#heavensward: final fantasy xiv original soundtrack

[dawntrailing]

Seeking the peace of reason Sheep in a peaceless season Reason to keep believing Waken the beast who's sleeping

Let go this destiny, you're caught in a trance Ever marking time inside a dream, no sign of advance, You see, the mortal coil we serve is taut like a spring Step back! Two-step, two-step, two-step, one two three

Our world's a fantasy, no more than a test Ever feeding off the fallacy creating this mess Deep down inside this bleak machine with all of the rest Break free! Two-phase, two-phase electricity

Time turning up the volume Time turning on us always No time enough tomorrow For turning back to where we began

Twenty-two sectors tested Fragments in one direction Celestial noise detected Delirium unsuspected

Static tuned in to reason Time in the aether deepens Transmissions blink uncompleted Seven two three two three...<send>

Arrested destiny, alone in a trance No escaping from this waking dream, no hope for advance, You see, the mortal coil we serve is naught but a spring Unwind! Too slow, too quick, too much to believe

Your world's a fantasy, you've failed the test Ever forging all new fallacies creating more mess Directly through this bleak machine, with all of the rest DC! Dying, dying, electricity

Falling back right into the system of Falling back on all that's erased When fighting back right out of this system Means falling back right into this space

Yes, falling back right in with the system Who'll see you falling back to the end When falling back is better than simply Falling back into pieces again

Silent steel breathing, breathing Memory writing, reading Error! Repeat deleting Radicals flowing free and

Energy slowly seeping Suspending all disbelief in Synergy with our being Synapses fire in three, then...

[skeletonmancer]

if we fuckin, we fuckin to Unbending Steel by Masayoshi Soken from Heavensward: FINAL FANTASY XIV Original Soundtrack (SQUARE ENIX MUSIC)

[midnightrook]

(via https://open.spotify.com/track/3kh5CDXgkHlerc8jF8C6ny?si=lgM_8h_uROupL415_6OcMg)

[theshroudwolf]

Syluss and Viarianne, wounded and without the supernatural strength that Ilvont has in his dragon form, stare at him defiantly as his claw raises to strike them down. Pushing himself up with sheer force of will he lifts the weapon and plunges it into Ilvont's abdomen just as his claw strike falls slamming Syluss into the ground. Screaming as she watches her son struck down, Viarianne musters as much of her strength as she can and with a ferocious wind blast is able to at least make a small distance between them. Here staff raised as the gale force shoves Ilvont back, she quickly turns and with her outstretched palm washes a healing light over Syluss. Bathed in the energy, his wounds slowly close and he stirs, groaning and coughing as the pain of the blow wracks his body.

Ilvont digs his legs into the ground and pushes back against the wind flow as it weakens by the second. Closing distance again Viarianne is forced to stop the healing and focus on the wind which despite the renewed force begins to die down as her strength wanes.

Falling to her hands and knees spent from the massive exertion feels Syluss grab her and lift her back to her feet. Watching as Ilvont approaches again, a terrible grin on his face he raises his claws again and wordlessly brings them down over the mother and son.

In what was thought to be their final moments a powerful wave of water flows from behind them and sweeps Ilvont away several fulms. Syluss and Viarianne surprised turn and look frantically for the source before Syluss looks up and sees Destiney riding a falcon overhead, her rapier and magic foci joined channeling the massive wave which saved their lives. Her face distorted with anger, Evelyn still in her arms, eyes wide and wet from tears clutching her mother and her stuffed wolf tightly.

Stephan hobbles over and helps Viarianne to her feet and motions for Syluss to join them and escape and regroup. Looking up at Destiney and Evelyn again he turns and looks at Ilvont roaring as he gets back to his feet and in a full run begins to push back through the water flow back their way.

Bloodied and hurt, he grips the weapon angrily and with a loud angry scream, electrical energy crackles around him and akin to a bolt of lightning he jets forward through the water blast and directly into Ilvont's chest. The force carries through and still flying forward, the dragon is lifted off his feet and through a pile of stone rubble and part of a downed tree. Syluss kicking off his chest leaps back about half the distance he traveled and holds the weapon wearily in his arms but still at the ready. Closing his eyes he aims to gather as much aether he can to keep his attacking momentum but doesn't find it.

