For the final major “of the Year” for 2012, I would like to announce my Game of the Year! While I cannot say much on the first half, given I was out of sync with gaming given my hectic University work schedule… the latter half at the very least has offered quite a number of interesting titles for all forms of fans – from the action fan to the JRPG fan. This year has seen two new consoles launched, average at best games receiving new much improved sequels and many of the more original and creative games not receiving physical launches but being launched on digital release platforms whether through Steam or through the PSN/XBLA / Nintendo e-shop services.
But despite all that…. I found my job harder to pick out my three top games of the year. There were many worthy candidates for the title of “Game of the Year”, but while many games were consistently good there were not as many games that clearly stood out of the pack and went above and beyond all their competitors like I feel last years three winners did (Disgaea 4 – Incorporation of new online features into the tactical RPG format | Rayman Origins – A very creative spin on the side-scrolling platformer | Catherine – One of the more intense and creative puzzle games I have played in recent years).
However, as always there were many worthy candidates…. and these three I feel offered the most experience-wise:
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
ATLUS USA
In a Japan torn by destruction and invasion, the battle begins for 13 demon tamers who have formed contracts with demons to gain the power to fight back against a group of mysterious invaders. Only seven days remain until the end of the world. Only you can make the hard decisions that are necessary if you hope to survive.
Sequel to the 2009 DS release of Devil Survivor and now on the receiving end of an anime adaptation, ATLUS USA’s February release of Devil Survivor 2 easily takes the cake as my favorite Nintendo DS/3DS game of the year. After a number of “Megami Tensei” releases based around the Persona series, it was a welcome change to return to a different style of plot utilizing the same complex battle system of the original.
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Assassin’s Creed III
Ubisoft
The American Colonies, 1775. It’s a time of civil unrest and political upheaval in the Americas. As a Native American assassin fights to protect his land and his people, he will ignite the flames of a young nation’s revolution. Assassin’s Creed III takes you back to the American Revolutionary War, but not the one you’ve read about in history books.
As the fifth major installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Ubisoft have just about mastered the Stealth Action Adventure genre and provided us with a new main character, a whole new setting / associated story and for the first time ever you actually get to do something half-decent with Desmond, the modern-day ancestor of the games main characters who relives their lives admist a new war between the Assassin’s and the Templars and a looming threat.
While by the end of the Assassin’s Creed II trilogy we had been given all the tricks of the trade to use as an Assassin, set with a new character and new setting you start from scratch – for which they focus much more upon actual combat and throwing a few new twists and turns to go with the time period. In the end the storyline and gameplay was good and the experience was even better.
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The question is…. what game out of all of those that have been released this year will join Alan Wake and Disgaea 4 in holding the title of “Game of the Year”?
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Persona 4 Golden
ATLUS USA
In the small town of Inaba, a high school student has been sent to live with his uncle when his parents go away on extended business. Soon after arriving, people begin to turn up dead under mysterious circumstances, and at the center of it all is a strange fog and the bizarre “Midnight Channel” that appears on blank TVs on rainy nights. The kids in town soon discover that they have the ability to enter a dark, twisted world inside the TV, and they may be the small town’s only hope of solving the mystery.
We are in a gaming market that while demanding new and innovative games also seems to want to go back to the past and replay the games of yesteryear. Especially in the last year, developers and publishers have complied by releasing HD Collections for many titles from ICO and Shadow of the Colossus to Metal Gear Solid. While I hope we still see these collections being released in the new year (*Psst* Sega…. Yakuza 1 & 2 would be nice), I also appreciate when they take the original greats and make them even better. Persona 4 Golden is an example of where ATLUS took one of the RPG greats on the Playstation 2 and made it even better.
Unlike Persona 3 Portable where all the content resulted in everything outside of the dungeon-crawling aspect being dulled down, the Playstation Vita platform allowed the developers the freedom to not only keep everything in tact but build upon it, from new cutscenes, new dungeons, new characters / social links and of course…. better visuals to name a few. While you can comfortably play through the game and ignore most of the new content…. having new options helped with the replay value and provided more than enough things to do in more than one sitting.
I would say it is the Year of Persona…. but Persona 4 the Animation isn’t out until January over here and Persona 4 Arena is region locked and not out in PAL regions *Pout*. Anyway, it is a more than deserving winner of my Game of the Year 2012.
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Game of the Year per Platform
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Playstation 3: Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland
Playstation Vita: Persona 4 Golden
XBOX360: Dance Central 3
Wii/Wii U: ZombiU
Nintendo DS / 3DS: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
PC: Eryi’s Action
Visual Novel: School Days
Multiplatform: Assassin’s Creed III
iOS: The World Ends with You: Solo Remix
DL Game: Legasista
Japanese Video Game Release: Tales of Xillia 2
