Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Top 5 Most-Anticipated Games of 2022

 Video games  10 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jan 012022
 

2022 is upon us!

Last year saw the release of an incredible number of amazing games, some of which were among my top favorites I played all year. I doubt this year will be able to surpass it. However, we still have a lot of great titles to look forward to… and after all this time, a certain game finally has a release year and qualifies for this list!

With that in mind, the following titles are my top 5 most-anticipated games of 2022.

5. The Cruel King and the Great Hero

If there’s any game on this list that you haven’t heard of, it’s probably this one, but The Cruel King and the Great Hero is a game I was hoping for localization news about ever since it was first announced, and then it finally came. Due out on March 1 for the Switch and PS4, The Cruel King and the Great Hero is a JRPG about a girl on a quest to become a hero.

Judging by the trailer, it might get… emotional.

“This is the story of how one day… you will defeat me.” My heart!

It’s from the same team that made The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince, which also had its share of emotional moments and is the main reason this game caught my eye immediately.

4. Trails from Zero

Last year’s surprise announcements included official localization for the Crossbell arc of the Trails series at long last! Trails from Zero is due out sometime next fall for PC, Switch, and PS4.

As someone who is still a newcomer to the Trails series, I’m nowhere near ready to play Trails from Zero yet. However, I enjoyed Trails in the Sky FC so much that I’m thrilled about this upcoming release anyway!

A fall release date should give me enough time to finish Trails in the Sky SC and Trails in the Sky the 3rd, which will put me right where I need to be when Trails from Zero comes out.

3. Triangle Strategy

I can’t believe that’s the actual title I have to write here… Ahem! Despite its dubious name, Square Enix’s upcoming strategy RPG Triangle Strategy is one of the games I’m looking forward to the most.

The game looks beautiful, and the demo showed a lot of promise – including the sheer amount of story content in the demo, which convinced me that I don’t have to worry about Triangle Strategy not being story-driven. Will the story be good? We’ll see, but it certainly has some intriguing hooks so far.

With the promise of multiple paths (which also was demonstrated in the demo) and decisions that matter, it could be quite the interesting experience indeed. Triangle Strategy will be out on March 4 for the Switch, and I can’t wait to see what it’s like.

…But why did they go with that as the official title?

2. God of War Ragnarok

It was on last year’s list, and now it’s on this year’s as well, but now I can actually call it God of War: Ragnarok instead of “untitled God of War sequel.” As expected, that turned out to be its official name after all. Although it was delayed from this year to next, we finally got our first real look at it this year at the PlayStation Showcase in September.

God of War (2018) was fantastic, so I can’t wait to see where the follow-up goes. The only thing that concerns me is that they’ve made comments suggesting the Norse saga ends with this game, and that sounds like a lot of content to cover in single game.

(I still think there’s a chance it’s just tricky wording and it won’t end here after all, but we’ll see.)

Ragnarok is due out for the PS4 and PS5 sometime in 2022, with no specific release window yet. Despite what I said last year, I did not, in fact, play Ascension while waiting, so… maybe this year, who knows?

And so finally, the game you knew would be on this list…

1. Bayonetta 3

We have a release date, ladies and gentlemen; this is not a drill! After being the elusive unseen game for years after that tiny teaser back in 2017, Bayonetta 3 finally got a trailer this year and a 2022 release window!

Some things look different enough to have me slightly concerned… but not enough for it not to be my most-anticipated title of the year, because this is Bayonetta 3 we’re talking about! I have my own suspicions about the trailer, but I half-hope the story is something none of us have predicted yet. I want it to keep me guessing and bless us with another dazzling spectacle of over-the-top action and pure fun like its predecessors did!

I spent so long waiting for Bayonetta 3 news every game event that it’s hard to believe it’s actually coming out this year. Will it live up to our hopes and dreams? Only time will tell…

Conclusion

(Where’s Elden Ring–hush, I have too many mixed feelings about open world games for Elden Ring to actually make this list, even though it does interest me.)

It might not be as stacked as last year, but The Cruel King and the Great Hero, Trails from Zero, Triangle Strategy, God of War Ragnarok, and Bayonetta 3 promise to make it a great year for gaming nevertheless!

Many more great games are on their way, including several that almost made this list, so which games are looking forward to the most in 2022?

Top 5 Games I Played in 2021

 Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with:
Dec 312021
 

2021 is coming to a close, and what a year it was for video games!

Some people think this was a slow year for games, but for me, it saw the release of so many games I was looking forward to and unexpected sequels I never thought we’d see.