In the distances, thunder echoes in the sky as it turns a deep blue crackling with electric energy. With a slow exhale Syluss feels a tingle race over his body.

"There..." Another thunder clap and his eyes open, electric charge runs through his body and weapon. Ilvont slow to stand roars out at the lone man before him, the wound on his chest deep and gushing blood. Struggling to find the strength to breath another breath attack he instead lurches forward again as fast as his limbs can drive him. Watching as Ilvont approaches, Syluss stands his ground and with a quick kneel he rises to the sky, levin crackling from his body at the pinnacle of jump, he remains at that point for only a second before crashing down, the force of a literal lightning bolt strikes with him as he dives into Ilvont, the force of his jump attack and the levin he carried with it leaves a crater at point of impact. Ilvont's right arm severed from the blast as well as his chest partially caved in, electrical burns about his body from the center of the attack. Syluss hanging onto the spear sticking out of Ilvont's chest using it to hold himself upright. Exhausted from his exertion as well as the pain from his various wounds, he refuses to drop to his knees. He looks at the unrecognizable face of the dragon which he knew was his father. He doesn't recognize him any more now that he had before.

"~Boy...~" Ilvont's words are pained and spoken through gurgled breaths. "~You did~"

"Shut up. For once... in your miserable life... just shut up." Syluss pulls the spear free and stands on his own strength, weak as that may be now. The sky crackling still with static as a cold wind begins to blow.

Syluss lifts the spear one last time against his foe, his father and plunges it into the dragons throat. With a sound and final push, the pained breathing of Ilvont fades, his body limp. Lifting the spear, he spots the Dragoon soul stone set within it. Running bloodied fingers over it, he nods once to himself.

Climbing down from the corpse, he let's the wind flow over him, the ache of his muscles and pain of his wounds seem to blow away with the wind. Viarianne walking with help from Destiney and Stephan, all approach but give a small distance except for Destiney and Evelyn who close the gap and embrace him tightly. Syluss winces at the pain, but the need for such an embrace outweighs the hurt.

"Thank you, you saved me. Saved us."

Stephan leaves Viarianne to go ready the falcon porter to escort them out of here. Syluss looks up at Viarianne and Stephan. "Sir, thank you." Stephan looks at Syluss and wordlessly nods moving to the falcon as Viarianne, using her staff, limps over.

"Mom, this Destiney and Evelyn." She smiles and nods casually mentioning how they already met.

"This is my mom, Viarianne. She's going to coming around more. And we, to visit as well. One hell of a way to bring family together."

[thesteadydietofeverything]

Top 10 Games of 2019

This was an extremely good year for games. I don’t know if I played as many that will stick with me as I did last year, but the ones on the bottom half of this list in particular constitute some of my favorite games of the decade, and probably all-time. If I’ve got a gaming-related resolution for next year, it’s to put my playtime into supporting even smaller indie devs. My absolute favorite experiences in games this year came from seemingly out of nowhere games from teams I’ve previously never heard of before. That said, there are some big games coming up in spring I doubt I’ll be able to keep myself away from. Some quick notes/shoutouts before I get started:

-The game I put maybe the most time into this year was Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I finally made the plunge into neverending FF MMO content, and I’m as happy as I am overwhelmed. This was a big year for the game, between the release of the Shadowbringers expansion and the Nier: Automata raid, and it very well may have made it onto my list if I had managed to actually get to any of it. At the time of this writing, though, I’ve only just finished 2015’s Heavensward, so I’ve got...a long way to go. 

-One quick shoutout to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy that came out on Switch this year, a remaster of some DS classics I never played. An absolutely delightful visual novel series that I fell in love with throughout this year.

-I originally included a couple games currently in early access that I’ve enjoyed immensely. I removed them not because of arbitrary rules about what technically “came out” this year, but just to make room for some other games I liked, out of the assumption that I’ll still love these games in their 1.0 formats when they’re released next year to include them on my 2020 list. So shoutout to Hades, probably the best rogue-like/lite/whatever I’ve ever played, and Spin Rhythm XD, which reignited my love for rhythm games.

