had to literally wrest myself from REVENGEANCE to actually get things in my life and my backlog accomplished.  At least with Soul Sacrifice, I would be gaining offerings and building up sacrifices and the like, making progress.  There would be no such thing with REVENGEANCE as I swear to you I could put an entire day into a Grey Fox run (Grey Fox suit, fully upgraded Fox Blade, no items) yet only play the first couple of (proper) chapters.  Over and over again.  Since a Grey Fox run literally provides me with what I've yearned for in an action game - the ability to simply cut something and have it fall apart.  That something being enemies, thanks to the Fox Blade's ability of being able to blade mode cut while..not in blade mode.

It's hard to pin down exactly what I liked about Metal Gear Rising, except to simply say "all of it" and by all of it, I really kind of do mean all of it.  The over-the-top cheese dialogue, the lightning-fast (ha!) action, the absolute visceral feel of actually cutting, of actually slicing and destroying, the astoundingly good soundtrack - it's all fantastic.  It was just the perfect slice (Ha- okay, I'll stop) of what I wanted and, honestly, what I needed when it came out.  There's not a lot else that I can say about it that I haven't said already without restating, so I'll give that a shot.

"Oftentimes, while playing REVENGEANCE, I only stopped playing because I knew I -had- to because of other obligations, or because I beat it.  Again.  It quickly transcended from "Game I need to play because I want to and I just bought it" to "Game I need to play because oh my god" and all the way to "Game I want to play forever because oh my god"."

-From Well, This is Something - REVENGEANCE Trophy List Mentions "PS Vita" (4/14/13)

"When I say it's probably my Game of the Year at this point, I say that with full knowledge that I've actually played quite a few new releases already this year with many more on the horizon.  I say it because there are few words that can effectively convey the fun and joy that I experience when I actually play it, though I suppose mentioning fun and joy is a good start.  Playing the game, actually playing it....is just a dream.  It's less about playing the game, about the mechanics, about anything than it is about using everything you have to just have as much fun as you can.  Every room full of enemies is a new chance to pull off some sort of amazing combo, if not in numbers, but in executions.  A chance to dismember every one of them in a different way if that's your thing, or a chance to find new and exciting ways to take them out as you get new weapons added to your armory.

The thing about REVENGEANCE is that, despite its fairly linear structure by nature, there's a staggering amount of freedom when it comes to the fights because of how freeform it can be.  Not only with weapons, with sub-weapons, but with little things like appearance and style as well as the Wigs that enhance your abilities in some fashion.  Throw on the Brown Wig and become a Grenadier.  Stun everyone with whatever's handy before you eviscerate them.  Stay back and pelt everyone with rockets because you have a rocket launcher in your pocket and you ain't even -care-.  Do whatever you want.  Do whatever makes the game fun for you because there is a way for that.  I cannot fathom someone playing REVENGEANCE and not, eventually, finding a way to play it that makes it an enjoyable experience for them."

- From REVENGEANCE is Officially Heading for PC (5/17/13)

"Like with the just mentioned Binary Domain, I didn't know quite what to expect, walking into REVENGEANCE, but I did expect something good.  Something fun.  And much the same as with that situation, I got a -lot- more than I expected, finding that at no point in my four hours of playing did I stop grinning, did I stop chuckling and getting excited by all of the wonderfully awesome things on the screen.  The game is beyond fun, it's beyond good - it is exquisite, and it's a whole different beast than I was expecting, but a beast that I've been wanting without knowing it."

-From CUT ALL THE THINGS (2/19/13)

With all that said, I'm fairly confident that it's obvious why I picked REVENGEANCE to be my Game of the Year for 2013.  There will be one more Game of the Year post explaining the lack of certain games on my list and then we'll be all sorted until next time it rolls around.  Thanks for reading in the meanwhile and congratulations Konami and Platinum Games for making such a fantastic game that everyone needs to look into, Metal Gear Solid and Action Game fan alike.  If you walk away from it disappointed, I just don't know what to tell you.

