I hope my post is ok like this and doesn't violate the rules. Please let me know otherwise.
I like the tradition of yearly game of the year threads, looking back of which games one has played and talking about which very enjoyable, but I have always the problem with ranking games.
Personally I would rather go with a two tier model. Games that stood out as special and games that were 'only' good.
For my goty-list I decided to list just the games that were special to me. If I would list all games that I enjoyed it would be over 10 and had no idea in which order I would rank them. And then there are games like Dark Souls 2, where I enjoyed it but compared to Demon's Souls it was a disappointment. Same problem with Infamous Second Son. Fine game but the weakest in the series for me.
Both would totally be on my longer goty-list but when there are so many (older games) that I really loved this year it doesn't feel appropriate to nominate them as lower ranked goty games when they are not even close to being the best games I played this year.
And there are some games that I would probably rank very high that I haven't played yet. I'm especially looking forward to Divinity. So the list will most likely be incomplete either way.
1. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc ; This year the first two places were easy picks. No other game came even close for me compared to Danganronpa. Both games are absolutely fantastic.
For anyone who hasn't played them yet: Danganronpa is a mix of visual novel and murder mystery. The game starts with a group of teenager being trapped in a school with the only way out being by killing someone. During the visual novel parts the story advances, you spent time with your class mates and get to know them better until a murder happens and the game switches to collecting clues and a trial afterwards where you have to figure out the murderer.
The strength of Danganronpa is the writing, with the interesting overarching story and especially the amazing cast of characters in both games. Gameplay-wise the 'puzzles' during the trials are enjoyable as well. In this regard both games are equally strong. A amazing first game and a amazing sequel.
Since I have to rank them I give Trigger Happy Havoc the slight edge because I played this game blind. Only bought it thanks to VitaGAFs hype without knowing anything, not even the genre so it had a bigger impact and 'wtf am I playing?!?'.
The other reason is, while the mini games are already the weakest part in the first game the second one features 'improved' versions of those mini games that made them unfortunately worse and the new ones that were introduced aren't good either.
It's a very slight edge. Both games have easily a place on my all time favourites.
And a warning, in case you haven't played them yet and want to:
Don't read anything about them. Everything is a spoiler or at least the internet is full of them and it's extremely easy to read something you probably wouldn't have wanted to read.
2. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair ; See above
3. Far Cry 4 ; I don't really like shooters and rarely play them. Far Cry 4 has it's moments where it's fun to play. The silenced sniper rifle and the bow are again, like in FC3 completely overpowered, which makes it amusing conquering the bases without getting detected. The same during normal missions. At least for a while. Besides that it's probably a normal shooter. You run around and shoot.
But the thing that I did enjoy the most was actually the story. Especially the fact that the game doesn't treat its gameplay as something outside of the story, that's just there so that the player has something to do but is not really part of the actual story like many modern third person shooters do but instead embraces it by telling a story about horrible people. This was so refreshing and well done and unfortunately very rare. For me one of the best shooters I have played.
4. Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition ; With the console release last year Diablo 3 was already vastly improved compared to it's mediocre initial launch. Now with it's first first expansion Blizzard goes even even further especially with adventure mode and the rifts to improve not only the end game but leveling new characters as well.
Diablo 3 is now so much more enjoyable and one of the game I spend the most time with this year.
I know there is no LTTP category but these were some of my favourite games I played this year for the first time so I'm just listing them without any ranking. I hope that's ok.
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward
I didn't expect to have a DS game on my goty list but the two Zero Escape games were some of the best gaming experiences I had this year.
The series is a mix of visual novel and puzzle games. The game is about a group of people being kidnapped and forced to play the 'nonary' game. The game works like this: You have multiple rooms to choose from where you want to advance and the rooms are classic puzzle rooms where you have to unlock the exit by figuring out codes, solving combination puzzles, pretty much those where it's best to play with a pen and paper next to you for taking notes and making calculations.
Once a room is unlocked the game switches back to the visual novel mode that advances the story but is almost non-interactive. Sometimes you can give different answers but most is automatic. Until you have to choose the next room with the next puzzles.
What's really cool though is, that the games are designed around multiple endings. Most combinations of different choices where you want to advance leads to a different ending and even the path during the rooms can differ since you can only enter a room with a limited number of people so you will get different dialogues and learn new things about the people around you and the story behind the game and why you were kidnapped in the first place.
This knowledge is required to unlock more and more different endings until you get to the true ending where finally everything falls in place. I love this concept and it works really well in the games. And the writing is so good.
The only downside is, that you have to replay certain parts of the game multiple times. At least the game provides a fast-forward feature for the novel parts and in Virtue's Last Reward you can skip already solved puzzle rooms as well.
Same warning as for Danganronpa: If you haven't played them yet but want to,
don't read anything about them
Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden
I played Persona 4 Golden earlier this year and loved it and wanted more, so I played Persona 3 Portable right after it and loved it even more. Especially the darker and more serious tone and the female protagonist.
But both games are great. Not so much the dungeons, that can get boring after a while and the simple battle system but the highlight is the other part of the games, where you go to school, meet with your friends and advance the story and in addition the social links to get to know the people around you better. Very nice every day life games. Especially Persona 4 puts a strong focus on the 'friendship-feeling'. A wonderful series and I'm excited for Persona 5.
Dragon's Crown
Such a beautiful game. The backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous, character designs as well. Unfortunately except for the heroes. That's the reason why I'm late to the party. The elf looks fine but I don't like the look of any of the other playable characters which made me very hesitant to buy the game. Until it was finally on sale in Europe and I'm so glad I did buy it.
The gameplay is great with chaotic fun combat and addictive like Diablo. Just one dungeon more... Especially a perfect fit on the Vita with suspend/resume to just play a few rounds in-between.