These are the only games I gave a crap about from 2019. In January, I listed off a bunch of games that caught my eye and now I'm going to update my thoughts on them.
ANIMAL CROSSING (Switch)
Original excitement: 1/5
Verdict: Didn't come out
BABYLON'S FALL (PC, PS4)
Original excitement: 2/5
Verdict: Didn't come out
JUMP FORCE (PC, PS4)
Original excitement: 2/5
Verdict: Didn't play it
This game looks like a giant heap of disappointment to the demographics of people who actually give a shit about this sort of thing, thus I can't imagine getting any enjoyment out of it myself. Playing it for myself just didn't seem worth it. The thing I liked about the old Jump Stars games on DS... conceptually... I never played them... was that it was a huge orgy of characters from a lot of different franchises. Jump Force seems more like Dragon Ball x Naruto x Bleach x One Piece x My Hero(I think???) and I don't watch any of these fucking shows. I'm not going to say it looks terrible but even as a fighting game, it looks passable at best. Interest lost.
SEA OF SOLITUDE (PS4)
Original excitement: 2/5
Verdict: Didn't play it
Oh, I guess this came out... Whoops...
TEAM SONIC RACING (PC, PS4, Switch)
Original excitement: 2/5
Verdict: Pretty cool but fundamentally broken in single-player
Score: 6/10
The main thing that enticed me with Team Sonic Racing was its team mechanics, in which case it mostly delivers. In natural Sonic fashion, sometimes it trips over itself and does something annoying. The main campaign mode follows a mind-numbing story about a treacherous racing tournament. I'm not even going to go into it because it's a kart-racing game plot and one part about it actually makes me a bit angry. Along with this story that I am not going to talk about, you have a bunch of racing challenges and side-challenges and side-missions. It actually does a lot to change up the formula of just racing. However, the same team gimmick that sets the game aside from other cart racers sticks it right back in the big blue grave with all of the other wasted ideas in the Sonic franchise. Many of the chapters require you to win Grand Prix sort of things with your team. Your team is AI-controlled. They can totally fucking suck while you end up in 1st place and you can still lose the tournament based on the game's point system. So Team Sonic Racing is another Sonic game with really cool ideas and shitty execution. Also, I have the Switch version. It looks like it runs better on everything but the Switch version. So if you are going to get it, don't get it on Switch.
DAEMON X MACHINA (Switch)
Original excitement: 3/5
Verdict: Didn't play it
I guess this also came out. Whoops.
MEDIEVIL (PS4)
Original excitement: 3/5
Verdict: Didn't play it
I didn't have a lot of time and money to splurge on games this year. Maybe one day I will revisit both versions of Medievil. Until then, I'll make this pointless list of games I didn't play. For what it's worth, this still looks like a pretty tasteful remake that delivered pretty fucking well.
BAYONETTA 3 (Switch)
Original excitement: 4/5
Verdict: Didn't come out
Nobody is talking about Bayonetta 3 anymore. We're still at just a logo with this thing, right?
CONTROL (PC, PS4)
Original excitement: 4/5
Verdict: Didn't play it
It looks okay though.
DIGIMON SURVIVE (PC, PS4, Switch)
Original excitement: 4/5
Verdict: Didn't come out
FINAL FANTASY VII, IX, and XII: THE ZODIAC AGE (Switch)
Original excitement: 4/5
Verdict: Didn't play them
I don't have the time and if I did, I still haven't beat VIII. Maybe one day. Fuck me, I'll probably end up playing the FFVII remake before the original.
THE LAST OF US PART 2 (PS4)
Original excitement: 4/5
Verdict: Didn't come out
And the more I think about this one, the more I really don't fucking care. Neil Druckmann seems pretty set on making his games as far away from actual games as possible. It's a direction that may work for some but it isn't a direction wherein I hitchhike for a $60 ride.
POKEMON SWORD AND POKEMON SHIELD (Switch)
Original excitement: 4/5
Verdict: Didn't play it
Sword and Shield is such a fucking mess. It really isn't all bad from what I have heard, seen, and researched myself. People are making a huge stink about it on the internet which for once is not completely baseless. Is it a steaming pile of shit? Doesn't seem that way. Does it look like the worst mainline Pokemon RPG? To me, it doesn't because I really don't like X/Y. Am I ever going to buy this? Probably not. As I said in the original OGIGACA 2019 post this year, I have just done this Pokemon campaign bullshit a million times. If I'm going to do it again, I'm either going to play one of the ones I already own, preferably in Nuzlocke form, or I'll buy an older Pokemon RPG that I know is good. The stipulations that hold Sword and Shield back will just be pure tedium to me. I won't take that enjoyment away from newcomers to the series or truly diehard fans but I can't get into it for myself.
