1: Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky ; From the classy 10 seconds of jazzy drums heard upon the game's opening intro, I knew at that moment I was in for something special. The Gold Medal of my 2014 goes to quite the unsung hero of the genre. For a while, I felt that turn based RPGs had run their course. The battles felt more like chores, more like pressing X until the bad men went away... there was barely any substance to be found. They just didn't blow me away like they used to... little did I know I didn't need to be blown away to walk away satisfied, no sir, all it took was but a Gust to see there's life in the old turn-based combat girl yet.
The Atelier series had been jamming on the Playstation brand for a while, rapid firing games and Plus releases at an alarming rate, but it wasn't like they were lacking in quality, they were sturdy releases slowly improving the formula of the previous, but they just didn't resonate with me all that much. Then one day, I bought Atelier Ayesha out of the blue. It was recommended to me as a jumping on point to the series, and I ended up liking it way more then I thought I would, and it all just... clicked with me. I immediately understood the appeal of these games that no other JRPG seems to match... you make the vast majority of your inventory. You make the food, the weapons, the armor, the bombs that simply end all life caught in their blast... and that increases the satisfaction you get from victory all the more sweeter. Speaking of, it is naturally assumed that Gust's line of RPGs don't seem to put up much of a fight... Escha breaks this train of thought.
There are several points in the game where you can just choose to fight monsters of levels well above your party's average. These are great tests of your party's strength, as well as your mastery of the amazing battle system. Party of six, three active members, tag them in at any time to defend against enemy attacks, to assist in your opening salvo, or unleash strong SP attacks at the end of a long team combo. They, and certain endgame bosses, will force you to earn your ending. It never truly seems overwhelming, or one-sided... the difficulty is absolutely perfect. You always stand a chance even when you're locked in epic back and forth boss battles. And Gust continues to go the extra mile in presentation, with Escha being no exception, using a brand new graphics engine to make Escha & Logy look drop dead gorgeous compared to previous entries. The cast of characters are great, and well worth investing in the conversations for more than just bonus ending points. And when Gust wants you to anticipate the moment that something is about to go down, they break out the vocals, and bring your emotional state to a fever pitch, more motivated than ever to decimate whatever is standing in your way.
What I do enjoy the most about the Atelier games was the simplicity of their stories. In previous titles, story took a backseat for the sake of putting the developer's signature alchemy at the forefront. You use your knowledge of alchemy to keep your store in business, and that seems simple enough. Now, with Escha, you can craft your cake, and eat it too. As the in-game clock winds down, you soon find this game actually has a very charming story to tell. A storybook of your caretaker's past is actually telling the tragic story of the game's true villain. And it's done rather well, obscuring the true nature of said tragic villain until you meet them face to face for the first time.
It's not a exaggeration to say this game brought upon me tears of joy on several occasions the likes of which no other 2014 release I played could contend with. It's a true master work of alchemy from the crafting gods of Gust, and the final entry of the Dusk trilogy, Atelier Shallie, has a huge reputation to live up to now in my eyes. But take a bow, Escha & Logy. My favorite game of 2014 was yours.
2: South Park: The Stick of Truth ; Silver Medal to the best damn South Park game ever made. South Park co-creator Trey Parker is a gamer himself, and Stick of Truth is a fine example of the evolution of art design in video games. South Park: The Stick of Truth may very well be a lost episode of the raunchy animated institution, and that is one of its greatest strengths. The fact that the team of Obsidian did everything in their power to make it look exactly like the TV show is breathtaking. I couldn't stop thinking about that fact as I was playing it.
All those South Park style character generators you saw on the internet in the early 00s are finally brought to the forefront, as your created character implants themselves into the quiet mountain town of South Park. There are so many references thrown in, whether it be junk you collect, or visual nods en masse, that fans of the show will be in Valhalla. If it were just another turn-based RPG, I wouldn't give it a second thought upon completion, but it's the license, and the love put into that license that brings this game where it is. This game is satire to the nth degree. A grand journey of 9 year olds LARPing that even takes you to the great nation of Canada, to the dark South Park sewers to say "HOWWWWWWWWWDY HO!" to a very old friend, and journeying up a gay man's ass like tales of legend... there's a good chance that an iconic moment from the TV show is spoken for in this short, but very VERY SHWEET experience. And just when you think Stick of Truth has thrown its best at you, that's when you get to the final day of the game, and the expected outcomes get turned on their head. A grand tale of betrayal, power, and exploring the unknown comes not from the massive scale adventure, but this year one of the greatest tales in the land of RPGs hails from South Park, Colorado.
