Real ones
Games I adore.
109 Games
Fixed me
Surprisingly overlooked, in spite of the modern pseudo-PSX horror trend taking leaves from its book wholesale. Stunning dedication to the craft of environmental design, it doesn't feel legal for the PSX to be rendering these overwhelmingly realised areas sometimes. Just great vibes overall, crushing industrial hellscale ost, and pockets of genuine heart & humour where they need to be.
Hand on heart love hate relationship with this game for being so good it ruined the entire metroidvania genre for me. Struggling with all my life to go from this to any other, where the rooms all look the fucking same and there's next to no vertical character progression.
Maximalist nightmare, still feels next-gen.
i'm kojima's little piggy
Very spellbound by Yakuza 7's early game. Broad shifts for the series that nicely complement the themes of the story - about the difficulty of starting over in a new place, and it never being too late to look to the future. Further complemented by the fact that you are ripped out of not only the familiar Kamurocho, but also the genre. The fact that it unflinchingly touches on topics like homelessness in Japan, the sex work industry, and immigration mindfully... It's really fucking incredible. I won't gush, but I love the cast and their themes. I cried a lot.
The shift to turn-based was the stim injection I needed after growing weary of the mashy brawler combat of 0, K1+2. It's incredible that a combat system that has been iterated on for over a decade has been immediately blown out of the water by something that almost feels like a science experiment. A genuinely informed genre shift that means items and equipment finally matter, as well as meaning you can now operate an entire party of characters while completely maintaining the old original pacing. My vote for personal GOTY.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV1lOo-T15I
The shift to turn-based was the stim injection I needed after growing weary of the mashy brawler combat of 0, K1+2. It's incredible that a combat system that has been iterated on for over a decade has been immediately blown out of the water by something that almost feels like a science experiment. A genuinely informed genre shift that means items and equipment finally matter, as well as meaning you can now operate an entire party of characters while completely maintaining the old original pacing. My vote for personal GOTY.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV1lOo-T15I
The most heartbreaking game.
okay maybe swords are cool
OK Kiryu Kazuma you have my unwavering attention
3 Comments
I'm u
Thanks for writing detailed reasons for the entries in this list. Always appreciate it when people do that in their "my fav games" lists.
Fernabo
8 months ago