The Delivery-sim/literal walking-sim/fetch quester names really did seem to put most people off... the crazy thing is though that most other open world games have a ton of fetch quests (which are nowhere near the quality of delivering something on DS I might add).
The thing I liked about DS that seems to be consciously not heard by the haters is the ‘make-your-own-fun’ elements of DS. I spent hours (& hours) designing the ultimate Zipline network (it was frikkin awesome)... didn’t have to take it to the level that I did but I wanted to see if I could network the whole map with the available bandwidth (and I could). I spent another couple of days taking bases from those nomad ex-delivery dudes so that I had enough materials to build the maps entire highway system, it was just so satisfying when you see the fruits of your ‘self-designed’ labour.
I genuinely hope (and think that it will tbh) that time will be very kind to DS and that a lot of the people who have refused to try it so far will eventually hear something that will flick their respective switches and they give it a go.
@colonelkilgore Yeah, Danganronpa is a less mainstream series but has a cult following. It took me having a friend who is into it to expose me as well. You won’t see it advertised in the West much.
Foxy’s review will give you the detail, but in a nutshell it’s a series of murder mysteries. The genre it gets put in mostly is visual novel (visual manga certainly is an apt description as well) but it’s quite a bit more than that and has much more actual gameplay than most other visual novels do. That said though, it is very text heavy and has a lot of reading. There is a lot of voice work too and occasional cutscenes. The games are quite at home on Vita handheld.
It’s very Japanese - from the visual art style to the general setting and themes. For example the main backdrop taking place in a high school, a la Persona 5. (Come to think of it, are there any Western games that take place in high school? 😄 The older Spider-Man games maybe... that’s all I can think of. Oh, and maybe Life is Strange) The characters are quite over-the-top. So you definitely need to adjust your expectations and be ready for a completely different experience than you have ever had before. But once you get used to the Eastern flair of the characters and setting and the sometimes shocking aspects of the story, you’ll find a cleverly crafted narrative with light but unique gameplay hooks.
Yeah, the series has had a spike in attention around here recently, despite the last release being a couple years ago. But the cult following keeps it an evergreen topic which pops up from time to time, probably because when people play it they are motivated to discuss it since it’s such a unique experience.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@colonelkilgore Regarding Death Stranding, I agree that some of my most enjoyment was puzzling out my construction sites for lines and roads so as to maximize the ease of my delivery runs. The building aspects are definitely underrated. I had a blast doing the same things you described in your game world. The asynchronous social aspects were addictive as well, seeing people use and “like” your structures was strangely satisfying.
I do hope you’re right about the title having legs to stay relevant and appreciated for years to come by those that dismissed it early on. Kojima described it as the introduction of the new “Strand genre” of gaming, and although I’m not exactly sure what he meant by that, I hope it inspires other developers to make projects with similar gameplay mechanics like the online building components that affect your game in unique ways. I love the fact that when/if I ever decide to play it again that I’ll have a different experience because of what the world will be populated with from an online structure standpoint
It (Danganronpa) definitely sounds like it’s own thing... but that’s what intrigues me I suppose. God knows when I’ll get around to playing it though, I’m hoping I can at least slot the first one in somewhere in 2021. I don’t ‘necessarily’ think I’ll love it (I do like anime and manga... but I’m more the One Punch Man and Kenyan Ashura than... I dunno what would be a similar manga to Danganronpa but you get my drift) but I wanted to make sure I had all three just in case the original appeals to me the way it has to a lot of people hear. I am a real ‘game-play’ geek though, I mean I dig a great story and all (and am quite enjoying The Wolf Among Us atm) but it’s the gameplay of a game that gives me the itch to switch the Playstation on if you know what I mean.
Nice summary there @Th3solution... Much better then my short & sweet one before directing the col to my 2000+ word review... Maybe I should get you to be my editor for those
I'm not surprised to see Death Stranding first on your list (I'm getting tempted to try it myself), really glad to see that Resident Evil 2 is second with you eager to experience more of the series... Surprised to see Origins last though that's mainly because I forgot you played it this year. 😅
This year has dragged on so much I don't even know what's happening anymore lol
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
‘ Much better then my short & sweet one before directing the col to my 2000+ word review... Maybe I should get you to be my editor for those ’
Nah I definitely appreciate both insights if I’m honest. Great review, had a lot of character 😉.
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair and Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony add some more mechanics to the trials and fine tune some of the others with the cases getting much more complex in the second and third entries too (The first trial in the second game for example is about as long as the last one in the first game and nowhere near as obvious either)
The trials have more gameplay then most other visual novels from my undertanding but there is quite a lot of dialogue in the games as they were made for the PSP and then the Vita.
If you have an american psn account you could download the demo for V3 from the psn store and give it a shot (The demo was delisted from the UK store)
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
I don’t have a US account but I’m not really a demo kinda guy anyway. It generally takes me about 10%-20% (sometimes more) of a games run-time for me to tell if I’ll actually like it. So once I start something, it’s with the sole intention that I’m gonna finish it (plat it hopefully). My gaming mood is quite fluid so I’m anticipating that I will ‘fancy something different’ at some point in 2021... and this will be perfect for that point in time.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Lol, no - I wasn’t trying to shorten or modify your already excellent review and commentary. I’d make a horrible editor, actually. I’d be the first editor to ever take an article and make it twice as long while making it simultaneously say half as much. 😂
But yes, funny you should mention the RE2 listing, because I can’t get out of my head how much I liked that game last month. I went ahead and bought the whole series since it was on sale 😅 — got RE 3 Remake and the RE Triple Pack Collection (RE4, RE5, and RE6) — all 4 games for $40 in the recent sale. Merry Christmas to me. $10 a piece was too much to pass up. And I wasn’t so sure about RE5 and RE6 since most from the fandom cite them as being subpar, but the cost of buying RE4 by itself was only like $3 difference from getting all 3 games in the pack, so they were basically free.