-Disco Elysium isn’t on this list, because I’ve played about an hour of it and haven’t yet been hooked by it. But I’ve heard enough about it to be convinced that it is 1000% a game for me and something I need to get to immediately. They shouted out Marx and Engels at the Game Awards! They look so cool! I want to be their friend! And hopefully, a few weeks from now, I’ll desperately want to redact this list to squeeze this game somewhere in here.

Alright, he’s the actual list:

10. Amid Evil

The 90’s FPS renaissance continues! As opposed to last year’s Dusk, a game I adored, this one takes its cues less from Quake and more from Heretic/Hexen, placing a greater emphasis on melee combat and magic-fuelled projectiles than more traditional weapons. Also, rather than that game’s intentionally ugly aesthetic, this one opts for graphics that at times feel lush, detailed, and pretty, while still probably mostly fitting the description of lo-fi. In fact, they just added RTX to the game, something I’m extremely curious to check out. This game continued to fuel my excitement about the possibilities of embracing out-of-style gameplay mechanics to discover new and fresh possibilities from a genre I’ve never been able to stop yearning for more of.

9. Ape Out

If this were a “coolest games” list, Ape Out would win it, easily. It’s a simple game whose mechanics don’t particularly evolve throughout the course of its handful of hours, but it leaves a hell of an impression with its minimalist cut-out graphics, stylish title cards, and percussive soundtrack. Smashing guards into each other and walls and causing them to shoot each other in a mad-dash for the exit is a fun as hell take on Hotline Miami-esque top down hyper violence, even if it’s a thin enough concept that it starts to feel a bit old before the end of the game.

8. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I had a lot of problems with this game, probably most stemming from just how damn long it is - I still haven’t finished my first, and likely only, playthrough. This length seems to have motivated the developers to make battles more simple and easy, and to be fair, I would get frustrated if I were getting stuck on individual battles if I couldn’t stop thinking about how much longer I have to go, but as it is, I’ve just found them to be mostly boring. This is particularly problematic for a game that seems to require you to play through it at least...three times to really get the full picture? I couldn’t help but admire everything this game got right, though, and that mostly comes down to building a massive cast of extremely well realized and likable characters whose complex relationships with each other and with the structures they pledge loyalty to fuels harrowing drama once the plot really sets into motion. There’s a reason no other game inspired such a deluge of memes and fan fiction and art into my Twitter feed this year. It’s an impressive feat to convince every player they’ve unquestionably picked the right house and defend their problem children till the bitter end. After the success of this game, I’d love to see what this team can do next with a narrower focus and a bigger budget.

7. Resident Evil 2

It’s been a long time since I played the original Resident Evil 2, but I still consider it to be one of my favorite games of all time. I was highly skeptical of this remake at first, holding my stubborn ground that changing the fixed camera to a RE4-style behind the back perspective would turn this game more into an action game and less of a survival horror game where feeling a lack of control is part of the experience. I was pleasantly surprised to find how much they were able to modernize this game while maintaining its original feel and atmosphere. The fumbly, drifting aim-down sights effectively sell the feeling of being a rookie scared out of your wits. Being chased by Mr. X is wildly anxiety-inducing. But even more surprisingly, perhaps the greatest upgrade this game received was its map, which does you the generous service of actually marking down automatically where puzzles and items are, which rooms you’ve yet to enter, which ones you’ve searched entirely, and which ones still have more to discover. Arguably, this disrupts the feeling of being lost in a labyrinthine space that the original inspired, but in practice, it’s a remarkably satisfying and addicting video game system to engage with.

6. Judgment

No big surprise here - Ryu ga Gotoku put out another Yakuza-style game set in Kamurocho, and once again, it’s sitting somewhere on my top 10. This time, they finally put Kazuma Kiryu’s story to bed and focused on a new protagonist, down on his luck lawyer-turned-detective Takayuki Yagami. The new direction doesn’t always pay off - the added mechanics of following and chasing suspects gets a bit tedious. The game makes up for it, though, by absolutely nailing a fun, engrossing J-Drama of a plot entirely divorced from the Yakuza lore. The narrative takes several head-spinning turns through its several dozen hours, and they all feel earned, with a fresh sense of focus. The side stories in this one do even more to make you feel connected to the community of Kamurocho by befriending people from across the neighborhood. I’d love to see this team take even bigger swings in the future - and from what I’ve seen from Yakuza 7, that seems exactly like what they’re doing - but even if this game shares maybe a bit too much DNA with its predecessors, it’s hard to complain when the writing and acting are this enjoyable.