3. Shovel Knight ; Bronze Medal to the little Yacht that did. Shovel Knight is a masterpiece of the 8-bit era traveling from the past into our present hands. Master class level design, on point controls and abilities, soundtrack OF THE GODS, unforgettable boss fights in and outside of the normal stages... what a grand success of a game. There aren't enough ways I can express how much I enjoyed my experience with this game. It's the little nuances in the game that make it work. Turning your checkpoints into a risk/reward of breaking them for the sake of lining your pockets, clever return of tried and true level gimmicks implemented supremely well in certain cases (Spectre Knight, Polar Knight), it's just a title made by people who knows what made these types of game work even in the modern era. A game pushing the limits of what we think we know about the retro platformer.
4. Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS ; I have a feeling that the Wii U version is going to overtake this version by a country mile, but I always questioned why the Super Smash Bros. series never made it to a Nintendo portable in their lifetime. Seems like it would be a no-brainer, but Nintendo waited for the perfect chance to find a way to squeeze so many of video game's greatest heroes and backgrounds into a very small cartridge, and one of the greatest brawl for alls the 3DS had ever seen was born.
Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS is certainly not the total package like the Wii U version actually turned out to be, but the 3DS test run was a fine experience for sure. Even if the 3DS analog pad didn't always survive the stress, all the buttons were there to be customized any way the player sees fit. And the roster is at its largest to date with 48 of Nintendo's most beloved faces and icons heeding the call towards the battlefield with some of gaming's oldest 3rd Party friends finally taking the stage. Certainly the most competitive friendly entry to date, Nintendo actually decided to let the players put their online smack talking to the test by including a For Glory mode for the first time ever, ensuring that the die hard players leave the weapons and stage hazards by the way side, and letting skill win the day in true one-on-one fashion. Or a free for all 4 player battle royale to decide the most skilled Smasher of them all. The stages were crazier than ever this time around, especially the New Super Mario Bros. 2 stage where grabbing enough coins literally turns you into an unstoppable figure of gold-trimmed decimation. I chose the 3DS version for the simple reason that the hardware was pushed to the breaking point, and as such, we got a bloated portable entry oozing with nearly everyone's favorite Nintendo character available to be represented in the realm of Smash in forms very loyal to their source material with very little lost in translation. A true testament to the series' attention to detail that made the Super Smash Bros. franchise the true epitome of "fanservice".
5. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call ; The original Theatrhythm release in 2012 was a welcome addition to the Final Fantasy spinoff, but it felt quite... empty. Like its full potential had not yet been realized. That potential was realized in 2014 with the catalog of represented titles and songs throughout Final Fantasy's history doubled, their character roster practically tripled, their superb Quest Medley replacing the annoying Chaos Notes, and now the ability to actually play the way you want to play with Button Modes included, and with that, the chance to play a Hybrid style of your choosing. This game is exploding with content like the signature Bomb enemy. And hey, toss in an Online Versus mode in the style of a Guitar Hero game with plenty of new downright satanic ways to screw over your opponent, regardless of their success or failure with whatever song was chosen. Everything was polished to the nth degree, and it's the sheer amount of content that makes its predecessor obsolete, but in the best way possible. The Theatrhythm series will expand in the future, especially with DLC, and especially branching out into the Dragon Quest series, and while I may not be a large fan of the rhythm game, I will gladly play a Theatrhythm game whenever the time arises.
6. Tales of Xillia 2 ; The Tales series just keeps on chugging. There were 3 Tales games brought to us this year. The Symphonia duo gets its long overdue HD makeover, the long awaited Hearts R rides the sky whale into western shores... and then there's Xillia 2. Last year, I gave the original Xillia high honors as my personal favorite of 2013. Xillia 2 falls a little short of the mark in comparison, but it was still an absolute blast to play. Like other Tales sequels, the main cast of the first game sits back, and allows their new blood to grow. While I didn't care too much for the typical tag along child companion character that's plagued many an RPG, it was Ludger that won the day. Props to allowing him to carry multiple weapons on his person for playstyle diversity, and pull off some very creative combos in the process. The silent protagonist actually works in his favor, because the game actually portrays him as a character who's just... not very talkative. And then Namco went above and beyond by letting you unlock his ability to speak his own mind in the in-game cutscenes... for New Game+, but still. How many games even go that far!?
