Andrew's Top 10 of 2019 - Games
In the world of gaming, 2019 felt a bit like a prelude of sorts. Sure, we had a few high profile AAA titles and a huge swath of impressive indies, but it all seemed to be building to a nearly legendary 2020 lineup. We have Final Fantasy VII Remake, Doom Eternal, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, The Last of Us Part II, Psychonauts 2, and apparently another Half-Life game. There’s also a few early access games that I absolutely loved this year that see their official release in 2020, like Risk of Rain 2, Spin Rhythm XD, and the upcoming titan of rogue-likes: Hades. This year was also mightily impressive for Devolver Digital who were responsible for many of my favorite titles this year, and for the indie scene in general making up 90% of this year’s list and most of my honorable mentions.
It’s possible your favorite games might not be on this list. To recap when I did this last year, this list only represents my opinion; these were my favorite games, not necessarily the best games. Additionally, there were a ton of games I regrettably missed this year that very well could’ve made the list, including:
…and many others
Honorable Mentions
Black Future ‘88 / Hyper Jam
Let’s start off with a pair of games with surprisingly a lot in common. They both swing the 80’s vibe in a fashion akin to a rock musician swinging a strapped guitar like a hula hoop. They both pride themselves on immediate frantic action with different upgrade systems with a fair amount of flavor to encourage replayability. And sadly, they both suffer from ultimately being too insubstantial to make it to top 10.
Each run of the Black Future ‘88 rogue-like is stark, brutal and harried, with an entire experience crafted around this crucially desperate asset of time. Some upgrades cost time to buy, some weapons use time as ammo, and once you’ve completed one loop around the tower you find yourself desperately selling your upgrades for just a few more minutes to live. I liken the experience to starting a relay race by cutting your arm off, with the hope that maybe the loss in weight might help you run faster but also hoping you won’t pass out before reaching the finish line. Hyper Jam takes a different approach with a tight knit, multiplayer battle arena in which players score points for getting kills and surviving longest. The game actually handles the point system in a slick fashion by introducing a draft system for upgrades: everyone gets 1 of 4 possible choices each round, but pick order is lowest points to highest. Additionally, to win you both need enough points AND then must survive another round with a target on your back, creating an experience that never feels like it ramps down in excitement. Still, neither game comes close to being timeless; after bursting through each title for about a week. I felt that I’d seen all there was to see, and without any current plans to expand beyond base content I can’t really recommend either at their current $20 price point, even with their fun and frantic aesthetics and invigorating soundtracks.
Cadence of Hyrule (Crypt of the Necrodancer)
I absolutely loved Crypt of the Necrodancer, and this matchup with The Legend of Zelda seemed to fit like a glove…at least for most of it. The giant Zelda overworld and dungeon design felt inspired and uniquely adjusted to fit right in with the new rhythm-driven sensibilities (and theme adjustment wasn’t too difficult, as many Zelda games are themed around music to some degree), but the overall execution felt vast to the point of being a tad aimless. Apparently, this was intentional as each run of the game has a completely randomized overworld, which is nice in theory and definitely improves replay value, but at the cost of making the navigation a bit too nebulous. Once you find the dungeons and figure out how to enter them, the game hits some truly ecstatic sweet spots, but the inbetween moments don’t carry the same level of wonder or majesty that the Zelda series is known for. As for the Crypt elements, they again work perfectly in the enclosed dungeons and are nearly divine during the boss fights, but that aimless overworld becomes almost painful to navigate with the beat restriction. Crypt of the Necrodancer works so well when its maps are more intimate, and in the case of Cadence of Hyrule, that just isn’t quite often enough. Still, it was an absolute blast to play and I definitely look forward to trying it again.
Virgo vs the Zodiac
Definitely among the weirder things I played this year was Virgo vs the Zodiac, a turn-based RPG that borrows more than a few pages from the Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga line of games with its timed hits system, all ratcheted up to the hardest difficulty imaginable. If anything, the main reason I felt need to mention it was out of respect for its honesty: this team clearly set out to make an absolutely tough-as-nails unforgiving game using systems most associated with friendly, fun and lighthearted titles, and while I don’t think the game succeeds often enough on multiple fronts I’m so glad it tried. There’s tonal problems, the art style will be hit or miss for some, and speaking of hit or miss the combat requires your utmost vigilance to the point that any individual failure on even the smallest bouts could easily land you a game over screen. But, I gotta say, there really weren’t any other games this year like it and I respect it for being decidedly different and occasionally quite thrilling.
