GOTY (and PGOTY) Discussion

FakeSympathy

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GOTY: God of War Ragnarok

Need I to say more? The amazing story, insane boss fights, and the devs clear and careful understanding of both the world and who Kratos is. I really liked his relationship with his son. And to top it off the cast did an excellent job of portraying their characters. All of the performances were superb. Can't remember whether it was mocap, voice acting, or a healthy mix of both, but everyone did great. The nine realms all have distinct themes, and none of them feel copy-pasted. It’s juts a shame that so many story bits were spoiled before the release of the game.

PGOTY: Elden Ring

Yeah, yeah, I know how it was disappointing for many of you here, and thus why I put it on PGOTY. I personally thought the game was amazing. Sure, it had its problem with open-world game play, but I thought the same thing with Witcher 3 and it still ended up being one of my favorite games of all time. And it certainly is better than any crap that Ubisoft likes to shit out.

I have now beaten the game about 10 times, each time trying out different builds. And Each time, I felt like I was playing a different game facing bosses with different weaknesses. There were always new places to explore with the many side quests making be visit places I’d never even consider going, as well as one of the most versatile build system I’ve ever seen. Seriously, I saw so many crazy builds on youtube, and the funny thing is they were all viable. Granted, some bosses are still bullshit and there are areas that just seem to go on forever, but I’d say this was a worth entry to the souls series.

The final was was pretty disappointing, though.
 

FakeSympathy

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Game of the year? Definitely Triangle Strategy.
I guess it's worth it to check it out after 30% discount? I love fire emblem games (pre-Awakening) Final Fantasy Tactics, games with fantasy settings, and a good character developments. Does it have all of these?
 
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Dalisclock

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I guess it's worth it to check it out after 30% discount? I love fire emblem games (pre-Awakening), games with fantasy settings, and a good character developments. Does it have all of these?
I only played about 90 minutes but it feels a lot like Final Fantasy Tactics but without the final fantasy IP stuff.

Hades no doubt has a better perspective
 
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FakeSympathy

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I only played about 90 minutes but it feels a lot like Final Fantasy Tactics but without the final fantasy IP stuff.

Hades no doubt has a better perspective
Oof, mentioned a wrong game! I'm now deciding whether to get TS or wait for Tactics Ogre Reborn to go on sale
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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Here’s a PGOTY for me: ABZU

Think Journey, but aquatic with animations and swimming mechanics that look and feel good. Plus seeing hundreds of fish swirling around in a cyclone never gets old. It’s also just the right length for this type of game, and I literally finished it with a pleasant smile on my face.
 

Hades

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I guess it's worth it to check it out after 30% discount? I love fire emblem games (pre-Awakening) Final Fantasy Tactics, games with fantasy settings, and a good character developments. Does it have all of these?
The main character himself is somewhat milktoast but his three sidekick, each representing a different morality option do get their character development. And I guess the main character eventually going ''No we're not doing this morality option shit'' and making his own choice on what to do next in one route counts as character development I guess.

I think Triangle Strategy has a very solid world but aside from the presence of magic I wouldn't say its ''fantasy'' per se. There's no ancient dark god or evil cultists running around, and the main source of conflict is about something as mundane as control of resources like salt and iron. I think that's actually pretty refreshing though, and the game makes a good argument that this monopoly on resources is slowly strangling the continent to death. I guess the early story being veeery cutscene heavy may be controversial.

Gameplay wise its mostly akin to Fire Emblem but with the key difference there's no perma death. I think this is mostly a good thing since it allows for maps to take account your team composition rather than having to keep in their mind that a lot of your units may be dead. Unit also are a lot more individualized than your average fire emblem characters. There's only really one uber defensive unit for much of the game, one cavalry, various buffers and debuffers and so on.

A big draw is democracy, in that ever so often a choice has to be made and your teammates get to vote on this, which is a vote you can influence by gathering information and convincing your retainers. Technically this means your team can pick an option you might not want, but practically the system is pretty easy to game. Your retainers almost always have their vote split in a neat draw, and there being one undecided team member to break the tie.

There's a pretty decent demo to try out if you're on the fence.
 

Dalisclock

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There's a pretty decent demo to try out if you're on the fence.
The Demo is basically the first few chapters. If you decide to buy then you can import your save to the main game to keep going, so you don't have to replay that section.

I'm still in the demo part of the game for reference. I haven't gotten to the save transfer spot yet.

One thing to keep in mind, the early chapters are heavy with character development, story and worldbuilding. In 90 minutes of play I've fought one battle, near the beginning and the rest has been mostly cutscenes with some choice in dialogue. In it's defense, it's interesting which is the reason I'm still positive on it.

And the reason I haven't gotten past 90 minutes is I've been playing the Dragon Age series in my spare time so Triangle Strategy is on hold until I have more free time or I finish that, not because I wasn't enjoying it.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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GOTY: God of War Ragnarok

Need I to say more? The amazing story, insane boss fights, and the devs clear and careful understanding of both the world and who Kratos is. I really liked his relationship with his son. And to top it off the cast did an excellent job of portraying their characters. All of the performances were superb. Can't remember whether it was mocap, voice acting, or a healthy mix of both, but everyone did great. The nine realms all have distinct themes, and none of them feel copy-pasted. It’s juts a shame that so many story bits were spoiled before the release of the game.

