My Eight Most Hated Games of the Year.

You may notice there are not ten on this list, as honestly, I haven't played ten games I hate this year. There are a couple games that didn't make it on here because it was both boring and I didn't play enough to really get an honest opinion on, Horizon: Zero Dawn or the two that were multiplayer focused to the point I would have to play with other people to get a good idea of the game. And I don't like gaming with people I don't' know, and in the case of For Honor and School Girl Zombie Hunters I didn't have any friends playing them, so those are off the list too.

Like my other list, this isn't really an objective review of any kind, just my personal picks.

8. Tekken 7

See, I actually really like the Tekken story. Despite how poorly it was told due to the fighting game format in its early days, the lore and characters were interesting and there were some interesting twists. Tekken 7 was, overall, just disappointing in that regard. It feels like the story ends at the exact same place the last game, Jin and Kazuya getting set for a final showdown.

Throw in a lack of team battle, and a personal lack of interest in competitive play, Tekken 7 both let me down in terms of story but also additional fun modes to goof around with my friends in. For others, this is probably a pretty solid game, as most probably don't play Tekken for the reasons I do.

7. Kingdom Hearts 2.8 PS4

I kind of hate putting this game on here. The short game on it, Aqua's Prologue, is some of the most fun I have ever had playing Kingdom Hearts. Aqua is my personal favorite Keyblade Master, the visuals were fantastic and the combat was amazing. And I have a strange weakness for playing dress up with characters I like, so you would think I would love it.

But there is no getting around how small a part of the content it was. Even when throwing in the cut scenes from the mobile phone game, which were also amazing (I love The Master of Masters, the Original Keyblade user) well over half of the content is the HD remaster of Dream Drop Distance. And I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I can't stand this game. There are things I could bring up like how it forces you to jump between Riku and Sora, but that's not enough to ruin a game for me. There were other small things that irritate me about it, but nothing that should be enough to kill a game for me.

I don't know if it's because it's a port of a 3DS game onto the PS4, but something about the controls doesn't feel right, and I was never able to really explain why that was, hence the game never got a review from me. That was the game experience for me in a nutshell, I can't really put my finger on why it bothered me. Didn't even look as good as other entries in an indescribable way.

I really wish Aqua's Prologue was its own small game you could have downloaded for a smaller price because that game would have made my top list easy. Probably around number five.

6. Cosmic Star Heroine PC

After a series of goofy, fun, and fairly challenging RPG's Zyboid games made their effort to, as I remember reading from their site promoting this game, challenge Chrono Trigger as the best 16 bit RPG. This obviously did not happen.

It's clear the whole time they were trying to tell a more serious story then they had done before (Well, Penny Arcade Games they worked on aside) but too often it feels like they weren't comfortable stepping away from the jokes and inserted them into every portion of the story they could. There was a bad habit of throwing out a joke mid-scene that completely destroys the tension. Never point out how ridiculous the situation you are in actually is if you want the player to keep themselves invested.

Throw in some incredibly repetitive combat, and the game just becomes a slog that isn't worth sitting through. It remains the only game from Zyboid I've not enjoyed.

5. Fate/Extella: Umbral Star PS4

Me and Fate have always had a hit and miss relationship. For everything the games have done amazing, they do something terrible. Umbral Star manages to have one of the best characters of the year with Nero, and overall a fantastic cast, but a plot that is bogged down with an incredible amount of stupid.

And the combat just comes off as a Dynasty Warriors rip off that didn't even try to add anything interesting to the equation. There is nothing interesting to do in the various levels, no notable difference in using a Noble Fantasm, and mobs of repetitive enemies. If Nero and Gilgamesh weren't so awesome there would just be nothing to gain by playing this game.

4. Akiba's Beat PS4

Yeah, my hate for this game boils down to Pinkun and that stupid fucking voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83DD_SxLn2I

No, it's not better in Japanese. In fact, it's even worse. (I could not find audio of Pinkun in Japanese on youtube, but yeah. It's horrendous.)

Yes, there are other pretty big issues I have with this game. And yes, even without those this game would still make this list. You may think it's not fair to put a game so high because of one character and their grating voice. You would be correct, but I don't care. Fuck Pinkun.

3. Drive Girls – PS Vita

You know, part of me kind of likes that Drive Girls exists. It is rare that I find a game that is just, in every conceivable way, bad. Lazy uninspired art design, bland repetitive gameplay, a terrible camera, horrendous level design, a stupid plot and mounds of stupid dialogue, and worse yet a constant tease of fan service the game never delivers on. It's such an inept game it can't even do fanservice right. Really this game should probably be my number one were I to be trying to do this objectively, but I can't help but have this small little piece of my heart be happy that there exists a game in which I can sit hear and say absolutely nothing positive, or even neutral, about it. THEY SCREWED UP FLASHING YOU TITS HOW DO YOU EVEN DO THAT!?

2. Dragon Sinker 3DS

I cannot think of a game I have played in the past couple years that was this lazy and uninspired. It offers nothing interesting in terms of graphics, gameplay, or plot. It doesn't even have the decency of having something in it that is terrible. It is just a complete nothing of a game that gives me nothing interesting to say or discuss. I don't understand how a game like this can even exist.

1. Digimon World: Next Order PS4

A lot of what's wrong with this game comes down to how it will drag everything out, it's a running problem with other Digimon World games I've played as well. Training your Digimon takes forever, you will be constantly repeating the same tasks over and over again, and whereas other games had some interesting party dynamics, battle mechanics, and other such aspects to sort of make up for it the combat is so uninvolved in this game even that becomes a long drawn out chore.

You basically just give broad commands to your Digimon for what you want them to do, and then sit back and occasionally offer your input. But that's not the worst of it. All of that is bad enough, but what happens is your Digimon have to poop.

And until you use a portable toilet, or go to the outhouse that is literally a few feet away, you will constantly get notifications about it. You will also get notifications when your Digimon see something shiny. And you get an obnoxious sound every time you get a notification and little text bubbles at the bottom of your screen. What you have are two Digimon following you around, both of whom are, on their own, far more obnoxious then Navi from Ocarina of Time ever was. Even had this been a good game, that could have killed it for me.

But when paired with all the problems the game already had, this is honestly one of my least favorite games of all time, not just of the year.