2015 - A Life & Game Review

I'm trying to think back on the games of 2015 and I'm struggling. In February, I moved from Maryland to Hawaii. I bought Tales of Hearts R for the trip, but technically that was a 2014 release. Even still, I ended up going absolutely head first into Pokémon Y (again) and to some extents Alpha Sapphire. Tales of Hearts just didn't hold my attention. The "Tales" series seems to be hit or miss for me - I love some of them, but others bore me. Either way, none of these games came out in 2015. So what the hell did I play in 2015? Looking back, there really weren't that many new titles in my house.

The Bunker Hill Bros played the hell out of some Dragon Ball XenoVerse which is a great game, but not Game of the Year material. I will never forget the rise of (custom character) Potatta and her domination over this game. I was supposed to join the Deez in Star Wars Battlefront but I ended up flaking out and walking away from the purchase. I got Disgaea 5 for my birthday in October, but for the first time ever - a Disgaea game did not hold my attention for much longer than a week. I got much more into a play of Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness earlier in the year- also not a 2015 game.

Flipping through the internet, I see a lot of talk about Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid 5 and even Bloodborne. Surprisingly, all of these were on my "I want to buy" list but none of them were purchased. Particularly surprising is Bloodborne, because I held it in my hands at least ten times and put it back on the shelf - including the day I bought Dragon Ball XenoVerse. I don't really have a lot of excuses for this. I suppose money has been relatively tight, but more so I've just found my large library of older games has really gotten me through the year. When Fallout 4 launched I realized I never fully explored or beaten Fallout: New Vegas and so I loaded her up instead of spending $60. Similarly, when Bloodborne was tantalizing me, I did another playthrough of Dark Souls II. Such was life in 2015 for me.

The only 2015 titles I can think of that I picked up and really sank my teeth into are Final Fantasy Record Keeper and Xenoblade Chronicles X. It feels severely unfair to slap either one with "Game of the Year" title when I really didn't play any other 2015 launch titles to any great extent. It also makes me feel guilty giving Xenoblade the high honors because the only other time I've posted a Game of the Year it was for 2012 and Xenoblade Chronicles won that award.

• TOP Game of the Year 2012 (Spoiler: Xenoblade Chronicles)

So let me tell you about the two games I did play to some great extent. 

 

Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a free-to-play iOS and Android game. It's honestly the first mobile game I've ever enjoyed and endorsed. I know part of that stems from my love for old Final Fantasy games, to which Record Keeper gives much fan service. However, it's been more than just a passing fancy. I play Record Keeper every single day. I'm sometimes overwhelmed at the level of strategy and planning the game takes, but it's the cute SNES-style sprites and the level of challenge the game brings to the table that keeps me coming back. 

The game is at its core an All-Star Final Fantasy Battle game. You collect characters from every Final Fantasy title and equip them with equipment and skills to do combat with various monsters and bosses from each title. Although each character can only have 2 abilities equipped at any given time, the battle system itself most resembles Final Fantasy IV and VI. As of today there are roughly 90 characters to collect, level and utilize to complete new events and dungeons. Events come once a week and new dungeons are added twice a month. 

Like most online, money-driven games it does suffer from a steady power creep. I worked extremely hard for about six months to be able to steadily 100% every event that came along. I finally felt like I was on top of the world and could conquer any challenge. Then a new difficulty was released and I was knocked so hard off my pedestal that I felt like I had just been fooling myself into thinking I was the very best like no one ever was. While there are cons to a steady power creep (like invalidating your best arsenal of relic weapons when new, better ones arrive) I like to think that it will keep the game fresh and keep me driven to take my team to new levels. 

Final Fantasy Record Keeper is easily the best mobile game I've ever played.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is overwhelming. Based entirely on my unendingly positive experience with its predecessor in 2012 and well into 2013, I picked up Xenoblade CX the day it was released and I'm still playing it today. I've sank about 60 hours into this game and I'm only on Chapter 6 of 12. The amount of content this game throws in your face is truly amazing. Simply exploring this beautiful, exquisitely detailed, alien planet will probably keep me entertained for another 60 hours easily.

Speaking honestly, during my first hour with the game I felt very skeptical. The custom created "main" character is an awkward, silent protagonist in an age of voice acted cutscenes. The very concept has made me question whether Cloud will translate very well into the Final Fantasy VII Remake - or whether a game like Chrono Trigger should ever be brought into the current generation. However, Xenoblade CX pulls this off pretty well with player input answers that lead you to believe he is participating in conversations (silently). I also wasn't entirely sold on the combat and its utter lack of Monado, but ultimately I'm finding it to be a much deeper combat system than its predecessor.