LITTLE TOWN HERO (Switch)
Original excitement: 4/5
Verdict: Didn't play it
Okay, seriously: when the FUCK did this game come out?!? Now I know it was in October but I legitimately thought it was still in development until just now. What a twist!
INDIVISIBLE (PC, PS4)
Original excitement: 5/5
Verdict: Innovative and full of personality
Score: 7/10
Good shit. Interesting shit. If you like RPGs, you'll probably like this game. I mean, if you like turn-based and/or action RPGs. If you like modern adventure-RPGs like Elder Scrolls and Dragon Age and you think older Final Fantasy, Pokemon, and the Mana games are stupid, maybe skip Indivisible? Either way, the game is impressive. Something about it has not gripped me as much as I thought it would but I can't really lay a finger on it as of right now. I also feel like there are too many party characters to the point where it makes most of them feel one-dimensional and kind of pointless. Other than that, nothing about it really pisses me off very much at all.
KINGDOM HEARTS III (PS4)
Original excitement: 5/5
Verdict: Might be best in the series but it's still Kingdom Hearts
Score: 6.5/10
Alright, finally, here it fucking is! The big kahuna! I'm waiting for it to be mandella'd back into production but in our current state of reality, it is a game that you can purchase and play! Kingdom Hearts III was disappointing in certain ways but most of them are incredibly insignificant to the game as a video game in and of itself. That probably does not make a whole lot of sense without me listing off a bunch of minute details that don't really matter or only have to do with the plot. By the way, I won't spoil the plot. I'm just going to say that there were certain parts I found fairly surprising, some surprises that were not very surprising at all, some character arcs that I felt did not need to be touched on so much, and some character arcs I was impressed by how well-executed they were. That said, I really do not like the ending and how the game concludes the series as a whole and I will just leave it at that.
The game itself is what I consider to be, without a doubt, in my top three games in the series. The jury is still out on my favorite but I'm leaning towards KH3 being my favorite for reasons unironic. One of the things I did not like about the other games is that once you get a more powerful keyblade, there is absolutely no reason to use older keyblades. Kingdom Hearts III blew that problem out of the water by allowing all of the keyblades to be upgraded. It is a cool idea that makes my keyblade feel like more of a conscious, stylistic choice rather than a postcard from a Disney world. At level 99 with all keyblades maxed, it is still fun to use different keyblades because all of them actually feel different and have different ability perks attached. As far as stats go, there is really no reason to use any other keyblade after you make the Ultima Weapon but I still like using other weapons after roughly 90 hours of playing the game. The completionist elements of the game passively encourage doing so too.
The majority of the character dialogue is less awkward than in previous installments, mostly due to the huge increase in animation, both in quality and in quantity. This is a huge improvement for the entire franchise. Don't get me wrong, the dialogue is still awkward and most of the Disney world subplots are still really stupid but for the most part, it has been improved over previous games. There are no more textbox segments. All of the dialogue is either portrayed during gameplay or fully accompanied by unique animation in cutscenes.
If you end up liking the game despite the awkward elements present in all Kingdom Hearts games and the repetitive nature of its combat system, there is a lot of replay value and a decent portion of it feels unique to this game. None of the replay value feels particularly forced in for the sake of having replay value or at least not in comparison to any other game in the series. This is one of the only games in the franchise where I occasionally felt the need to use magic and was generally more strategic with when and where I used defensive maneuvers and Flowmotion. Nothing really felt any more babying than any previous Kingdom Hearts game. For the most part, I felt that the game did a pretty decent job of explaining every maneuver once you obtain it and leaving you alone. The combat is constantly spiced up with variety, throwing constant options at you a la Birth By Sleep. Once you get beefier, even boss fights become significantly less challenging. Luckily, gummi ship fights are there if you really want to try to get everything in the game but after you hit level 99 or even level 80 with enough abilities equipped and item boosts used, there is really not a whole lot of engaging challenge on Normal Mode.
Speaking of hand-holding, I was not a huge fan of the Attraction summon thingies. The only ones I really liked controlling were the blaster mini-game one and the staged one you use to fight the Rock Titan in Olympus. The rest of them feel like having an extra summon to randomly help you out in a game that is already not that difficult for more than 30 hours of the game. I felt this also defeated the purpose of the link attacks. The risk/reward system of the link attacks poses the question of whether you waste your time and all of your MP on healing yourself with Cure, blasting through enemies with magic combos, or summoning an ally. If random enemies just give you another summon for hitting them one time, it sort of undermines the actual summons.