5. Control

Control feels like the kind of game that almost never gets made anymore. It’s a AAA game that isn’t connected to any larger franchises and doesn’t demand your attention for longer than a dozen hours. It doesn’t shoehorn needless RPG or MMO mechanics into its third-person action game formula to hold your attention. It introduces a wildly clever idea, tells a concise story with it, and then its over. And there’s something so refreshing about all of that. The setting of The Oldest House has a lot to do with it. I think it stands toe-to-toe with Rapture or Black Mesa as an instantly iconic game world. Its aesthetic blend of paranormal horror and banal government bureaucracy gripped my inner X-Files fan instantly, and kept him satisfied not only with its central characters and mystery but with a generous bounty of redacted documents full of worldbuilding both spine-tingling and hilarious. More will undoubtedly come from this game, in the form of DLC and possibly even more, with the way it ties itself into other Remedy universes, and as much as I expect I will love it, the refreshing experience this base game offered me likely can’t be beat.

4. Anodyne 2

I awaited Sean Han Tani and Marina Kittaka’s new game more anxiously than almost any game that came out this year, despite never having played the first one, exclusively on my love for last year’s singular All Our Asias and the promise that this game would greatly expand on that one’s Saturn/PS1-esque early 3D graphics and personal, heartfelt storytelling. Not only was I not disappointed, I was regularly pleasantly surprised by the depth of narrative and themes the game navigates. This game takes the ‘legendary hero’ tropes of a Zelda game and flips them to tell a story about the importance of community and taking care of loved ones over duty to governments or organizations. The dungeons that similarly reflect a Link to the Past-era Zelda game reduce the maps to bite-sized, funny, clever designs that ask you to internalize unique mechanics that result in affecting conclusions. Plus, it’s gorgeously idiosyncratic in its blend of 3D and 2D environments and its pretty but off-kilter score. It’s hard to believe something this full and well realized came from two people. 

3. Eliza

Eliza is a work of dystopian fiction so closely resembling the state of the world in 2019 it’s hard to even want to call it sci-fi. As a proxy for the Eliza app, you speak the words of an AI therapist that offers meager, generic suggestions as a catch-all for desperate people facing any number of the nightmares of our time. The first session you get is a man reckoning with the state the world is in - we’ve only got a few more years left to save ourselves from impending climate crisis, destructive development is rendering cities unlivable for anyone but the super-rich, and the people who hold all the power are just making it all worse. The only thing you offer to him is to use a meditation app and take some medication. It doesn’t take long for you to realize that this whole structure is much less about helping struggling people and more about mining personal data.

There’s much more to this story than the grim state of mental health under late capitalism, though. It’s revealed that Evelyn, the character you play as, has a much closer history with Eliza than initially evident. Throughout the game, she’ll reacquaint herself with old coworkers, including her two former bosses who have recently split and run different companies over their differing frightening visions for the future. The game offers a biting critique of the kind of tech company optimism that brings rich, eccentric men to believe they can solve the world’s problems within the hyper-capitalist structure they’ve thrived under, and how quickly this mindset gives way to techno-fascism. There’s also Evelyn’s former team member, Nora, who has quit the tech world in favor of being a DJ “activist,” and her current lead Rae, a compassionate person who genuinely believes in the power of Eliza to better people’s lives. The writing does an excellent job of justifying everyone’s points of view and highlighting the limits of their ideology without simplifying their sense of morality.

Why this game works so well isn’t just its willingness to stare in the face of uncomfortably relevant subject matter, but its ultimately empathetic message. It offers no simple solutions to the world’s problems, but also avoids falling into utter despair. Instead, it places measured but inspiring faith in the power of making small, meaningful impacts on the people around you, and simply trying to put some good into your world. It’s a game both terrifying and comforting in its frank conclusions.

