The best games I played in 2019

Hey hey folks, Dave here. I hope you all had a great 2019. It was a rough year, but when it came to the video games themselves (and not the industry), I have few complaints. I set out to have a new impressions video every Friday on the channel in 2019 and I succeded. I got to play a lot of great games. I began a series going through the Elder Scrolls saga, and a friend loaned me an Xbox One. This allows me to not only play Xbox exclusives, but a lot of games I've always wanted to try are on Game Pass. I don't have to worry about my laptop not being able to handle such titles.

For new viewers, allow me to explain how the list will work. This is not a list of the best games of 2019. No, this is a list of the best games I have played in 2019. Due to my funds and an ever growing backlog, I find myself playing more games from years past. In a shocking twist, everything on this list is no more than a couple years old. The oldest game is from 2016. There's a couple from 2017, a couple from 2018, and a couple from this year.

What I ended up doing was choosing from the 15 games I want to play more of after making impressions videos of them. To make hard choices, I cut the fifteen in half and rounded down to 7. Seven is a lucky number. These are the 7 games I want to play more of in 2020 or the years beyond. Whenever I can get around to it. These 7 games will be in alphabetical order, and then following this list will be my favourite game of the year. The game of the year is one I’ve played through in its entirety and then made a critique video about. It should be easy to guess which game it is for those who've been watching my channel in 2019, but regardless, let’s start the list with...

Control

Control is the most fun I had playing a game this year. The reason is Control ticks off a lot of my boxes when it comes to science fiction. Secret government agencies, alien technology, and a reminder our understanding of spacetime and quantum mechanics is woeful and rudimentary. These ideas are packaged up in a third person shooter with superpowers. Control feels good to [ahem] control on top of gorgeous lighting and use of space, cementing this as a game I cannot wait to return to.

Dead Cells

In my impressions video I said Dead Cells was the smoothest Roguelike I've ever played. How I didn't feel my time was being wasted by not making progress because cells can be donated towards game upgrades, and plus the gameplay is reward enough. As exciting as I found rolling around and bonking foes with my frying pan, trying out the shield and engaging with the blocking, stun, and parry mechanics added a whole new layer to my excitement. A further appreciation. I look forward to spending more time with this game and uncovering its secrets.

Forza Horizon 4

I don't play a lot of racing games, and when I do I prefer to hold down the accelerator and zoom around rather than learning how to navigate a vehicle through a fine tuned racing simulation. Forza Horizon 4 is a nice marriage of these two styles of play. I was able to just choose a car and drive, the guide arrows suggesting the best time to brake and turn, but for those who want to delve deeper, the options are there. What kept me playing was the magic moments kept occurring. The right car, the right lighting, the right song on the radio, the right landscape; I was gawking at situations I found myself racing in, and I want to return to experience more of these moments.

GRIS

GRIS is an audio/visual extravaganza. I liken it to playing through an art installation. It's light on gameplay because of what it's trying to accomplish, but I am interested in what new sights and sounds lie around the next corner, and what kind of emotional reactions the game will end up eliciting from me.

Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is special. It's special because of how alien it is. The solar system the player finds themselves in exhibits different behaviour than what we're used to. Much of the thrill of discovery is in figuring out how this universe works. What quirks inhabit each planet, and how to best use the alien technology available. I want to see if Outer Wilds can maintain its sense of mystery and discovery up until its conclusion, and I wonder just how strange this solar system ends up being.

Persona 5

It was during a PSN sale when I discovered Persona 5 was not a PS4 exclusive like I had thought it was. It was also available on the PS3, and during this sale, it was dirt cheap. What was I waiting for? Having loved Persona 4, I wanted to try this new entry in the series, whose sleek, and vibrant presentation had been talked about ever since its release. It's a joy to play. Perhaps a little drawn out, but the game makes allowances to give the player a stress free time, while keeping the core of what made the previous 2 entries beloved. I love the concept of the main characters travelling into people's hearts to cure them of their twisted desires, and look forward to continuing this tale. I am worried about the time commitment, but that’s a bridge I’ll cross when I come to it.

Unavowed

I'm a fan of the work of Wadjet Eye Games, the Blackwell series most of all. Unavowed takes place in the same world as those games, and is about a group of paranormal investigators / police. I love the attention to detail in the backgrounds, I love how hotspots have descriptions on them when moused over, and I dig the whole vibe of the game, becoming enamored with the characters. I look forward to getting to know the current cast even better, and meeting all the new members of the team.