Million Arthur: Arcana Blood
Geez, speaking of weird games, Million Arthur: Arcana Blood was somehow only the second most “anime” thing I played this year (the first of which was Code Vein, which didn’t make the cut). What caught me by surprise was not just how complex the systems in place were for this fighter — aside from a slew of system mechanics, you also need to select three assist characters from an entire extra roster with all kinds of extra restrictions based on their level — but also how pleasantly streamlined the entire game felt. It’s definitely full of crunch, but the actual combat in action is fairly straightforward and surprisingly fluid; it’s all rather impressive actually. 2019 didn’t get to be a big year for fighting games like 2018 was for me, but MA:AB put on a helluva show and I think it could definitely be worth a curiosity purchase for people into the genre.
Kingdom Hearts 3
Look, I’ve definitely made a point of stating how problematic Kingdom Hearts 3 was to me, and how it proceeded to eat a huge chunk of both my time and sanity this year, not necessarily in a good way. But did I enjoy it? Well, kinda. It was a pretty fun game overall, maybe a bit too easy and forgiving but fun nonetheless. The story is still generously hallucinogenic, but this still remains arguably the most visually impressive game I played all year, with both a killer soundtrack and good enough gameplay to complement it. At the very least, it certainly wasn’t the worst thing I played all year, not by a long shot.
10 - Sea of Solitude
This games sits in a very similar spot to last year’s ambitious Avant Garde Gris, for which I said the following:
““Sadly...Gris is pretty bare in terms of actual gameplay. There’s some minor platforming and puzzles, but for the most part it’s just walking...it’s much closer to an interactive art piece than a game, and I mean that both as compliment and criticism.””
So, were I to swap Gris out with Sea of Solitude, that’s unfortunately where it sits…but it’s not all bad news. Gris was a strong enough artistic presence to make up for its interactive shortcomings, and while Sea of Solitude can’t nearly match Gris with its visual presentation, it makes up for it in the overall themes, nuanced topics, and actually having some gameplay. I do wish the presentation of ideas wasn’t quite so blunt, more and more I’m hoping storytellers would learn the art of subtlety, but that doesn’t stop them from being worthwhile topics. I genuinely enjoyed how the narrative tackles handling depression in its many forms, and learning how not necessarily to conquer them so much as learn to accept those parts of yourself; throughout the game, it felt remarkably intimate, almost auteur in execution. There was very clear intent behind this piece that I can’t help but respect. While I don’t imagine Sea of Solitude will be everyone’s cup of tea, it was a nice change of pace and I really wish EA would put greater stock into these smaller projects.
9 - Gato Roboto
Look, I’ll level with you, this is a game that will only be really enjoyed by fans of the “metroidvania” style of games. If you’re not a fan of that style, this game isn’t going to be the one that converts you (more likely, the title you’re looking for is Ori and the Blind Forest, or Hollow Knight). But, if you do like that style of game, which I definitely do, than you’re going to love how absolutely clean, efficient and sharp Gato Roboto is. There’s a precision on control and scope here that’s undeniably impressive, creating a truly laser focused experience that offers just enough content without overstaying its welcome. The only regrettable trait of the game is that it’s all execution, which doesn’t leave too much room for the game to be creative, though it does pluck a few nuggets of gold in playing well with stage restrictions. Still, sometimes a good game is just good, and Gato Roboto is pretty great.
8 - Devil May Cry 5
I’ve always been in a weird sort of place with the DMC games. I don’t dislike them — Devil May Cry 3 was one of my favorite action games from the PS2 era — but they always remain off my radar for some reason. It’s possible the allure of the series simply struggles to hold my attention since games in its genre have slowly amalgamated more and more of its identity. And that’s a shame, because apparently the DMC series has never stopped kicking ass and taking names.
Devil May Cry 5 is exciting, sleek, and full on bombastic at nearly every turn. As a fun bonus, this particular entry also featured some absolutely incredible animation, especially on the character end. Yes, the action is responsive and excellently choreographed, but I was more blown away with the expression and facial animation. A huge capture of the DMC games is the strong personality of its characters, so having their expressions come off so powerfully this time around was a huge boon. My usual gripe with this series regrettably remains, namely the most powerful foe of the game is still its camera, but there’s just a tremendous amount going right with this title and it made such a strong impression that I don’t mind placing it at number 8 even after only a few hours of play. Funnily enough, this game was actually a really good action game cleanse after everything Kingdom Hearts 3 put me through.