2. Death Stranding

For a game as willfully dumb as this one often is - that, for example, insists on giving all of its characters with self-explanatory names long monologues about how they got that name - Death Stranding was one of the most thought provoking games I’ve played in a while. Outside of its indulgent, awkwardly paced narrative, the game offers plenty of reflection on the impact the internet has had on our lives. As Sam Porter Bridges, you’re hiking across a post-apocalyptic America, reconnecting isolated cities by delivering supplies, building infrastructure, and, probably most importantly, connecting them to the Chiral Network, an internet of sorts constructed of supernatural material of nebulous origin. Through this structure, the game offers surprisingly insightful commentary about the necessity for communication, cooperation, and genuine love and care within a community.

The lonely world you’re tasked to explore, and the way you’re given blips of encouragement within the solitude through the structures and “likes” you give and receive through the game’s asynchronous multiplayer system, offers some striking parallels for those of us particularly “online” people who feel simultaneous desperation for human contact and aversion to social pressures. I’ve heard the themes of this game described as “incoherent” due to the way it seems to view the internet both as a powerful tool to connect people and a means by which people become isolated and alienated, but are both of these statements not completely true to reality? The game simplifies some of its conclusions - Kojima seems particularly ignorant of America’s deep structural inequities and abuses that lead to a culture of isolation and alienation. And yet, the questions it asks are provocative enough that they compelled me to keep thinking about them far longer than the answers it offers.

Beyond the surprisingly rich thematic content, this game is mostly just a joy to play. Death Stranding builds kinetic drama out of the typically rote parts of games. Moving from point A to point B has become an increasingly tedious chore in the majority of AAA open world games, but this is a game built almost entirely out of moving from point A to point B, and it makes it thrilling. The simple act of walking down a hill while trying to balance a heavy load on your back and avoiding rocks and other obstacles fulfills the promise of the term ‘walking simulator’ in a far more interesting way than most games given that descriptor. The game consistently doles out new ways to navigate terrain, which peaked for me about two thirds of the way through the game when, after spending hours setting up a network of zip lines, a delivery offered me the opportunity to utilize the entire thing in a wildly satisfying journey from one end of the map to another. It was the gaming moment of the year.

1. Outer Wilds

The first time the sun exploded in my Outer Wilds playthrough, I was probably about to die anyway. I had fallen through a black hole, and had yet to figure out how to recover from that, so I was drifting listlessly through space with diminishing oxygen as the synths started to pick up and I watched the sun fall in on itself and then expand throughout the solar system as my vision went went. The moment gave me chills, not because I wasn’t already doomed anyway, but because I couldn’t help but think about my neighbors that I had left behind to explore space. I hadn’t known that mere minutes after I left the atmosphere the solar system would be obliterated, but I was at least able to watch as it happened. They probably had no idea what happened. Suddenly their lives and their planet and everything they had known were just...gone. And then I woke up, with the campfire burning in front of me, and everyone looking just as I had left it. And I became obsessed with figuring out how to stop that from happening again. 

What surprised me is that every time the sun exploded, it never failed to produce those chills I felt the first time. This game is masterful in its art, sound, and music design that manages to produce feelings so intense from an aesthetic so quaint. Tracking down fellow explorers by following the sound of their harmonica or acoustic guitar. Exploring space in a rickety vessel held together by wood and tape. Translating logs of conversations of an ancient alien race and finding the subject matter of discussion to be about small interpersonal drama as often as it is revelatory secrets of the universe. All of the potentially twee aspects of the game are balanced out by an innate sense of danger and terror that comes from exploring space and strange worlds alone. At times, the game dips into pure horror, making other aspects of the presentation all the more charming by comparison. And then there’s the clockwork machinations of the 22-minute loop you explore within, rewarding exploration and experimentation with reveals that make you feel like a genius for figuring out the puzzle at the same time that you’re stunned by the divulgence of a new piece of information.