I may have a few choice words I would -want- to tell you, but that's a different story

My Games of 2012 - Number One

1.  Sleeping Dogs

For all my hand-wringing and second-guessing, it was more or less never about this game.  I didn't go into voting with the express intention of putting Sleeping Dogs in my number one spot, though I wasn't at all surprised when I put it there.  It felt right, because goddamnit I really love this game.  Of course, you all know that because I have gone on and on about it over the last year when I was playing through, finishing and absolutely completing it.  So, much in the same vein as how I covered AssLib, I would like to re-post some of the bigger sentiments I had about the game and then talk a little bit more about how my perceptions have changed and such with time, given that I haven't actually put a lot of time back into the game after Platinum'ing it, due to, you know, there being a whole hell of a lot of games that I've had to play in the recent months.

So I'll just throw this down to get this started:  I love this game.  I pretty much love everything -about- Sleeping Dogs and I am actually a little surprised that I enjoy it quite as much as I do.  But I really do, I throw hours after hours into playing it and never get bored - I just get tired or I just have to really do something -else-, but the game is easily one that I could see myself marathonning sometime down the road for no purpose other than to enjoy it all over again.  I never do that outside of cases where, like, my save got lost or there was a trophy patch or something of that sort because I simply don't have the time.  But I would -make- the time if the time was right to replay Sleeping Dogs from scratch.

Obviously what differentiates Sleeping Dogs from just about every other open world game out there is that it is a game that fully intends for you to play it using melee.  Yes, there are shooting bits, sometimes even with cover involved, but let me let you in on a little secret:  If you're playing Sleeping Dogs by plinking away at dudes from cover, you're being a pussy.  Guns are not guns in Sleeping Dogs, but power-ups, things that you use to take out a few guys while running at a pack, as you might use, say, the hammer in Super Smash Bros.  Best usage of guns in the game is not taking cover and popping up, but vaulting and getting that sweet sweet slow-mo going.  Vault and run at your enemies and make sure they all get a new hole for a third eye to keep it going, but more importantly, to be the baddest fucking Wei Shen you can be.  If you can effectively take out a room of guards who keep flooding in without staying in cover for more than a second at a time between setting off slow-mo vaults then congratulations, you are using guns in Sleeping Dogs the correct way. 

One of my own personal favorite environmental bits is not any of these types of things, but rather just using gravity effectively for fun and profit.  There's not -very- many areas where it's viable, but with the useage of the grapple-dash and the running throw, you can turn an uppity gangster into a projectile aimed at a car twenty feet below and that, my friends, is a rush.  I never have hit a car yet, but as far as instant kills go, getting a running start and throwing a guy off what is basically just a covered bridge over a road is something that I could suggest will never get old.  Even when you don't have the unabashed freedom to throw them directly off, having the ability to, after wearing a foe down, basically clothesline them over a railing to the road below or what have you is still fun in itself.  Similarly fun, but rather confusing, is the fact that the game suffers from a case of the protagonist being the only man alive who knows how to swim.  That means anyone who hits the water instantly dies.  And when you have a lot of areas where there's water and no real barricade around it....well, I'm sure you can imagine just where that leads.

[...]

The true beauty of Sleeping Dogs, for me, is that I am retroactively nostalgic for this game already.  I just 'finished' the game earlier today, but I remember all sorts of things as you would only remember a game from years gone past, with the same amount of fondness involved.

I should start by saying that, all of that?  Still true.  Still definitely true and, in many ways, even moreso now than it was then.  I have been itching in the worst way to actually just start playing Sleeping Dogs over again from scratch and I can tell you right now that, when I do, it will not be the last time I do it. I look forward to embracing the acquisition of power almost as much as I anticipate having it, and will enjoy being able to employ Wei Shen's full arsenal again.  After earning it all over once more.  Sleeping Dogs is definitely a game where they journey is just as much fun as the destination, as they say, and even when you reach the destination, there's still plenty of things to do with the many collectibles that the game has (which is will give you maps to in a sense) as well as the fight clubs and random mooks on the streets to use your skills against.

