My Top 10 Games of 2017

 And it's that time of year, all the games I'm playing this year have been beaten, and it's time to make myself a list. Rather than just link the Minds posts, here are all the games that didn't make the cut (Of ones that I did like).

FF XII

Dream Daddy

Splatoon 2

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Shadows of Adam

Sniper Elite 4

Mary Skelter: Nightmares

Super Mario Odyssey

And for the record, I didn't get around to playing Cuphead, so that won't' show up on either this list or my worst of the list. Anyway, on the list.

10. Xenoblade Chronicles 2

This game ended up a lot lower on this list then I was expecting. The things the held it back come mostly down to the boring mechanics involving quick time events following all of your specials as well as salvaging, as well as on overall weak ending. There are other problems I had with it, like Poppi's growth being tied to a minigame that I didn't find particularly engaging which means using Tora in battle wasn't really worth it for me, but overall those were the two major ones.

Despite the annoyance of the mechanics in place for using your specials, the combat does still manage to stay fun and engaging. Stringing together multiple specials in order to activate stronger attacks can be fun and involves making use of all your characters, swapping between different Blades (bound creatures summoned from core crystals) allows for you to have a good variety of strategies, and plenty of battles in the game require a decent amount of planning to overcome.

While having a weaker story and cast overall then the last game, you do still have some great characters like Jin and Morag to keep you engaged. You end up with a mixed bag of good and bad plot points that ends up tilting the scale in favor of good. So long as you temper your expectations going in, it's a pretty solid experience.

9. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Switch

Clearly, I did not enjoy this game as much as other people considering how much lower on my list it is than most other peoples. There are a handful of things that dragged down the game for me that I could never get around. Weapons, for example, broke down way to fast and made the game easier to play by just avoid combat. The Shrines you got to in order to power up were all one or two puzzles that were far to simple to solve and ended up feeling like busy work, and the 'dungeons' were all the worst dungeons in the entire series filled with bosses that were nowhere near as fun or creative as other entries.

But the game still made my list, so clearly it did some things right. Combat in this game remains a lot of fun. While weapons may break down too fast, you have a large variety of weapons to allow for modified play styles similar to Windwaker, though in this regards it's a bit better than Windwaker in that you can actually keep the weapons on hand whereas Windwaker it was only for short periods of time where you could pick the weapons up off defeated enemies.

And I can't deny how fun it was to explore all the different areas and finding some of the games hidden gear and secrets. There is a good variety of land types and ways to explore, which really is the games driving force.

I may disagree with peoples assessments that this is one of, if not the, best Zelda game, but I can honestly see it being more of a blueprint for what could be the best Zelda game. If you happen to have a switch or were planning to get one anyway, it's definitely a good game to get your hands on.

8. Nioh – PS4

So Team Ninja woke up one day and decided to try their hands at Dark Souls, and to rather a good effect. It's clear what the inspiration is, but at the same time, the game does more than enough to differentiate itself.

Each weapon has multiple stances, gear can be upgraded either by crafting or challenging the ghosts of other players and getting the gear that player used and a spell system all it's own work very well to the games benefit. Though once you can use the talisman to slow down your opponents, including bosses, the game quickly becomes simple.

While the overall story may be lacking, the game still does great with its atmosphere. The use of Japanese historical figures as well as the focus on the Yokai as the basis for the design give the game a very distinct look and feel compared to its contemporaries.

Truly Nioh is the Dark Souls of Dark Souls clones.

7. Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon – PS4

Overall this game is a great look at how exactly to do a sequel. While the love story that is part of the plot is weaker then the last the game has improved upon the combat and plot of the last in just about every way.

The bigger and stronger cast of characters do a lot to add multiple layers to the story and it does a great job and making group feeling relevant to the story at hand. There are some great interactions between the cast and some really emotional and at times disturbing scenes that come up.

Though what sells the game most to me are its fantastic visuals. At no point in this game is the scenery lacking, the designs are very creative, and they do a fantastic job at building a dark atmosphere when needed.

Throw in the mechanics of being able to combo with your partner of choice, and how you perform your combo's varying depending on your ally, you have a combat system that offers a lot of variety when compared to the prior game. It's also on Switch and Vita if you don't have a PS4, so if you have any of the systems it's available on it's definitely worth checking out, and while it's the same timeline you don't need to have played the first game to follow along.

6. A Hat In Time - PC

A Hat in Time is the most adorable game to have come out all year. I feel I could do nothing but spam pictures of how adorable it is without actually writing anything down. So you know what? That's what I'm going to do.