The last few hours of the game contained a couple puzzles so obfuscated that I had to consult a guide, which admittedly lessened the impact of those reveals, but it all led to one of the most equally devastating and satisfying endings I’ve experienced in a video game recently. I really can’t say enough good things about this game. It’s not only my favorite game this year, but easily one of my favorite games of the decade, and really, of all-time, when it comes down to it.

[vgosts]

Heroes - Kenichi Kuroda. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward.

[justfinalfantasymusic]

ローカス ～機工城アレキサンダー：起動編～ / Locus

[emperor-uncarnate]

My Top 20 Favorite Video Games

(Listed in the order in which I played them)

Pokémon Red Version - Along with my matching red Game Boy Pocket, this was the first video game I owned that was purely mine and not handed down from an older kid. I still go back and replay this every couple of years on that very same Game Boy Pocket or on the 3DS Virtual Console. I know there’s FireRed and a whole series of more modern Pokémon games at my disposal but the original Red Version easily gets the most nostalgia points. Sometimes that’s what it’s all about, no? Banjo-Kazooie - Similarly, the N64 became my first home console that wasn’t a hand-me-down and it came equipped with both bear and bird (complete with “screaming about it on Christmas morning”). After going back and replaying this almost twenty years later I gained new appreciation for how goofy and colorful it is. Treasure Trove Cove is so fucking catchy. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - From its kickin’ soundtrack to its satisfying controls to its random-ass virtual pet simulator this game has it all. Multiplayer was always pretty exciting too, I remember many an afternoon trying to one-up a friend during a grind race. No 3D Sonic game compares to this if you ask me, although Sonic Heroes and Sonic Unleashed come sort of close in their own ways. What I wouldn’t give for a proper Sonic Adventure 3... Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes - I remember playing this at my local arcade in my youth before eventually getting a port of it for the Xbox 360. The look of its 2D sprites are phenomenal and - if it will help you understand why I love this game - I’m singing “I Wanna Take You For a Ride” to myself as I type this. Metroid: Zero Mission - This was the first Metroid game I ever actually beat, and it was the game that made me fall in love with the series. I love Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Samus Returns as well but I like Zero Mission’s visual style the most. I was so thrown for a loop when Samus lost her Power Suit towards the end of the game but it only made getting it back that much sweeter.  Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - I started playing this one in 2004 but didn’t officially beat it until way later in 2017. For a while I had a pattern I’d go through every few years of “start playing, enjoy it for a while, get lost, and start over for some reason.” Took me thirteen years to get serious about it but it earned its place as my favorite of the 3D Metroid games. I felt so fulfilled once it was complete, like I was achieving a childhood dream. Kingdom Hearts II - I don’t think I would’ve gotten into this game if not for my friend’s suggestion but I couldn’t thank him enough for it. This is another one of those games you only vaguely understand when you’re a kid only to realize how complex and intuitively designed it is in your adulthood. After the long wait, Kingdom Hearts III proved to be pretty satisfying but I just have too much history with its predecessor for it not to win a spot on this list. Jak 3 - Though my interest in this series burned fast and bright, this game still sticks out to me as one of the best I’ve ever experienced. I played the third installment before Jak and Daxter or Jak 2 but that’s fine because it’s the best goddamn one. Driving around in the desert, swapping out gun modules, and taking flight on some janky wings made of light were definitely the highlights for me. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - I got into this game during the latter period of Wrath of the Lich King but I didn’t feel like an official WoW player until this fiery, grim expansion. It was the first real online game I’d ever played (if you don’t count Neopets and Adventure Quest) that I started as a Night Elf Warrior in a PVP server and ended as a Worgen Hunter in a non-PVP server. Because fuck the Horde, that’s why. