Danganronpa V3
I was introduced to the Danganronpa series in 2017 and have loved this series of crazy visual novel murder mysteries ever since. I finished the series' third installment, Danganronpa V3, at the very start of 2018. It's got the best presentation by far and I loved it, but I prefer SDR2's characters and story overall.
Spyro the Dragon 2: Ripto's Rage
I never played the Spyro games as a kid, what with my unbreakable loyalty to Nintendo, but finally decided to catch up. I finished Spyro 2 on stream in early 2018, making it the first game I finished on stream! It's my personal favorite of the original trilogy for sure.
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
After finishing Spyro 2, I went straight on to the third installment. I had a good time with it, but wasn't motivated to fully complete it.
Mario 74 (Super Mario 64 ROM Hack)
An impressive Mario 64 rom hack I played on stream. I was aware that Super Mario 64 has a very active and talented hacking community, so I decided to try the popular Mario 74. I had a great time, but the game's difficulty was clearly out of my league, especially in the later stages.
Psychonauts
After starting it up and giving up on it due to lacking a proper gamepad, I finally returned to Psychonauts - and I streamed my playthrough! It was a very creative, more story focused take on the 3D platformer and I loved it.
Slay the Spire
After hitting a particularly rough patch in early 2018, a dear friend gave me Slay the Spire, a roguelite turnbased RPG where you build up a deck as you progress. It was a welcome distraction, and I quickly became addicted, wanting to try again and again even after suffering shameful defeats.
Pokémon FireRed RANDOMIZED
I enjoyed the old Pokémon games, but mostly gave up on the series after gen 2. I thought it might be fun to relive my old Pokémon memories while adding some gen 2 and gen 3 Pokémon into the mix, so I played a randomized version of Pokémon FireRed. It was very challenging but a lot of fun!
fault - milestone two side:above
After having experienced the first part in this visual (kinetic?) novel series by watching Dodger's videos many years ago, I finally played it and its sequel for myself. I enjoyed the story, though the game invested a lot of time and space into building up the world around the characters. I also had a regular chuckle at how differently the male and female characters are designed.
Karakara
I got Karakara from a visual novel bundle and decided to give it a look. The setting of a post-apocalyptic desert was pretty interesting, but most of the game was spent on, uh, this. And it was pretty fun really, but don't tell anyone I thought that.
Abzû
A vibrant underwater interpretation of what Journey did before it. I played through it in one sitting and it was a beautiful and therapeutic experience.
The First Tree
Perhaps I wasn't fair to the First Tree, but I gave up on it when what I perceived as sloppy and tedious gameplay (involving a lot of collectibles) and physics got in the way of its otherwise nice environments and storytelling. Perhaps I will return to it one day.
Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition
Another one from the visual novel bundle. A group of characters get trapped in a nuclear power plant in the middle of a terrorist attack. This game had a neat idea: You aren't in direct control of the protagonist himself, so you don't get to make choices for him, but you do decide how much he trusts each character at various points in the story and he makes his choices based on that. I still want to write an article about it some day! The amount of (voice acted) content in this one was staggering; I spent 30 + hours doing all the campaigns and getting the endings I wanted.
Secrets of Rætikon
Secrets of Rætikon's beautiful style drew me in, but it didn't hold my attention for long. The fault is more with me than it; the game is all about exploring its world, but I just felt lost and confused. Like The First Tree, I may return to it one day under better circumstances.
A Hat in Time
3D platformers haven't been the number 1 genre for some time, but A Hat in Time promised to be a return to the glory days of the N64 and GameCube - and it delivered. I was all smiles while playing this game, enjoying its great visuals and music, sharp controls and adorable sense of humor.
Cuphead
It's hard to say anything original about Cuphead; it's beautiful, it's fun and it's tough as nails! I loved every second of it, except perhaps a few of the seconds when I was fighting King Dice.
Ape Escape
Another PlayStation classic I missed as a kid and decided to stream. It took me a lot of effort to get used to the controls (and the long breaks between streams didn't help), but I ended up really appreciating all the intricacies of Ape Escape.
Just Desserts
A strange dating sim set in a military camp fighting an alien invasion. It's hard to really comment on it; some of the art and voice acting was pretty good, and some of it wasn't. There was also some very basic turn based combat involved. I cared about it enough to clear at least one character's route, so I guess it's alright.
This is the Police
A management game of sorts where you play the role of a police chief who is about to retire. You manage the police work day by day and try not to get killed or fired by being just corrupt enough. It was interesting enough for me to play for a few hours, but repetition set in pretty quickly and I gave up after the story took a strange turn. Another game I might return to one day - or maybe I'll just play the sequel.