What really gets to me, I think, is how absolutely in its own league that Sleeping Dogs truly is.  There's just no other Melee-focused open-world game out there on the market.  Possibly Arkham City, I suppose, but I haven't played that just yet and it'll likely be a while before I do so.  Even the Yakuza games aren't completely Open-world, nor do their battles exist in the map itself (just yet), so that's a different case as well.  Yet, rather than being something that wears out its welcome, Sleeping Dogs shows us how rewarding something of its kind can be.  It eschews that which a lot of games have made almost standard for this generation in gun combat for something a lot more technical, visceral and, in my own opinion, enjoyable.

I'm not going to go on and on here as I've done that more than enough in the past.  Sleeping Dogs is my Game of 2012 by virtue of being the game I enjoyed the most and the game I found most important because of what it did.  Though it may not completely and totally overshadow other games, especially the others on my list, it has that certain something, that special quality that makes me gravitate towards it.  If you haven't gotten yourself a copy of it, then what the hell are you waiting for?  Go out and procure, return home and savor it.  Enjoy it.  Even if you have bought and played it, give consideration to dipping into its pleasures once more.  I know I will, because the game is a rare treat and one to savor from time to time.

My Games of 2010: Number 1

The game I picked for 2010 has a long and storied past, not only with myself, but for every fan of the series it belongs to.  One of repeated gain after loss, of hope upon hope being crushed before being restored.  The game had been a long time coming for those of us outside of Japan, and it almost seemed that it would never come.  But not only did it, but it's release seems to have lit a fire under it's creator's company, who have already begun localizing the next installment, putting more effort into it than ever before.

By no means is the game perfect.  In fact, it's assuredly technically inferior to plenty of the other titles in my list.  But, quite frankly, no other game on my list is this game either. And this game makes me Squeeeee.

If you haven't guessed by now (Though you've probably already seen what it is below), then here it is:

1.  Yakuza 3

The tale of Yakuza 3's localization process is a difficult one to tell, as, for the longest time there was, in fact, no localization to be spoken of.  Sega was busy with other projects and given the series lackluster sales in previous incarnations (I believe 2 sold less than 1, but was assuredly more profitable thanks to the lack of American VAs), they didn't believe a localization was worthwhile.  (This was the impression given, of course, I don't believe there was ever a statement made regarding the necessity of a localization.)

"But Sega!" the fans cried, "We will buy it!".  Largely, it seemed their outcries went unnoticed as speculation after speculation was released and then quashed.  On no less than four occasions throughout 2009, the game was rumored to see a release in the States and Europe, only to quickly be debunked by the passing of time with no official word, or official word stating, matter-of-factly, that they had nothing to say on the matter.

Kazuma doesn't like being toyed with, Sega.

Then, a more promising beacon appeared.  A listing on Amazon Germany appeared and was eventually taken down.  Why was this more promising?  Because, by this point, Amazon Germany had gone 1/1 on outing things early and fans like myself would simply latch on to anything at this point.  Time went by, a week, in fact, with nothing really stated on the matter.

Then, on December 8th, it happened.  It was finally confirmed, and all was right with the world.  I remember the first time I saw that; I'd become accustomed to checking the Blog often, as I run the thread for the Playstation Store on Penny Arcade, so I finished whatever game I was playing at the time and decided I'd check it before getting on the computer for the night.  And when I saw that, the controller fell from my hand as I could say only, "What."

Getting the game eventually proved to be a chore in itself.  Sega's street date ended up being one of the misleading "This is the day we send them out" dates, so after two fruitless trips to Best Buy, I returned home empty-handed and re-learned the virtue in calling ahead.

But when I finally got it, it was glorious.

Thugs learn the hard way that taunting an Ex-Yakuza is a bad idea.