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - I got Skyrim on a whim because I literally couldn’t think of anything else I wanted for Christmas in 2011. There was no hype for me, I knew nothing ‘bout no Dragonborns, but I thought “heck it” and dove in anyway. After originally playing it on Xbox 360 and replaying it more recently on PS4 (with a slew of mods) I can say with confidence this game continues to blow me away. I always seem to find something new even though I feel like I know it like the back of my hand. I did get involved in The Elder Scrolls Online later on but Skyrim is still where it’s at. Soul Calibur V - I was first introduced to the tale of souls and swords (eternally retold, of course) through Soul Calibur II and only because you could play as Link on the Gamecube version. Fast-forward to 2012 and I was still on board with its story and cast of characters but its character creation was really what kept me hooked. Soul Calibur VI turned out to be a little disappointing but I definitely got the most out of its fifth installment and I’m guilty of having played for hours and hours on end. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward - What began as a free trial because I was bored turned into a years-long interest in yet another MMO. While the base game was okay it really picked up speed with Heavensward and I was hooked from that point onwards. After a certain point I caught myself not skipping cutscenes and discovered - oh hey - the story’s actually really good. Star Wars Battlefront - I loved this game when it came out on PS4 and used it often to get my insatiable Star Wars fix. Aerial combat was my downright favorite part of the game and I loved smoking some TIE Fighters in an X-Wing or in the Millennium Falcon. Its sequel Star Wars Battlefront II could’ve made this list but EA was being a real dirtbag about it and now I find it hard to look back on happy memories of it the same way. The 2015 game is thankfully unsullied by those sour elements, however, so I’d say its gotta be my favorite Star Wars game ever. Overwatch - This game came to me at a time when I only wanted to play games that had character creation. I was hesitant to get to know all the characters and lore but I’m overjoyed I did since they’re so rich in personality and fun details. Once I got the hang of characters like McCree, Soldier, Reinhardt, and Widowmaker I was absolutely sold and I still play it two years later. Sonic Mania - The delightful trailer for this game got me all riled up but I wouldn’t know just how great it was until I was playing it myself. I don’t think I could ever truly enjoy my previous favorite 2D Sonic games (Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic CD) ever again because this game just feels better than all of them combined.  The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I didn’t really grow up with the Legend of Zelda, only ever playing A Link to the Past and Twilight Princess, but I immediately knew I was going to enjoy this open world take on the series. Just the sheer freedom of what you could do and where you could go was enough to reel me in and its aesthetic still amazes me with how great of a mood it generates. Final Fantasy VII - I still remember going into a GameStop when I was in high school and naively attempting to buy a used copy of this game for the PS1. It was an “epic fail,” as I would’ve said at the time. But over a decade later I downloaded it on the PS4 and went to town, getting my full FF7 experience at long last and loving every minute of it. Very stoked for the remake; it’s probably my most anticipated game right now. Marvel’s Spider-Man - What a surefire hit this was. From the moment the first gameplay footage was out I knew this was going to be the must-have web-swinging, wall-crawling good time. I love that there are so many ways to play the same character and everyone can really embody their own version of Peter Parker. I’m also from New York City so seeing a digital rendition of Manhattan was a real treat (even though they changed uptown a lot and my old apartment doesn’t exist in the game). Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Nine of the other nineteen entries in this list feature a character who’s playable in this latest Smash game. I get that people like Melee for reasons and whatever but how can you not like SSBU, the game that has it all? I’m still riding the high of Banjo and Kazooie entering the fray and I absolutely cannot wait to see where things go from here. Never had more fun playing local multiplayer in my life. Red Dead Redemption II - Never cared for Grand Theft Auto and the first Red Dead Redemption was fun but damn, there’s nothing quite like its sequel. I’m still working my way through the story just because I’ve spent so much time out in the wide open world, taking my time and seeing the sights. I might be a city boy but I have a deep appreciation for the American West and if this game ain’t just the prettiest damn thing I ever did see... hoo-WEE! Top shelf.