PGOTY: Elden Ring
I have now beaten the game about 10 times, each time trying out different builds. And Each time, I felt like I was playing a different game facing bosses with different weaknesses.
Damn, so what was your favorite setup? I used everything from straight swords, great swords, hammers, and axes but ultimately finished my NG on a sort of cold/bleed/poison katana power stance setup, supplemented with a good assortment of spells.

For contrast I just started NG+ the other night, basically cosplaying as a tree sentinel (Golden Halberd + Erdtree Greatshield), with practically no casting other than the weapon skill.
 

Drathnoxis

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See, I said this thread was too early. I have to change my answer to Tunic. Gorgeous visuals, wonderful puzzles, a gaming experience that is pretty much unique and is extremely well put together. It has a couple drawbacks, I'm not a fan of the music - I find it boring, a couple of the secret puzzles are poorly designed, and one secret puzzle requires a ludicrous amount of effort and practically nobody will solve it on their own. It was still easily the best game I played this year.
 

Dalisclock

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See, I said this thread was too early. I have to change my answer to Tunic. Gorgeous visuals, wonderful puzzles, a gaming experience that is pretty much unique and is extremely well put together. It has a couple drawbacks, I'm not a fan of the music - I find it boring, a couple of the secret puzzles are poorly designed, and one secret puzzle requires a ludicrous amount of effort and practically nobody will solve it on their own. It was still easily the best game I played this year.
I was holding off to get the Switch Port though it turns out the Switch port I guess isn't the best version so I got it on sale from GOG. Look forward to checking it out.
 

Elvis Starburst

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Neon White
It's rare I like first person games, let alone speed running focused ones. But the style, fantastic music, goofy as hell characters and solid voice acting, interesting story setup, and really tight gameplay and level design (that has me doing new and crazy things right until the last stage) impressed me.
Like... REALLY impressed me. Somehow I found myself playing this game for nearly 70 hours (and counting), got every secret red medal time in the game, and still want more by going back and improving my old times even further. It's weird how addicting this game became for me, and I took to it more than I ever expected. The leaderboard chase has sucked me in big time.
All that combined makes it very clear this is a solid GOTY pick for me.

An honourable mention goes to Triangle Strategy.
Like Neon White, I'm not typically into this genre of game. When the poster child of the genre feels more like a medieval high school drama waifu simulator (or just Civ-like games that bore me heavily), there doesn't tend to be much for me to enjoy unless I dig deep through the muck. But I needed a game on a weekend trip... so I downloaded the demo. The setting, music, and especially the story setup already had me really interested. The long gaps between battles were the icing on the cake, it gave me enough time to relax and enjoy the setting more before the next encounter. I wanted to learn more about this world, so much so I happily read any extra documents I got in game that explored its setting further. The battles were also challenging and interesting, and didn't follow the same played out 3 weapon type system. It allowed for variety and mix-ups that I appreciated. The story was intriguing and was tons of fun right up till the end, and I'll fondly remember this game for helping me see there's more to this genre than I gave it credit for. Just needs to be the right game
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Elden Ring and Freedom Planet 2 are competing for the top spot for me. I have Moss 2, but I haven't played it yet, considering how much I liked the first game, if I get to it before the end of the year (its vr so gotta be in the right mood to play it) then I would imagine it will be right up there also. I suppose Cultic should be there also, its awesome, even though act 2 isn't out yet, but its not early access)

Honorary mention to Turbo Overkill (still early access), and Monster Hunter Stories 2 (came out last year but playing it this year)
 

meiam

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An honourable mention goes to Triangle Strategy.
Like Neon White, I'm not typically into this genre of game. When the poster child of the genre feels more like a medieval high school drama waifu simulator (or just Civ-like games that bore me heavily), there doesn't tend to be much for me to enjoy unless I dig deep through the muck. But I needed a game on a weekend trip... so I downloaded the demo. The setting, music, and especially the story setup already had me really interested. The long gaps between battles were the icing on the cake, it gave me enough time to relax and enjoy the setting more before the next encounter. I wanted to learn more about this world, so much so I happily read any extra documents I got in game that explored its setting further. The battles were also challenging and interesting, and didn't follow the same played out 3 weapon type system. It allowed for variety and mix-ups that I appreciated. The story was intriguing and was tons of fun right up till the end, and I'll fondly remember this game for helping me see there's more to this genre than I gave it credit for. Just needs to be the right game
The waifu simulator aspect is relatively recent trend in tactics game, if you want more minus the waifu aspect you can try final fantasy tactics (which triangle strategy is very much inspire by) or fire emblem pre nintendo DS.
 

Elvis Starburst

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The waifu simulator aspect is relatively recent trend in tactics game, if you want more minus the waifu aspect you can try final fantasy tactics (which triangle strategy is very much inspire by) or fire emblem pre nintendo DS.
The first tactics game I ever played was North America's first Fire Emblem on the GBA, and I enjoyed that one. But the gameplay style and 3 weapon type system I felt kinda holds Fire Emblem back. The types of tactics games I find myself enjoying these days tend to do something a little different with the genre, or at least make the combat more varied and unique.

But your comment does at least point me in the direction of a point of time to start looking back from, so maybe I'll do some digging
 
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