Kingdom Hearts III is what I would consider one of the best Kingdom Hearts games in the series but it is still a Kingdom Hearts game so many of the flaws that make the original games cringey or tedious are still there in some fashion or another. However, I honestly cannot think of too many things that were necessarily done worse in comparison to the other games. The synthesis menu is pretty obnoxious because you have to go to a whole separate menu outside of the Moogle's shop just to see what you have or have not made already. Some of the environments look a little bland in comparison to games like KH2 but even that point is pretty subjective. To clarify; the environments trade out having a few memorable details to subliminally separate different areas with having a lot of little details that make the game itself look prettier but arguably less creative. Most people probably value the baroque and clean HD stuff in III over something like II. I'm not saying III looks bad, clearly it's beautiful, but I prefer maps that I can identify easier in my head with very distinguishable landmarks than an environment with a lot of stuff going on and the defining landmarks are "that one tree" or "the slightly curvier building". Kingdom Hearts III coincidentally does an alright job of explaining some of the important plot points from previous games that are prevalent to the story in this game so I would even recommend this to people unfamiliar with the rest of the series. Plotwise, there are many things that I would have changed and things that I was fairly disappointed in or underwhelmed by but I guess you can say that about the entire damn series. As far as an actual video game goes, I regret nothing and feel that the game was ultimately worth the wait. However and I can't stress this enough, if you already hate the series, Kingdom Hearts III is probably not going to do anything for you that will drastically change your mind, it will just be a bit more tolerable and have a lot more Frozen in it.
SHOVEL KNIGHT: KING OF CARDS (Wii U)
Original excitement: 5/5
Verdict: Feels more like a new game with reused assets than DLC and I love it
Score: 8.5/10
King of Cards, despite its name, surprised me as a very competent and unique platforming experience. Not in an annoying way like Plague of Shadows where it just limits the fuck out of your mobility to make you feel like a giant doofus. That's probably just me. King of Cards feels more like a Kirby game where your main move is one of the fighting ability kicks and you don't get powers through copy abilities. You get them through items just like in Shovel of Hope. The story is straightforward but still fun to follow. It has a personality familiar to the other campaigns while still standing out on its own and complimenting its main character. Honestly, I did not expect King Knight to be this fun of a character to dive into but they really pulled it off. Right now, I'm about two-thirds into the main campaign (I've been pretty fucking busy, it isn't that long). The game is longer than any of the previous campaigns without a lot of padding. It stretches out the worlds into a bigger map with shorter levels. The checkpoint souls-like system is still a factor but it is way less utilized. This is not a complaint, really. Shovel, Plague, and Specter had their clever and challenging uses for this system and it was not really necessary for King to use this to be a good inclusion. King Knight's movements are fairly simple but getting used to them is really satisfying, much like Shovel of Hope.
The main thing you are probably curious about if you haven't played it for yourself is the "Cards" part of the title. The game is simple and fun. The preset matches are typically fair and challenging with a well-done difficulty curve, accompanied by a handful of gimmicky puzzle matches for you to solve (probably great for replay value as well). Other than extra money and badges to use towards upgrades and whatnot, the card game does not weigh too heavily on the rest of the game anyway. I don't hate the card game, I actually really like it, but this point potentially poses the question: "why not just bring down the cost on a lot of the shit you can buy and then eliminate the card game altogether then?" Well, they could have but it blends in with King Knight's goals and I actually like that you can still make actual progression while you are too tired to do anything else at 3am but still want to play Shovel Knight. You could argue the whole thing is a waste of time but you technically, supposedly don't need the card game to beat King of Cards anyway. The main bosses that advance the plot are just normal bosses anyway.
King of Cards feels significantly easier than Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows. This shouldn't be too surprising since both are kind of notoriously difficult. However, this mostly feels even easier than Specter of Torment, which in comparison to Shovel and Plague, was really fucking easy. It isn't all a walk in the park but it still feels a lot more like Kirby in the sense that its controls are really simple and completing the game is not very hard unless you are five years old. I do like how there are bonus paths in most of the stages though that kind of counteract this for people who have spent way too many hours of their lives playing platformers. Even those are not that terribly difficult. I rarely use the items at all in this game as opposed to using the Phase Locket all the fucking time in Shovel and whatever equivalent to that item was in Specter pretty often. There is an equivalent in King and although it is the only item I basically ever use, I still rarely use it.
If you are already a fan of Shovel Knight, telling you to get King of Cards is pointless. To those who have not bought Treasure Trove, there is no time like the present.