But what really brought me to the Xillia 2 dance hall was the ability to play as the main antagonists of the original Xillia... especially Muzet. The second that I got her, she was my main playable character every chance that I could get. She's such a fun character to play. A fine mix of hair raising melee combined with captivating air combos, and most, if not all, of her boss tools fully intact, including the absolutely OP arte, Elemental Hymn. It seems that Tales is still somehow in a league of their own in terms of making real time battle systems work. Combos like a fighting game, planning out the best course of action for the more difficult battles ahead in a manner of the finest RPGs of legend... nobody can touch them in this domain. And Xillia 2 is another shining example of the franchise swinging for the fences.
7. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth ; In terms of games that truly need a revisit, Binding of Isaac was relatively high on the list. It was an alright game, being an ideal combination of top down Zelda style dungeons, mixed in with a little bit of that BIG MONEY BIG PRIZES dual stick shooter bliss that was Smash T.V! But "Rebirth" is just the exact word I would use to describe this game. It was a rebirth of the concept. More items that could spell doom or destruction were implanted in this game's robust library of original and diverse library of pickups. The rooms were made larger to accommodate bigger groups of enemies swarming you in every which way. There were a few new bosses tossed into the mix, and a new character or two to unlock along the way. The obsession began anew with this title. It's such an addicting 5-45 minute slot machine of a game. Your run can go to the toilet in no time flat and it's up to you to persevere with a weaker constitution, or you can practically build the immortal build (especially if you had pre-patched Dark Bum, then you just won the game outright) unintentionally. And with the new SEED system to pass your map runs on to your friends, you too can share the magic of your many steps into immortality. The great got righteous with Rebirth.
8. The Walking Dead: Season Two ; Telltale seems to have the Midas touch in the storytelling department. After Back to the Future, and the super cool totally awesome world of Homestar Runner, Telltale decided to tackle a much more dreary project for 2012, and they left their mark on this interactive storytelling business so hard, they seem to be writing most of its chapters now.
Season Two furthers this medium by putting you in the shoes of Clementine this time around, so you get the perspective of a child warped by the doomed world around her, and forced to stare death in the face laughing directly at him. The cast isn't as likable or relatable, but the winners of this new group are certainly some big winners, and some heartbreaking decisions had to be made on their behalf, especially ones you wish you never had to make in a video game. But that's why Telltale Games stands tall in this medium. They put YOU, the player, through the emotional roller coaster they've constructed, and even for the moments that will happen regardless of the choices you make, you know you made the best decision you could in the heat of the moment. Telltale demands representation in the best of 2014 for the fact that we have these games where you can talk with your friends and family, and communicate over the decisions you made, in order to help the growing tree that is the video game universe grow further, and thank goodness that Telltale existed to make that a reality.
9. Kirby Triple Deluxe ; So Kirby went back to the drawing board a couple years ago. Back to the days of a solid platformer with a strong palette of powers to pick and choose that are just complete fun in every savory bite. Triple Deluxe comes fresh off the shoulders of greatness that is Return to Dreamland, and it's a fine showcase of just what visual delights the 3DS could LITERALLY hand you on its best days. All the new powers are great. I love the Bell abilities, and the Archer Form is surprisingly versatile, but the cream of the crop is Circus Kirby. The metaphorical hoops that this team at Nintendo had to jump through to keep cooking up new Kirby abilities continues to astound me. And the side modes are simply sensational, and Nintendo giving their fans a bargain by releasing these modes as standalone bite sized 3DS titles was a swell idea, and fine additions to your 3DS eShop library. Triple Deluxe was, in short, a deluxe model Kirby game on the small screen. If you're a 3DS nerd for platformers that is in urgent need of a warm heart, you should not be without this game.
10. Strider 2014 ; I... I can't express how grateful I am to Capcom for giving Mr. Hiryu one more day in the limelight. This is a solid 2D experience that not only harkens back to the original arcade release, but mixes in a couple of delicious extra nods from previous Strider titles with the Capcom seal of approval. Double Helix is a developer underestimated by the public because of their past follies, and when they actually delivered in style with the 2013 revision of Killer Instinct, it was clear they were a force to be reckoned with. And having them assisting Capcom Japan with this downloadable delight led to a game that I believe deserves a little more attention than the tumbleweeds it got upon its release. It's a very satisfying dash and slash, and even if there was a slight lack of challenge, it's only because everything comes together in terms of your arsenal and mighty Cypher Blade combined with that fine Capcom gameplay that is smooth as butter, and that feeling of being an Elite Strider has never been so real.
angerous that, by the little I played of it, could have been quite up on my list. It's the "risk" that applies to the games that launch closer to the end of the year as I think no one buys and plays all the game on day 1.