Dropsy
A point and click adventure with no written dialogue whatsoever. Dropsy is a scary looking clown who just wants to give everyone a hug. Like the game's namesake, the game looks strange and disturbing but hides a gentle and kind core. I still wouldn't recommend it for kids, though, because it has some very disturing imagery.
Stardew Valley
I played the heck out of Stardew Valley when it came out, but I streamed the co-op with my friend Back2Murder this year. I hope we can pick that up again, because the game's just perfect for playing with friends.
Pyre
Pyre is hard to describe in simple terms; it's some kind of sports RPG with visual novel elements made by the geniuses at Supergiant Games. Got hooked on the story and characters from the second I started it and binged through the whole game in just two sessions. Beautiful music and visuals, exciting competitive gameplay and meaningful choices make Pyre a contender for the best game I played this year. It's truly incredible.
Hollow Knight
A beautiful metroidvania about a Knight coming to a decaying kingdom for purpose you'll discover as you play. And every character in the game is a bug of some kind. Hollow Knight is an excellent game in every way, but it also hits just the right spot in terms of atmosphere. It's very dark and somber, but not scared of having some charming characters, some heartwarming moments and some laughs. I enjoyed every second of it and it's also a contender for the best game I played this year.
Alicemare
An RPG Maker horror game like Crooked Man or Ib. The player takes on the role of an orphan in an orphanage and travels through the other orphans' dreams. It was competent, with some decent atmosphere, story and puzzles, but I'd only recommend it to fans of the genre.
Human Resource Machine
A fun puzzle game from the mind behind World of Goo and Little Inferno. In this game, you use a basic programming language to direct a little character and use him to solve simple problems. I got stuck in the later stages, but I'm sure a good programmer could get through the whole thing easily. I think this game could be really useful as a teaching tool for kids, since the logic is pretty universally applicable.
SOMA
One of the games I played for Halloween. I actually wrote a whole article about SOMA, which you can check out here:
Oxenfree
One of the games I played for Halloween. Just like SOMA, I wrote an article about Oxenfree which you can check out here:
Orwell and Whispering Willows
I thought Orwell was great and Whispering Willows was alright. You can read my thoughts on them here:
Pinstripe
A game I played for Halloween, although it wasn't really that scary. I mostly enjoyed the game but felt it had a few minor gameplay problems. You can read my full thoughts here:
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
I enjoyed the Castlevania games on the NES and SNES, but forgot about the series when it moved over to Sony consoles and became more focused on exploring a huge interconnected environment. I finally rectified that this past October when I streamed the beloved little pile of secrets, and I had a blast all the way through. In terms of blind streams, this might be my favorite yet.
Deltarune
The mad genius known as Toby Fox finally gave us a glance at what he's been working on: An episodic follow-up to Undertale called Deltarune, which seems to be set in an alternate universe. With better visuals, (even) better music and a more involved combat system, it did not disappoint the towering standards Undertale set before it. If you want to read my own speculation about the game's story so far, you can click here to read the article I wrote right after playing it.
Ape Escape 2
The first PlayStation 2 game I streamed, and in my opinion, it was a success. I enjoyed it a lot more than the first game and thought it was pretty much a textbook sequel, improving on everything. Why'd they have to nerf the Sky Flyer, though?
Rayman Legends
For some reason, it took me several years to finally play the sequel to the acclaimed Rayman Origins. It's basically an improvement over its predecessor in every way (even including revamped versions of Rayman Origins stages), but I did feel the sense of progression was less strong since you start with the full moveset and never really learn anything new. The game instead derives its variation from the level design and single stage gimmicks. What I'm basically saying is: bring back the cute nymphs, Ubisoft.
VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action
A visual novel where you mix drinks and change lives. In VA-11 Hall-A, you play as a bartender called Jill in a dystopian future. People come to your bar to drink their drinks away, and it's up to you to serve them the drinks they want... or sometimes, the drinks they actually need. The overall narrative doesn't branch, but you can unlock several characters' unique endings by paying close attention to their needs instead of just serving the most obvious drink. I enjoyed it, especially the humor and music.
Whew, that was a lot more than I thought! It's been a really great year in terms of games, and I'm looking forward to all the games I'll be playing in 2019. This article probably missed a few games I played, as I'm only focusing on games I played on PC that I made screenshots of, but this was most of it.
Feel free to share the games you've played in 2018 in the comments. Thanks for being here and reading my articles!
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