I played an incredible number of fantastic games, some that came out this year (and were among my most-anticipated titles) and some from years past. It was tough narrowing it down to my favorites, but here are the top 5 games I played this year!

Honorable Mentions

This year’s honorable mentions go to Blue Reflection: Second Light for being an unexpected sequel that massively improved upon the original, Persona 5 Strikers for providing a fantastic Persona-like experience as a sequel story, Tales of the Abyss for being an excellent JRPG and a new favorite in the series, and Bug Fables for filling that Paper Mario void while also standing on its own.

So, which dazzling titles pushed those four into the honorable mentions category?

5. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Graduating from last year’s list of honorable mentions is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, the 2020 sci-fi game from Vanillaware that might be difficult to describe in terms of genre but deserves to be played for its story.

As I discussed in my review, 13 Sentinels has a complicated narrative presented in a nonlinear format with so many twists and turns that it continually took me by surprise.

The most incredible part is that despite how convoluted it might seem at first, everything comes together in the end in a way that makes sense.

Have you ever liked a science fiction story? Well, it’s probably in there somewhere as part of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim’s fascinating story. I absolutely loved it, and even though I finished it near the very start of the year, looking back at it made me realize it had to be included here.

4. Bloodborne

And now for something completely different, Bloodborne also made it from last year’s honorable mentions onto this year’s list proper. In my review, I described it as a “beautiful, wonderful nightmare,” and that’s why it lives on so strongly in my thoughts.

The gothic horror aesthetic, the spiraling descent into cosmic horror, the terror of death lurking around every corner… it was a difficult experience, but an incredible one that I’m so happy I played.

Thanks to The Old Hunters, Bloodborne also introduced me to the wonder that is Ludwig’s theme, so it almost deserves a spot for that alone.

(Actually, if we were doing a ranking based on soundtracks, the next three entries might still all make the list.)

3. NEO: The World Ends With You

Coming into this year, my most-anticipated game of 2021 was NEO: The World Ends With You, the long-awaited sequel to one of my favorite JRPGs.

I was still reeling from the shock that we were actually getting a sequel to The World Ends With You. Actually, I still can’t believe it. Did this year really happen??

Any worries I might have had about NEO were quickly banished once I started playing. As I said in my review, it truly feels like a TWEWY game, and while it might not hit the same highs as the original, it’s still a fantastic game all around.

The soundtrack is wonderful, with so many varied tracks that won me over as I played. One of my favorites is Insomnia, but the soundtrack has such a range beyond that!

With a solid story and a great cast, it gave me everything I wanted from a TWEWY sequel. I can easily say NEO: The World Ends With You is my favorite RPG of 2021, and I hope more people will give it a try.

2. The House in Fata Morgana

Only a year ago, I had no idea how incredible The House in Fata Morgana was. Now it’s among my all-time favorite visual novels. This story brings more gothic tragedy onto this list with its tale of a strange mansion… and many, many things that I can’t write here due to spoilers.

It’s dark, tragic, emotional, beautiful, and wonderful. I mentioned back in my review that it’s a slow burn and takes a while to reveal what its true story is, but it’s well worth putting in the time to read it.

The characters, their tragedies, the way the story unfolds… it’s incredible.

There is no way to express how much I loved this story, aside from its prominent position on this list. The House in Fata Morgana is absolutely wonderful and needs to be experienced by more people.

It also has an exceptional soundtrack, but if I attempted to link my favorite songs as I did with Bloodborne and NEO, I would simply be here all day, linking to every song on the soundtrack.

So what could possibly beat out such an amazing story for my #1 spot? Okay, it’s no mystery; if you’ve crossed paths with me at all over the past couple of weeks, my #1 pick was probably a foregone conclusion…

1. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

Are you telling me that we not only got a TWEWY sequel this year, but we also got an official Dai Gyakuten Saiban localization? YES WE DID! (On the same day, no less!) The official announcement of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles made me scream for joy, but would it live up to my hype???

(Its placement on this list should answer that.)

Maybe I had some mixed feelings at first, as my review of The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures will show that while I loved parts of it, it had odd pacing and was clearly a setup for its sequel. But even with a weaker first half, Chronicles hurtled to the top of this list once I played the second half.

You can read more of my thoughts on The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve in my review, but I’ll say again that it might be my new favorite game in the series.

Has Trials & Tribulations been dethroned after all these years? Distancing myself from the immediate aftermath of finishing Resolve might help me decide, but right now I’d say yes.