 I find that a lot of my gaming library involves combat of some sort (as will most people's, assuredly), and I will say, at the very least, the Combat system in the Yakuza series is one of the most, if not the most satisfying systems out there.  Intensely Brutal, the moves involved in about 70 or so percent of it would assuredly leave a person in need of a hospital at the very least, and it only expands in every game.

Haruka loves her semi-family thiiiiis much.

Of course, the game is not for everybody.  It isn't just about the fighting; you see, Kazuma Kiryu has tried to leave that life behind him.  Unfortunately, he keeps getting dragged back in, this time in an attempt to save his Orphanage from being destroyed by the Government to make way for....something.  At the surface, the idea that the land is going to be seized is a foregone conclusion, it's simply being argued by two prominent political figures what should go in its' place:  A Resort for greater income, or a Military Base for national security.  Given the chance, any chance, to keep his building intact, Kazuma must do whatever he can to prevent his land from being sold out from under him.

Honor isn't dead, merely harder to find.

This proves to bring about a rather strange start to the game; between the battles that are fairly sparse to start with, and the more subdued story than one might expect if they haven't played a Yakuza game before (The kids, for one.  And it starts out more a mystery than anything; which isn't exactly new for the series) it has the potential to push away people who might just want to get to the real meat of the game.  But rest assured, once the meat has presented itself, it doesn't go away.

Punch mans.  Enjoy punching mans.

Surprisingly (Or not, again depends on your exposure to the series) the story goes deep and gets quite powerful as more and more about this land deal is exposed and how it affects Kazuma's past and, of course, his future as well as the future for the children he's raising.  And, as always, through the power of punching people in the face, Kazuma makes new allies along the way, who grow as the story advances, showing real development and real maturity.

Though all my pictures are from the Japanese version, there's a specific reason why this one is.

It's not all good, of course.  A lot of content was left on the editing floor over at Sega before the game was released over here; most of it was inconsequential like some mini-games and hostess events (which I was initially annoyed about; Yakuza's 2 Hostess Bar management was rather enjoyable, but then I learned it wasn't in Yakuza 3 to begin with and the Hostess things were simply other things, so I didn't care).  But what stung was the fact that quite a few side-missions, I believe over or around two dozen, simply were not in the game at all.  Which might be fine, as it means less work, but that means less exposition and less Experience to make your Kazuma all the badass he can be.

The Golf Clubs are more fun when you're hitting people with them.

On top of that, there's a plethora of mini-games in Yakuza 3 (Some were actually cut from the localization, even) that range from Alright to Absolute Dick.  More often than not, I would pass by the bowling alley and tell myself, "I'm going to have to do the Bowling for 100% and the trophies", only to say, "Eh.  Later."  And in fact, I never completed them.  Which is for the best, really, as I would have nothing currently to show for it.  Yes, my Yakuza 3 save was a casualty of the oft-mentioned PS3 YLOD I had, and while I mourned it at first, I realized it meant I got to play the whole thing again fresh, rather than I had to and that made all the difference.

So how did Yakuza 3 end up being my game of the year when even I admit that it's far from perfect?  Is it because it potentially has a great story surrounding the many many trials of it's eventual release?  Is it because the fighting is so good it outshines it's flaws to make them seem miniscule?  Is it because Kazuma is just such a tiger-punching badass, I have to give the spot to him out of reverence?

No.  The reason Yakuza 3 ended up being my game of the year is because even when it was difficult, it was fun.  I bitch about the Bowling mini-game, the Darts mini-game, and this and that, but it doesn't really matter because even when I wasn't enjoying the game (thanks to the mini-games), I was still having fun because I was playing Yakuza 3 after believing for so long that I would never be able to without learning Japanese and stepping into the wide world of importing.  I wanted this game badly enough, I finally got it, and it was simply everything I could have hoped it to be.  And its release has even improved Sega at least somewhat; as I said before, Yakuza 4 is already being localized and in better fashion than any game in the series.  Hell, they're acting like they have a Marketing Department for once.

So that is why Yakuza 3 is my definitive game of 2010.