After that initial adjustment - the realization that no, this is not Xenoblade Chronicles that you remember, but something new entirely - the game just goes into full bloom, in my opinion. There are a ton of playable characters to get to know. There is - what feels like - a never ending list of side-quests to pursue (600, I believe is the official estimate). The "mission structure" to the story is the perfect balance between encouraging you to continue the story, but also allowing you to pause and take in the world at your own pace.

In Xenoblade Chronicles, I remember wanting to stop and get to know everyone and do every side-quest, but the story itself pushed a sense of urgency. It was difficult to justify hanging out in one place for 40 hours just to build local affinity when your [insert plot device] was in desperate need of your help. Xenoblade Chronicles X solves this problem by taking the plot away from character driven narrative and making you feel like you are actually building a new world on the planet Mira. Each side-quest, mission and affinity mission all feels like one more step in establishing humanity's place on this new mysterious world and I absolutely love it. 

With a new console on the horizon, Xenoblade Chronicles X will likely be my all time favorite Wii U release - much like Xenoblade Chronicles is my favorite Wii title ever played. It has breathed new life into a system that mostly my children were dominating until now. 

- TOP

@TOPGamingBlog

PS - Let me know what games you think I really missed out on in 2015!

Battle with Psycho Mantis

This is part of an ongoing series about my favorite memories from video games. You can find the original list and table of contents in an earlier post or by clicking here. Please be aware that these posts are going to be full of spoilers which may ruin the impact of these events on anyone who wishes to experience them on their own in the future.

#9 - Battle with Psycho Mantis (Metal Gear Solid)

When I was trying to put to paper a list of the 10 most memorable moments scripted into video games, Psycho Mantis was quick to pop up. He hails from one of the most critically acclaimed games of its time, Metal Gear Solid, though he is neither the main character nor the main villain of the game. He is simply one major obstacle for the protagonist, Solid Snake, to overcome during his objective to liberate the island base “Shadow Moses” from a renegade, Special Forces unit called FOXHOUND. Psycho Mantis, as his codename might imply, is the psychic member of FOXHOUND who vexes Snake by conquering the minds of others around him and thus distorting reality. When Snake finally confronts him face to face, Psycho Mantis has quite a demonstration prepared to unnerve not only the main character, but also the game’s player by breaking the fourth wall by having knowledge of events outside the game. 

Metal Gear Solid was released in 1998 and I remember hearing how great it is from almost every video game player I crossed paths with at high school and on the internet. Everyone was talking about it at the time, but I was sure it wasn’t going to be my cup of tea because it wasn’t a role-playing game. I had plenty of those to keep me busy at the time and I didn’t really feel like branching out into what I thought was primarily a shooter-style game. No one ever told me that the main focus of the gameplay was stealth. No one ever sat me down and said “If you love Tenchu (and I do) and plot twists (do I ever), you will absolutely love Metal Gear Solid.” Had someone said that, I may have picked it up sooner, but I went on in blissful ignorance for quite some time – until I saw a copy at the local Blockbuster for a mere $9. I’m not sure when exactly that was, but it’s safe to say I was way behind the curve on playing Metal Gear Solid.

I was pulled  into this game immediately. From the very start I realized there was a deep underlying story about to unfurl. I love a good story. Then when I was thrust onto “Shadow Moses” island without a weapon and told to make my way into the heavily guarded facility, I was completely sold. The entire experience caught me off guard and I wondered for days why I hadn’t bothered to look for this game before then. Since playing Metal Gear Solid, the entire franchise has come to be synonymous with mind blowing revelations in the form of plot twists. When I play any subsequent “Metal Gear Solid” game I am already expecting everything I am told to be completely false or at the very least a partial truth. I’ve come to expect it and so I look for it, but back then on my original foray into the unknown I was completely surprised to find such a complex story. That alone is memorable, but when I stop to ask myself what happened in this game that really stands out in my mind it’s easily fine-tuned to a single encounter, the battle with Psycho Mantis.

Psycho Mantis’s fight begins before you even realize what’s happening. Your companion, Meryl, begins to act extremely unusual because she is covertly being controlled by Mantis’s telepathic powers. Once it’s clear she is not your true enemy, Snake disables her and confronts the puppet-master. At this point Psycho Mantis materializes and attempts to shake things up by talking about things outside the game itself. Notably he is able to use saves on your Playstation memory card to discuss how much you like playing certain games. For me it was Azure Dreams, one of my guilty pleasures of the era. I didn't realize what he was doing at first. Obviously a video game character didn't know how much I liked another game, but as he began telling me how long I'd been playing the Azure Dreams and how many times I'd saved it, it became clear he was accessing my memory card. What a great scene! He totally caught me off guard with this clever use of the Playstation's capabilities.