7 - Indivisible
Indivisible is pretty simple as RPG’s go. You play as the lone survivor of a village brutally decimated by the leader of a powerful army and set out on a quest of revenge; pretty standard hero’s journey sort of thing. The gameplay takes a page from more traditional entries in the RPG library with a turn-based combat system in which you fight with an assembled team of 4 warriors (including yourself) met along your travels; pretty standard JRPG sort of thing. Where Indivisible chooses to play around is by asking why these things are standard, and moving from there. On the narrative front, the twist is that main character Ajna has the bizarre power to absorb people she meets into her head, taking them to an alternate dimension from where she can summon them; a solid chunk of the game is spent with Ajna not only trying to claim revenge for her village, but also trying to understand this bizarre power she has. Mechanically, it provides a quirky solution to the overworld problem many party-based RPG’s suffer from: “If you have a full roster, why do you only ever see the lead character? Where does everyone else go?” If this is the sort of observation you find amusing, great; much of Indivisible’s jargon and dialogue is definitely designed with a similar audience in mind. Tonally, there’s plenty of action and tense moments (all of which is wonderfully sold by an especially talented voice cast), but the majority of scenes are intended to incur a sense of levity and lightheartedness. This is clearly a game you aren’t meant to overthink.
It’s also not strictly speaking a RPG, at least not all the time. Often times, it plays closer to a well-tuned platformer, with you navigating tricky stages with newly acquired skills. Combat doesn’t feel like a traditional RPG so much as a fighting game, with each character’s options being a simple array of about 3 different attacks that you’re intended to mix and match in a combo fashion to lock opponents down or juggle them accordingly. This active, fighting game direction isn’t so surprisingly given that this comes from Lab Zero Games (creator of the critically acclaimed Skullgirls). The overall freedom, energy, and expression afforded by this game make it fairly refreshing despite the systems themselves being awfully simple, and the hand drawn animation that made Skullgirls has since evolved so tremendously that I would easily call this one of the best animated games of the year. If I had one major criticism of the game, it might be that the game doesn’t reward its own depth very well. Yes, the systems and mechanics that make every character stand out is all quite impressive and fun to play with, but very few of the battles ever escape a pretty standard “full combo, into block, into full combo, rinse repeat” fashion. So much attention was given to making the game’s enormous roster stand out, but I do wish the receiving end offered a little more personality to match it. Overall, this was an absolute blast to play, and I imagine I’ll be playing it for quite some time.
6 - Ape Out
Speaking of stark, laser focused experiences, Ape Out is a game that you can digest the entirety of by simply watching the trailer. There’s hardly anything more to this game than you playing an ape that must escape their confines, brutally. Devolver Digital was all over the Hotline Miami style of “instant gratification action” games, with such titles as My Friend Pedro, Ape Out and another game we’ll be talking about later. The rapid pulse of combat and the fluid nature of constantly evolving stakes makes for this endlessly addictive assault, and the key method of engagement comes from having to improvise quickly and effectively or suffer a terribly short existence yourself. However, Ape Out stands out from the crowd with a sharp visual style, an amazing jazz percussion soundtrack, and by simply being a game that’s, on paper, completely unfair. In most games of this style, you’re often equipped with guns and various other weapons that you use to get a leg up on the seemingly endless waves of bad fellows blockading your path; in Ape Out, you’re a gorilla, just a gorilla, in rooms full of armed henchmen. Enemies will assault you with pistols, shotguns, and eventually flamethrowers as you frantically mount your escape with little more than a ball of fists and the advantage of everyone having slightly slow trigger fingers. It’s hard for the game not to just be this absolutely insane rush, never knowing what might kill you around every corner, and the beat of the drum harries you forward; you cannot stop for even a moment. The only downside I found was one of length, but it’s so inexpensive that I think it was worth every dollar.
5 - Valfaris
Valfaris is a game that didn’t click with me at first, despite looking amazing and sounding thunderous. Something about it just felt stiff, like they were trying to recreate Contra 3: The Alien Wars but without weapons that are completely decked out all the time. What I discovered later is that the restrictive nature of the movement makes the rest of the game feel a lot riskier and enticing than expected. By the end, the control scheme felt like second nature.
As Contra style hard-as-nails shooters go, Valfaris is lithe on mechanics, but springs into action like predator from a bush at every single opportunity. The only prey is you, having crash landed on this savage alien planet with the simple goal of killing your criminal father, and having to fight through both his commanders by factor of fealty and his oppressors by factor of familial association. In a lot of ways, Valfaris almost plays like a Souls game, providing you with just the barest fangs and expecting you to drive your teeth into every possible obstacle. It certainly doesn’t pretend that the odds are ever in your favor, with most bosses taking at least a couple minutes of straight mechanical prowess less your 1-2 mistakes costs you the entire fight. But, the allure comes from knowing that it’s never unwinnable. Valfaris is tough but fair, and offers a whole ton of systems and a surprisingly long main campaign that encourages a high level of mastery and replayability.