5. South Park: The Fractured But Whole – PS4

This was the most consistently funny game of the year. In typical South Park Fashion, everyone is a target for their jokes. This game is crude, raunchy, and it never lets up. Cops run a racist cult sacrificing black people to Lovecraftian gods, you gain free attacks against people who shout out micro-aggressions, the color of your skin determining the difficulty, and so much more things along these lines.

The combat remains a lot of fun as well, with a lot of ways to customize your party and main character. Mind you, once you have access to the naturalist class the game becomes instantly easy, which is disappointing, but for the most part, the game does require a fair bit of strategy. It still remains on the easier end of the genre, but so long as I feel like I'm at least putting in the effort I'm happy.

It's South Park at it's best in game form, much like the last game was.

4. Blue Reflection – PS4

This game took me completely by surprise. You are basically playing as a team of magical girls in high school, and gameplay is split between fighting in a majestic world formed from peoples collective emotions and subconscious and socializing with your friends in the real world in order to strengthen your bonds and, as a result, increase your power as a magical girl. And yes, this is a pretty similar premise to the Persona games.

If the game has a problem, it can probably be the most repetitive game on this list. Fights early on, and really until the last stretch of the game, are near mindless in how easy they are, and the bonds you form take far more time then they should considering the lack of effort you put into them.

Yet despite those flaws, the game shines with its amazing boss fights and the visuals. There is a massive contrast between the world and characters in the real world, all of which feel more grounded in reality (Compared to the other aspects of the game), and then you go to this majestic and whimsical world. Follow that up with these monsters that look like hell demons that would fit right at home in a Dark Souls game you have a perfect contrast. If everything throughout the game was dark and fantastical, the appearance of the Seriphot wouldn't have near the impact they do.

So, despite the game having some issues that would, normally, drag it down a lot lower on the list (Especially since some of them aren't all that different from my issues with Xenoblade) I was absolutely won over by the games art direction, more so than probably any other game this year. The three different tones of the real world, the other world, and the Seriphot were just too perfectly blended together.

3. Story of Seasons: Trios Town – 3DS

Yep, a game where you farm and raise a family beat out all those others on my list. I don't even know how to justify this one.

2. Persona 5 -PS4

The review is not up on Minds, but the title I had for this game was 'This is probably going to be my favorite game of the year' or something to that effect. Welp, I was wrong. That said, Persona 5 is fantastic.

Like Persona 3 and 4, 5 has a solid cast of characters. It has some weak elements such as Ann and Haru, who I had no interest in keeping up with, but on the other hand, as far as social links it has one of the series best with Tae.

Dungeon crawling was simultaneous more interesting than the previous two games and consistently gave yo more to do outside of the battles, and yet a bit more boring with how easy and exploitable it was. Once you got the hang of it there were no issues at all with traversing the levels. No matter the stage it took little to no effort to sneak around enemies and figure out the levels tricks. Bit of wasted potential I felt, but the actual combat is as fun as it's always been, shaking it up with the addition of guns on your characters.

Other than that it's what you expect of a Persona game, at least since the release of 3. I don't think it's as good as the last two, but still great and a must buy for any fans of the series, or RPG fans in general.

1. Nier: Automata - PS4

It wasn't until later in the year I finally got the chance to play through the additional endings of this game. Now, I hate that they are even called 'endings' as they are not actually endings. This, however, is a rant for another day. To actually complete the story in its entirety turns this game into one of the most engaging narratives I have seen in years, full of great twists and characters.

And the game is just absolutely beautiful to look at. Side by side with Blue Reflection, I”d have a hard time picking the better-looking game, though for different reasons. Blue Reflection and it's near perfect use of contrasting visual themes, or just the sheer beauty and detail of Nier, I don't know if I could pick between the two.

But Nier has the far stronger narratives, and probably the best leading character (At least for parts of the game) with 2B and 9S, the third (Who I won't spoil) I wasn't to fond of, but I think you control that character less often than the others, so whatever.

I also take issue with the gameplay in 9S's story being on the dull side, something I may get into more another time, but the good aspects of the game far and above make up for that slightly boring stretch of gameplay.

And the games actual ending is, for a variety of reasons, is nearly perfect. The rush of emotions, the pay off of everything the game was building towards, and just how well animated everything looks, I could not have asked for a better finale. This game is definitely worth your time if you like action RPG's at all.