Actually, I didn't pick up Symphony of the Night until nearly a decade later!

Psycho Mantis moves on to displays of telekinesis and asks the player to place the controller on the floor so he can move it around via the rumble feature. I did not comply, so he vigorously shook my hands. He also simulates changing the channel of your television by producing a screen (programmed into the game) that prompts you to reconnect your video/audio wires. I vaguely recall this actually tricked me into thinking my game had crashed. Within the context of this display of mental prowess, though, I was not fooled for long and the game returned to the screen soon. What a devious ploy they play at. I almost reset the game! Curse you, Psycho Mantis!

After this psychological warfare, the actual fight begins and it doesn’t go well. Psycho Mantis is able to read all your intended moves (presumably) with his telepathy and is able to dodge all your attempts to harm him. This was obnoxiously frustrating. I've long accused programmed adversaries of knowing the button I press and using it to their advantage to thwart my efforts to defeat them, but this was the actual intended result of Psycho Mantis. There was no attempt to hide it. I probably died a handful of times to my increasing rage. The limited clues to solving this puzzle were all there. though. Mantis shows he can think outside the (Playstation) box and challenges you to do the same. You ultimately can shut down his precognition of your actions simply by switching your controller from Player 1 port to Player 2. He then falls easily into your attacks and is quickly defeated.

"Unfortunately, killing is just one of those things that gets easier the more you do it." - Solid Snake

Reading about this in text might sound a bit cheesy, but what better way for a fictional character to display his psychic powers than speaking directly to the game's player and manipulating the data available on the gaming system to breech the confines of the programming and interact with the real world. When I play games, like many gamers, I become very absorbed by the story, the characters and the scenery. Like many other activities that require focus and stimulate my senses, the outside world tends to tune out. So when Psycho Mantis comes along and speaks to you personally, when he tells you what games you like and how you're doing in them, it's a bit shocking. It snaps you out of the video game and thrusts a bit of reality back into your face. Although it was easy to understand how the game was programmed to interact with me on a personal level, knowing how doesn't exactly stop it from being distracting and downright creepy when you experience it, especially for that first time. Because of that, the confrontation with Psycho Mantis really stands out in my memory. It is the most unexpected and interesting boss battle I’ve ever played. Whether you are a fan of the “Metal Gear” series overall or not, it is a truly unforgettable moment.

-TOP

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TOP Ten Most Memorable

TOP Ten Most Memorable

I recently mentioned Samus Aran taking off her Chozo power suit and revealing herself to be a woman in the original Metroid was #1 on my personal list of Most Memorable Moments in video games. I decided that I'd have to actually publish a more complete list of moments. In order to do each moment justice, however, I decided I'd write an entire article about each one after kicking off with the initial list. So today is the prelude to a 10-week project and should read more or less like a table of contents for things to come. First, I need to lay down a few simple criteria/clarifications.

Point 1 - These are all games I have personally played.

As with any opinion, results may vary. I want to be clear that these are my most memorable moments which is based entirely on my own experiences playing these games at the time that I played them. There may be other scenes in other games that blow these out of the water, but I may not have played them or I may have played them at a time when the moment was ruined by prior knowledge which would lessen the impact.

Point 2 - These are all events scripted into the game.

All player-driven or randomly generated events will be excluded. I wrote an article about my campaign to defeat Ifrit in Final Fantasy XIV which was monumentally memorable, but the challenge and coordinated effort of that struggle was completely player-driven and would vary from person to person. Similarly, I've had many exciting adventures in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that involved multiple dragons showing up to ruin my day, but as they were randomly generated I don't consider it a natural part of the game. My intent is to present scripted events that everyone will experience in roughly the same way.

Point 3 - I had no spoilers or prior knowledge to events listed.

Many of these moments would be ruined by knowing before-hand they were going to happen. So in saying that, I am warning you that the next few weeks of posts will be filled with spoilers about games I played and stuck out in my memory. Your prior knowledge of these events (if you have not yet experienced them) may tarnish the experience for you if you hope to play these games in the near future. The choice is yours, but know that when I played these games I had no idea what was going to happen next and so my opinions were heavily influenced as a result.

Now that I've set down the foundation for these opinions, I present my TOP Ten Most Memorable.