4 - Sayonara Wild Hearts
Here, we have a minor conundrum. This is an auto scrolling, extraordinarily forgiving rhythm game that can be entirely played through in roughly 90 minutes. The bulk of your controls just involve moving, usually just side to side, and occasionally needing to hit a button at the right time to not die. Why am I recommending this so highly?
Well, I mean, it definitely looks amazing, and had my absolute favorite soundtrack of the year (with the number 2 pick coming really close). All things considered, Sayonara Wild Hearts might be the most visually and aurally exhilarating experience I played all year, and after it’s stark 90 minute romp I was still left thinking about it for a solid week; the soundtrack especially just hasn’t left me. But if you’re wondering how it climbed so high on the ladder, it comes down mostly to how they game made me feel.
Something that often eludes our high minded criticisms of art and storytelling is the weight of an emotional response. There’s a terror knowing that the best part of something you experienced only resonated with you, and maybe no one else. But that was it. Underneath the kaleidoscopic pop-infused thrill ride of amazing set pieces and awfully clever variations of its basic gameplay loop was a heartfelt and passionate take on learning how to move on from heartbreak, and understanding that its never too late to transform yourself back into the person you know and love. I can’t say for sure why that particular idea and this exact replication of it sent me into such a trance. I’m sure part of it has to do with the way I think about music as a storytelling medium and how similar of an approach this took to Interstella 5555, and I’m sure another part has to do with the particular steps my life is going through right now as I trudge this creative lull of passions I had, and am hoping to find again. Maybe it’s neither of those things, but regardless this game hit my heart, if only just a little. Sayonara Wild Hearts wasn’t perfect, but it meant so much to me personally, and maybe it will for you too.
3 - Wargroove
I don’t play these classic tactics games very often, and that might be a mistake. My problem with them seems to be less the genre and more the franchises attached to them; heck, I loved the couple of Disgaea games I tried, but at a certain point they just didn’t seem that inviting anymore. I’m also not much a fan of Fire Emblem; I don’t doubt the games are probably fun, but the romance simulation and pure anime direction just don’t do much for me. Yet, for whatever reason, I absolutely loved Wargroove.
Designed to be a spiritual successor to GBA sleeper hit Advance Wars, Wargroove takes a clean, methodical and awfully grounded approach to tactics. You recruit units, fight other units with attacking advantage in almost every case, and much of the tactics come from proper placement, unit allocation, and understanding unit type matchups. Where it stays interesting is with its sheer volume of different unit types (over 20, with more added in the recent DLC), and the inclusion of faction-specific commanders, each of which has access to a unique “wargroove” or special ability that can greatly change the tide of battle, but only after charging up energy for it. There’s a ton of tactical variety on display, but at the same time the game never feels too complex or even especially inaccessible. My biggest regret so far was getting this game on PC — I desperately wish I could be playing it on Switch.
Perhaps most strange comparatively is the complete absence of a leveling system or the idea of units getting stronger over time. All units, even commanders, have base values. What this game pushes, and what I appreciate, is less a contest of strength and more one of wit. It’s nice to play a tactics game where the only thing I really need to focus on is the tactics themselves, challenging in all the right ways.
2 - Katana ZERO
Hyperjam? Black Future ‘88? Nah, this was the 80’s style synthwave sensation 2019 freakin’ deserved.
Similar to Ape Out, Katana ZERO is another one-shot-massacre style of game that lays out a brutal challenge and asks you to get it just right, or be forced to start over again. This game’s version of a stage reset is viewed through the lens of tape recording, rewinding back to the starting point and hoping for a reel that plays out correctly. In a mechanical sense, Katana ZERO is a simple game: You can run, jump, and roll from the ground, or you can slice in any direction gaining a tiny burst of movement in that direction. You can also slow down time for a limited duration each stage, though if you’re clean enough you shouldn’t ever need it. All enemies except bosses die in one hit, though the same usually goes in reverse as any single bullet or bladed weapon will also bring you down instantly; the goal is then to clear each stage by thrusting yourself through these large, intricate zones full of bodyguards, warriors and drones. The execution waxes equal parts tactical and frantic; your greatest weapon isn’t the one shot kill or even the ability to deflect bullets, but rather the ability to improvise and react on the fly.