[songsofgaming]

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward - Limitless Blue

[professionowl]

[seasonreaper]

Best Vidya of 2017 - Part Four

Here we are, at the end of the line. Games I’ve actually beaten, from this year. That are great.

Part One - Best Game of 2017 (That I Haven’t Completed Yet) Part Two - Most Anticipated Games of 2017 (That I Haven’t Tried Yet) Part Three - Best Game of (not) 2017 That I Played in 2017

Best Game of 2017

Runners Up

Gravity Rush 2

Gravity Rush was a good game. One of the first things I played on my Vita, the world was interested and felt alive and the characters were fun, plus it had one hell of a soundtrack.

Gravity Rush 2 got announced and all the promotional material pointed towards a lot of things, namely more content, more areas to explore, more characters, better fighting and gravity mechanics and generally everything else one would want from a sequel, really. The soundtrack is still great, the world feels like an absurd but real place and the characters are still really lovely. Kat is such a charming character with her cute comments on everything and thoughts, she just comes across as being really quite adorable. The game also feels like it controls better as well and, whilst the story does use a bunch of very standard tropes, it’s still decent. It’s mostly the characters that sell it, but everything is a step up from the original I’d say, and that was already a damn solid place to start from. It met expectations and surpassed them. Very much worth picking up on release day.

NieR:Automata

But Season, you say, how the shit is NieR here, in the runners up section? Are you having an aneurysm? Nope, it’s just here. The soundtrack is still beyond perfect and the gameplay feels wonderful, but I do really wish that 9S could use two weapons like A2 and 2B can, it feels so much nicer than only having the standard attack like 9S does. The boss fights are fantastic, the side quests add a lot of flavour text and added information to how things are in the world, plus have their own plotlines and poignancy. As with the original NieR, it all culminates in various reveals and some pretty messed up stuff in the late game, especially once you reach Route C/D. Ending E especially stands out, because it’s kind of an integral part of the whole concept of the game, acting as a counter to the themes thus far whilst staying thematically appropriate. Some of the alternate endings are rather amusing too, plus the secret boss fight is some serious shit indeed. In any other year, this would likely still take the overall game of the year slot, because it’s bloody wonderful.

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

I play FFXIV quite a bit, so it’s no surprise that I’ve finished with the main content of Stormblood. The new story is some pretty decent stuff throughout, although some parts do feel better than others. The events in the Azim Steppe leading up to Doma are absolutely wonderful, for example, but it doesn’t quite reach the highs of Heavensward’s story or level of intrigue, plus the amount of plot armour seems a bit absurd at times. I’d love for them to throw some crazy curveballs in at some point in the future and catch people completely off guard, but with this story it still feels a little too safe. The new content is decent, with Bardem’s Mettle being a particular standout dungeon, plus the Rabanastre and Deltascape contents are both good fun. Looking forward to seeing what happens in future patches, got some interesting stuff lined up, plus more quality of life benefits which is always nice. Most importantly though, they reworked all of the game’s combat classes heavily, which means Bard is back to being super fun to play and for me, that’s of the highest importance. Bards are the best.

Dark Souls III: The Ringed City

Hah, time for DLC. I actually don’t buy much DLC, so for one to be on here means it’s something special. That said, being a huge Souls fan, it’s not a surprise at all. As I’d already completed the game, I ended up actually going through the DLCs on NG+ which probably made things harder for myself, but oh well. Whilst I did like Painted World quite a bit, I don’t think it quite reaches this list other than me mentioning it right here as it has its fair share of flaws, plus the only real standout moment of it was the final Friede stage in my opinion. But The Ringed City? Oh boy. It also has flaws, but really, I can overlook those because the first and last bosses are ridiculously good. Gael especially is one of the most intense and enjoyable fights I’ve had in the whole franchise and considering the series’ history, that’s damn high praise. Even Midir has some positive elements despite being a massive asshole, but I eventually took it down as well and it’s probably still the best dragon fight around, possibly except Kalameet. Also god damn, Gael’s theme is gorgeous.

And now...

Winner

Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment

Yup, my game of the year for 2017 is technically a DLC. But it’s so much more than that. Shovel Knight in itself is a fantastic game and arguably the best game of last year. Plague of Shadows was a fun piece of extra content that showed the game in a slightly different light. But Specter of Torment? They kept the same light but changed the goddamn room it was in. The gameplay is different, the bosses act differently and have new moves, the stages are reworked and in some places entirely new, there’s new enemies, assets and music, plus a new story as well. I’ve seen sequels with less core changes than Specter of Torment does to Shovel Knight. And you know what? I bloody loved every second of it. King Knight’s campaign is coming soon and if that holds up to the level of quality Yacht Club Games have put out so far, Shovel Knight will be one of the best things ever made.