In fact, the more I think about Resolve, the more I love it. My thoughts right after finishing were mainly related to twists and turns and character arcs, but taking the time to think about it and read other fans’ comments made me fall even more in love with the story’s themes, parallels, and other little details.

So with Resolve proving to be so amazing, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles easily claimed the top spot as my #1 top game I played this year.

…It also has an exceptional soundtrack, but if I attempted to link my favorite songs as I did with Bloodborne and NEO, I would be unable to do so without spoilers.

Conclusion

What a year for games… and there are so many more excellent games I played this year that didn’t make the list (like Psychonauts 2 and Tales of Arise). Despite my comment last year, neither Yakuza game I played this year made it onto my list. I considered including Yakuza 3, but I guess ultimately I just like [REDACTED] better than [REDACTED].

(You can fill in whatever spoiler names you want, because my actual thought process when I wrote that sentence was dubious.)

Will next year’s games be just as exciting as these? I find it hard to believe, but come back tomorrow to see what 2022 games I’m looking forward to the most! What are the best games that you played this year?

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Top 5 Games With a Central Romance

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with:
Feb 262021
 

We’ve talked about a lot of visual novels this month.

And there are a handful of romance-focused games in other genres.

And a lot of RPGs have multiple romance options that you can choose between.

But what about games that fall into other genres and are about more than just romance, but also feature one canon romance at the center of the plot?

That’s the type of game we’re going to focus on today, and so here are my picks for five great games that feature a central romance.

5. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

You might argue that the love story isn’t exactly at the center of a story about Professor Layton getting sent forward through time and trapped in a future London, but Professor Layton and the Unwound Future prominently features flashbacks that show Layton getting to know and fall in love with a woman named Claire. Their story is actually much more important to the main plot than it might first appear, and it’s one of the things that makes Unwound Future one of the best in the series.

Without that romance, it wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as it is.

4. The Last Story

I played The Last Story for the first time just a few months ago, and I stand by what I said in my review – this Wii action JRPG deserves a lot more recognition than it gets. Now, why is it on this list? Well, while the story follows a band of mercenaries, a fair amount of time is also devoted to the growing relationship between Zael and a young woman named Calista. There’s a lot more going on in the story besides just that, but it’s a sweet romance that really helped it stand out.

I just wish The Last Story would get a re-release to make it easier for more people to play it.

3. Final Fantasy IX

That’s not a problem for our next game, however, because not only is Final Fantasy IX still readily available for the original PlayStation, but they’ve since ported it to pretty much everything. Now, I know a lot of you are raising your eyebrows at me for not picking Final Fantasy VIII or Final Fantasy X, and I’ll admit I’m biased toward Final Fantasy IX because it’s one of my favorite Final Fantasy games, but for me, the romance in Final Fantasy IX just outshines the others. Watching Zidane and Garnet go from strangers to friends to falling in love with each other felt natural to me, and the song “Melodies of Life” just makes it even better.

(I also loved the romance between Beatrix and Steiner, so that’s yet another reason for me to pick Final Fantasy IX for this list.)

2. Trails in the Sky

Okay, there’s a lot of Trails games I still need to play, but I wanted to highlight Trails in the Sky for this list. As I mentioned in my review, it’s a slow-paced yet highly story-driven JRPG that is well worth taking the time to see through to the end. And yes, there is a slow-burn romance between the two main characters that is also worth playing it for. The relationship gets a fair share of (in my opinion undeserved) criticism, but as long as you aren’t put off by a romance between two characters who are seen as adopted siblings (but aren’t related by blood and met each other when they were old enough to know that), I think you’ll enjoy taking this journey with Estelle and Joshua.

Now, I need to get back to playing Trails in the Sky SC to see the rest!

1. To the Moon

But if you play only a single game on this list, make it To the Moon. To the Moon is on PC, mobile, and now the Switch as well. You play as two scientists going back through an old man’s memories to fulfill his dying wish in his mind, and while there is no romance between the actual main characters you play as, the love story in the past as you explore Johnny’s memories is truly central to the story.

In fact, of all the games I’ve covered today, this is probably the one that most requires the romance for the rest of the game to work. It’s a wonderful, beautiful game that you really need to play.

Conclusion

And there you have it, five excellent choices if you want to play a great game with an important romance as part of its plot. I was really tempted to include Yakuza 0 on this list, but I couldn’t figure out a way to talk about it without spoilers. So, uh… play that one too!

Anyway, what do you think? What are your favorite games that feature a canon romance, and what do you think of my picks? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

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