#10 - Zack's Death Scene (Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Playstation Portable, 2008)

The problem with prequels coming out 10 years after the original story is that you most likely know how they are going to end. I knew Crisis Core would end with Zack Fair's final moments, but how they were going to weave this into the gameplay took me by absolute surprise. The last battle in the game manages to use the game's mechanics to convey a tremendous amount of emotion into a really excellent fighting sequence.

#9 - Battle with Psycho Mantis (Metal Gear Solid, Playstation, 1998)

“Metal Gear Solid” is a franchise that is made up of plot-twist after compounding plot-twist, but Psycho Mantis was most memorable for using the Playstation itself to mentally unnerve you and thwart your efforts to defeat him. His displays of psychic prowess break the proverbial fourth wall and confront the player directly and the challenge of defeating him required some out-of-the-box thinking and gaming. 

#8 - First Fight with Magus (Chrono Trigger, Super Nintendo, 1995)

Chrono Trigger opens with a trip to the Millennial Fair which is celebrating the year 1000AD as well as the Hero’s triumphant defeat of Magus 400 years ago. As soon as you walk Crono out the front door the game is already conditioning you for the ultimate showdown with Magus in 600AD and you don’t even know it. The game does a good job of hyping up this fight and then it delivers in one of the best sequences in the game topped off with one of the best tracks of battle music as well. 

#7 - Sora's Sacrifice (Kingdom Hearts, Playstation 2, 2002)

Sora proves without a doubt he would do anything to reunite with his friends. After learning that his friend Kairi will remain comatose until her heart is freed from its hiding place locked within Sora’s own heart, he does what any selfless hero-in-training would do – stabs himself in the heart with a Keyblade that unlocks all hearts. He frees Kairi and allows darkness to consume his heart.  

#6 - The First Colossus, Valus the Minotaur (Shadow of the Colossus, Playstation 2, 2005)

Shadow of the Colossus is a masterpiece and every moment is memorable, but it’s easy to pick out the first of the sixteen colossi as the poster-colossus to represent the whole game. Though each of the colossi is a marvel in its own right, Valus sets the tone and scope of the entire adventure by taking your breath away as you grip your sword and run up to his enormous legs trying to find some weakness to bring this giant down. 

#5 - The Sacrifice of Palom & Porom (Final Fantasy IV, Super Nintendo, 1991)

Final Fantasy IV is my favorite game to play. I’ve beaten it dozens of times because I love the story and characters. I want to note that my least favorite characters are Palom & Porom, but for one short scene they really steal the show. Their self-sacrifice has me tearing up every single time I live through it. Despite the twins spending most of their time annoying me with their sibling banter, they really show a courage and wisdom beyond their years when they step up and give their lives to free the other characters from a devious trap.

#4 -  The Master Sword (The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, Nintendo 64, 1998)

The pivotal moment in Ocarina of Time is after you gather the three prerequisite pendants and play the Song of Time before the sword in the stone. Link pulls the Master Sword free in an unforgettable sequence. When you step into the shoes of Link as an adult several years into the future, you realize you’ve only scratched the surface of what this game has in store for you. 

#3 - The Opera "Draco & Maria" (Final Fantasy VI, Super Nintendo, 1995)

In an elaborate attempt to gain access to the world’s only privately owned and operated airship, the cast of Final Fantasy VI opt to cast Celes as the lead role in place of the opera starlet Maria, whom the airship owner is planning to kidnap. I expected to step on stage and see a few lines of text before the scene changed, but what I got was a full 20 minute opera completely composed in 16-bit. It shattered my perception of video game music, and remains one of the most amazing scenes in the entire “Final Fantasy” franchise. 

 #2 - Aerith's Death (Final Fantasy VII, Playstation, 1997)

The villain you’ve been chasing manages to get his hands on the Black Materia and use it cast a world ending spell known as “Meteor.” In response, the soft-spoken, kind-hearted token damsel in distress decides to head off on her own to seek answers and when you finally catch up to her, you find her peacefully praying on a dais in the middle of the Forgotten City. She looks up at you with hope in her eyes, and that’s when the villain descends from above and impales her on the end of his sword. Does this sound upsetting? Believe me, it is. This scene is burned into my memory.

#1 - Samus Unmasked (Metroid, Nintendo Entertainment System, 1987)

I believe Aerith’s Death (#2) may be slightly more emotionally traumatizing and shocking, but Samus pulling off her helmet and revealing she is a woman is my #1 because I was so young when I experienced it and it was equally unexpected. I was so proud of myself for beating such a difficult game, and the game itself rewarded me with knowledge that not many kids had at the time. This moment of revelation is really what kick started her as a video game phenomenon. 

-TOP