And yes, Death Stranding is a good one to keep on your list to consider some day.
And Origins was just quietly one of those titles that proved to be a solid game experience. I didn’t expound on it too much while I was playing it I guess, but when I look back in retrospect I realize it had a higher quality than I probably gave it credit for.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Wow, that's a good question! There are so many good games out there, so it's hard for me to choose.
5. Death Stranding
4. Technomancer
3. Life Is Strange 2
2. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order
1. Greedfall
5. Catherine
Loved the FMV, the story (though not without its problems) the graphic design and the dialogue a lot. I really got immersed in the story, and beat this game in no time at all. But most of all I liked the action puzzle gameplay. Tetris is one of my favorite games, so climbing a collapsing block tower for 20 hours is an engaging enough concept for me. And I can just appreciate it so much when at first the giant tower just looks like random blocks, but after hours of playing (not unlike Tetris) you're discovering patterns in those blocks for how to climb up. They're not just blocks anymore, but you're staying to see stairs, bridges, et cetera.
4. Days Gone
I read the reviews upon launch back in 2019 and figured the game would not be for me. For some random reason I still bought the game back in October or something. I understand why the game got the reviews it got, when you consider the game's bugs and at times awful dialogue and characterization. But I just could not stop playing, because the gameplay loop is so so good. The tools, the hordes, the crossbow, the motor driving, the sense of horror, the survivaling. The game has more than enough brilliance to compensate its shortcomings. I'm. currently playing the super safe Odyssey, and find myself constantly longing back to Days Gone.
3. Return of the Obra Dinn
Can't believe I played all of these great games in 2020. Obra Dinn is just another of those games that you will remember for the rest of your live. I played many detective games, but most of them make you feel like an actor in a story, hardly do you ever feel like you're an actual investigator. Obra Dinn has set a new bar for every investigation game to release. You are constantly browsing through your notebook, looking at every crime scene from every angle, returning to them to see if you maybe missed something else, and of course try to connect all of these cases. And it is all just so much fun, because it is mechanically sound as well.
2 Cuphead
I love a nice story, but to me gameplay is and always has been king. That's why you won't find Danganronpa V3 on this list. I loved that game, but it's closer to reading a book than playing a game. Well, Cuphead is a game alright. It reminded me of the early 90s platformers I played and it was just as hard as well. I'm not really a big fan of boss fights, because most of the times they're either: a) a war of attrition or b) extremely gimmicky. But Cuphead does boss fights right. It's a game full of them, but they all play like complete levels. Looks great too.
1 God of War
I don't know if I like this game more than the above four, which I all hold incredibly dear for different reasons. But if is the only one of these five that approached perfection. I didn't encounter any bugs at all, the direction, voice acting and writing was of a Hollywood quality, but the gameplay is just fun as well. More fun than any hack and slasher I can recall right now. This is a special game.
I particularly wanna mention the camera direction one more time. I think the one-shot-feel changed the way I look at story games. After this game I played other cinematic games, and the way they cut from one scene to the next totally break my immersion. I think this should be the way to go for games for the most part.
I just feel like saying how much I’ve enjoyed Days Gone. I looked at my PS5 feature for hours played - 50 hours! That’s not like me at all. I liked the characters, the missions, the gunplay - everything. Also just riding around on my bike! I’m on my way to fight another horde as we speak....
One I bought on the recommendations of this forum, this was great old school platforming. The idea to play each level in two different forms was clever and the titular Impossible Lair a good challenge even for hardened platformers.
4. Oddworld New 'n' Tasty
I'd had this in my library for years but Foxy's run through the original game inspired me to return to it. It's easier than the original given that screens no longer load individually and every threat isn't an insta-kill but it's still a great challenge and looks great.
3. The Outer Worlds
A wonderfully fun experience that is fantastically written with a clever general concept. There is a bit of a lack of weapons and enemies, and the ending does come a bit abruptly but a game I still had a blast with. The companions are a particular highlight.
2. Civilization 6
The only game on the list I've finished more than once, and have probably done so five or six times. Civ games are a comfort blanket for me and one I can and will keep going back to. Being able to play on console is great for me (and me 10 year old MacBook) and the latest iteration probably gives the most varied experience on each run. Still the pinnacle of strategy games.
1. Yakuza 4
Of course it's a Yakuza game in top spot (Y3 could easily have made the list too). This game was a return to form after the slightly wayward Y3 and the decision to move to four main protagonists allows the story to develop even more and varies the gameplay nicely. The weird and wonderful substories are fewer in number than Y3 but all the better for it. Brilliantly bonkers and fun as always.
This has been a cool topic to catch up with (always enjoy this one far more than the GOTY 2020 one because, when limited to games released within the calendar year, I often struggle to come up with a top five... heck, I don't think that I've played a single new release this year, discounting a couple of PS4 ports and Kentucky Route Zero, with its ridiculous seven year release schedule).
Really pleased to see so many folks listing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order as well. I knew it'd be a winner once it broke the surface in several people's backlogs.
Will think over my list and return with a top five in the coming days.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@nessisonett Yea, the VITA was great for older games, I also played quite a few old games on the system. The VITA was also great for remote play. Too bad Sony is not making another one.
The PSVR is the best VR system on the market today.
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Topic: Push Square Readers Best Games Played in 2020 (but not made in 2020]
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