On the surface, Katana ZERO isn’t offering much more than the typical experience you’d expect from plenty of other indie games, but it does have a couple distinct advantages. Yes, it does have the second best arrangement of tunes I’ve jammed out to this year (not a single bad track on the whole soundtrack, dang), but the precision and challenge at hand combined with the overall look and feel of everything created a game that just felt purely awesome. It’s also worth praising the way the game uses the time mechanics in its storytelling, in which every conversation not only has timed responses but also give you the ability to “interrupt” the dialogue forcibly with more aggressive responses or expectations. On a structural level, the story isn’t terribly unusual for a “criminals of the underworld” genre of narrative, though the game does a few unexpected cartwheels by approaching more nuanced topics like the discarding/manipulation of war veterans, drug abuse, rehabilitation and the difficulty of starting over fresh.
The story’s not quite finished yet, with one last free DLC coming out soon to close this experience out, but there’s more than enough here to enjoy. And while Katana ZERO was in many ways an immaculate gaming rush, it wasn’t quite the best thing I got to play last year.
1 - Slay the Spire
There’s a few details that most roguelikes tend to share: randomly generated runs, multiple styles of play, lots of treasure/upgrades, and permanent death — make too many mistakes (or encounter a string of bad luck), and you lose everything, forced to start over from the beginning. What often keeps players around for a while is the pacing of milestones for unlockable content, which in the process adds variety to future runs, keeping things new and exciting for much longer. I’ve been through a lot of roguelikes that do these things pretty well, and almost all of them managed to get my attention for a while on the back of discovering more and more as I proceed.
But do you want to know what keeps people coming back to roguelikes? Interesting choices, self-expression, and nuance. Slay the Spire wears all of those dressed to the nines.
In Slay the Spire, you play as one of many characters trying to ascend to the top of a precarious spire to quite literally slay the heart of the ancient building. Along the way are numerous enemies and monsters of all fantastical variety, as well as a multitude of unique encounters; the tower itself has quite a history, and an expansive ecosystem. To accomplish your goal, your character wields one starting piece of equipment and one preconstructed deck of cards with basic attacks and shields, with one or two special cards. Fighting involves drawing a fresh hand of 5 cards, being able to see almost exactly how every enemy intends to use their turn, and playing out your hand in such a way that you’ll both maximize your damage while taking as little as possible. After each successful combat, you’re given the option of adding one of three different character-specific cards to your deck, each of which is almost assuredly stronger than your basic strikes and defends. Slay the Spire is a deckbuilding game at heart (metaphorically), and is all about learning to craft a well-oiled machine strong enough to carry you through the ever increasing challenge the spire provides. Combine the benefits of a roguelike — randomly assigned enemies, bosses, encounters, and rewards, along with that delciously risky permadeath — with the intricate system of control offered by a deckbuilding experience, and you get this wonderful dance of flow vs force that constantly rides the thrilling line between fate and freedom. And it’s all very clever, even in the modern deluge of card games; I’d compare the design here favorably to other megalithic franchises like Magic: the Gathering and Hearthstone in its execution, accessibility (not to be confused with mere simplicity), and overall synergy. There’s not just fun in unlocking new cards and characters, but in working to unlock the interactions between pieces that are already in front of you. The game only has 4 characters (as of this writing), but the number of deckbuilding possibilities are nearly endless.
But easily one of my favorite aspects is how Slay the Spire allows you to make interesting choices. Remember how I said most roguelikes thrive on presenting lots of treasure and upgrades? Well, that’s all certainly here, with all the incredibly powerful cards and relics you’ll be able to gain along the climb, but the nature of it being a deckbuilder means that every strong card you grab also dilutes your deck, reducing its consistency. Thinking you’re awfully clever in this game can easily lead to your deck getting much worse. However, at each card reward, you’re given the option to skip your reward, and that’s the lynch pin of this design. Slay the Spire isn’t just a supremely well constructed card game, it’s also the only roguelike where not grabbing powerups is sometimes more important. Here, it’s less crucial to get a sharper sword than it is to learn how to wield yours effectively, and in every aspect from the streamlined game design to the simple aesthetics and animation, Slay the Spire seems to always be getting the most out of what it has. It was easily the most impressive game I played all year, and I’m still constantly playing it and getting better.
And that’s my list. 2019 gave us such an abundance of intimate projects, so many that I felt terrible leaving so many potential gems unseen. Similar to last year, I wish I had more time to just play catch-up, but 2020 is going to absolutely explode, and if I’m not careful I might miss it. And hey, I’m just one person. What were your favorite games of the year? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to donate to our Patreon. That’s all for 2019, the year of the indie game. Let’s see what kind of insanity the AAA scene has planned for 2020.