For those who have played it, I would say in terms of difficulty:
Plague of Shadows (most difficult)
Shovel of Hope
Specter of Torment
King of Cards (easiest)
And also my favorites:
Specter of Torment (favorite)
Shovel of Hope
King of Cards
Plague of Shadows (least favorite but fine)
SHOVEL KNIGHT SHOWDOWN (Wii U)
Original excitement: 5/5
Verdict: Fun enough
I don't feel comfortable giving this its own score as the game really sells it as more of a separate mode than its own game. It's fun but I guess I was expecting a little more than what ended up being there. I think it is still trying to live in that retro NES era spirit but it has a fucking parry move on the shoulder button. None of the characters have particularly complex movesets, which I wouldn't care about if all the characters had five or more commands instead of three. Technically they have more than three but it still just feels very basic. The game is more Viewtiful Joe Red Hot Rumble than it is a Smash clone and I guess it will be up to your discretion whether or not that's a good or bad thing. That said, it isn't.... not fun? I can see myself playing this with friends but not for more than an hour. Even with all of the characters unlocked, only the most diehard Shovel Knight fans are going to get that much enjoyment out of this. I have just been going through story mode on Easy because I suck and I want to unlock all of the characters. It is no more or less monotonous than any other game like this. This isn't to say that Showdown is a snooze fest or anything. The target mode specifically is surprisingly heart-thumping, particularly when you are playing it with a character you aren't used to yet. Each character adds their own bit of challenge to the game just because their limited movesets make them all unique. I just feel like with one or two added base moves to each character, the game could have functioned more as a free-for-all brawler but the game seems to want you to play the gem collection mode the most. Also, you can't pick up gems when you're invincible. I haven't decided if this is bullshit or not yet but I can confirm that it makes my arm hairs shoot out like porcupine quills and into the walls. It's pointless to put a typical conclusion to this blurb on Shovel Knight Showdown because it's just free DLC. If someone gets Treasure Trove, which they should, they're just going to have this now. There's no stopping the Showdown.
End note: I know a lot of people have wanted Shield Knight to have her own story and I'm sure you have all heard that each character has their own little storyline in Showdown. Although they did do more with the story in Showdown than I expected, none of it actually fucking matters to the canon of the base game. Shield Knight's story is just kind of a logic loop that isn't complete nonsense but is unnecessary anyway. I just wanted to rip that bandaid off. That Shield Knight adventure everyone wanted pretty much isn't there. But hey, Shovel Knight Dig is coming in the not-too-far-away future and who knows what to expect from all that.
Here is some other stuff that came out in 2019 that I played but was not on the original list:
A HAT IN TIME - NYAKUZA METRO DLC (PC)
Verdict: Great as usual
I'm not going to waste a lot more of your time on this one because I always gush about A Hat in Time and how great it is. This is a whole new chapter with a new villain, world, collectibles, and a bunch of missions that add on to the rest of the game including previous DLC. They also added a ridiculous multiplayer mode that supports up to 50 players in the same lobby. A Hat in Time is great without all this so go play it and if you like it, I highly recommend Nyakuza Metro and its previous DLC pack, Seal the Deal.
Halo Reach - Master Chief Collection (PC)
Verdict: Boring
I bought the Master Chief Collection to play with friends. From the looks of things, this aspect still delivers but I have not had the chance to actually play it with friends yet. As someone who does not play a lot of shooters, I am too scared to play this online without friends. Which leads to character customization and the campaign. There is not much to say about the profile and character customization because most of it is locked behind in-game challenges but you know what, I can't shit on this because they aren't locked behind loot boxes. The campaign is a typical FPS campaign for the most part. There were some enemy designs that have already caught me off guard. On normal mode, I have still died a handful of times in the early stages. And by early I mean EARLY. I quit out halfway through Stage 3 out of pure boredom. I also don't like that in Reach, sprinting is an ability. There is plenty of controller real estate for this to not be an issue but for whatever reason, it is. I don't remember this being a thing in Halo 1 and 2 which are the games in the series I remember the most and am most excited to revisit when they come to the collection in 2020. Despite how utterly disappointed I am with my purchase, Halo is mostly known as a game to play with friends, so to a degree, I can kind of fuck myself on this one. The things I am complaining about, I realize, could be so much worse. It's $40USD for 6 games modernized into a fresh take on each respective experience. As much as I shit on Microsoft and 90% of the Xbox property, this is a hell of a deal and one that I guess I recommend despite being fairly underwhelmed personally.
There's that. I might not do an OGIGACA for 2020 seeing how this one was kind of a flop. I still enjoy doing these but as you can see here, I didn't have a lot of time to play most of the games that interested me this year and I shredded a lot of income on PC upgrades. We'll see. Thanks.