Now we come to the best game I played this year. I created 5 critique videos in 2019, and all are eligible, as I played each title start to finish. The contenders are Killer7, Sleeping Dogs, Hollow Knight, Bioshock, and Yakuza 0. The winner? Drumroll please…

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is a rarity because when I finished the game, I didn't even start writing my critique before I began a second playthrough. I wanted to experience all the unexplored aspects left on my first time through, and it made me love the game even more. A lot has been said on Hollow Knight's value for money. How for only $15 US you get a platformer which keeps revealing itself to the player hour after hour (not even including the free downloadable content which extends the game even further). Affordable pricing aside, it's the level of love put into the art, the design, and creating a world crying out for exploration which had me returning to the game night after night, despite my frustrations with the movement and combat mechanics. A lot of games succeed by having their strengths outshine their weaknesses. Hollow Knight succeeds despite its weaknesses. My frustrations may have pulled me down in the moment, but I kept thinking about the game when I was away from it, and even though it's now been over 6 months since my second playthrough, I've thought about a third. More than any game, Hollow Knight captured my imagination and rewarded my perseverance. This is why it is the best game I played in 2019.

Now it's your turn. What are the best games you played in 2019? They don't have to be from this year, I'd just like to know the games you had the most fun playing. Please tell me in the comments. I hope you're all looking forward to 2020 as much as I am. It's not just a new year, but a new decade. The possibilities are endless. Let's all be the best we can be. I look forward to making and sharing new videos with you this year, and I hope you enjoy watching them. Happy new year everybody, and I hope you all have a wonderful 2020.

Why side stories are the heart of Yakuza 0

The sidestories of Yakuza 0 are the heart of the game. Yes the main plot is one of intrigue. It's a well told crime narrative with twists and turns, keeping players on the edge of their seat, but the sidestories, when Kiryu and Majima take time away from the immediacy of the crime drama, that's where the game truly shines. I think It's what endears players to this series and keeps them returning. Heck during the finale, I took a good 10-15 hour break from wrapping the game up to take over more areas in Real Estate Royale, and to finish up all the remaining sidestories I had an interest in. 10 - 15 hours. That's the length of a whole nother game. Eventually I became fed up with waiting around for the real estate money to come in and I wrapped things up, but even afterwards I thought about going back and completing Real Estate Royale and the Hostess Club. The only reason I didn't is the psychological effect of having the credits roll signaling that it’s time to move on. There are so many other games to play!

What makes the sidestories so important? Well Kiryu and Majima have a magnetic charisma of course (the way they wholeheartedly throw themselves into even the smallest of tasks) but I don't think that's why we like them as characters. They're good at fighting. Kiryu tends to think that’s all he’s good for, but it’s “why” Kiryu and Majima are fighting that lies at the heart of it. They’re protecting the weak while trying to get to the bottom of this whirlwind they've found themselves caught up in. The player is caught up in the same whirlwind. Wandering the streets of Kamurocho and Sotenbori is a moment of reprieve from the intensity of Yakuza 0’s tale. It's these inbetween moments when we're walking a character through a world, that's the time when Kiryu and Majima can be what we want them to be. It’s the time we have the most control over their direction. It’s the closest the player comes to having a sense of agency.

We tend to think of agency as an important factor in videogames. The core of the medium is its interactivity after all, and if a player is going to spend hours of their lives controlling a character in a virtual world, they want some input into how things are going to play out. They want a sense of ownership over the characters they are controlling. This is often why when games are talked about as being “linear” it is usually in negative terms. The term suggests that the agency of the player is being infringed upon. I don’t see this as a negative, but I think it comes down to the experience the game is promising. In the impressions video I made on Yakuza 0, I talked about how I thought Kiryu was going to have to make a quote "video game choice", a decision that affects the narrative. One way games give the player agency. so they can feel in control about how the story plays out. The reason this made me groan was up to that point the narrative was so well delivered that I didn't want to mess up the story the game had to tell me, by making my own decisions. That's why I was so relieved when Kiryu played out the scene according to his own whims. The only agency I have over Kiryu and Majima is wandering the streets. I mean I could let them get beat up during the main game's fights, but then the game would be over. Choosing what side activities to participate in, and which random strangers to help is the main form of agency in Yakuza 0. It not only helps endear us to Kiryu and Majima as characters, but to Kamurocho and Sotenbori as places.

What initially creates a desire for the player to help all these random passers-by is how off-kilter the stories are. From helping shut down a burasura ring, to training a dominatrix, to getting to use a mobile telephone! Hey the game is set in 1988. Such cutting edge technology is a big deal! Some of the stories are helping local businesses, or partipating in a side-activity. A few are linked to the giant Real Estate and Hostess Club projects that sucked up so much of my time. For instance I never especially liked the arcade racer Outrun. Spending so much time trying to get high scores to fill the friendship meter of the girl who works at the arcade so I could buy the place didn't improve my thoughts on the game. I still did it though, and took over that whole area. Now why did I put in all that time? Because no matter how out there or tedious the sidestories are, they all share one thing in common, Kiryu and Majima using the strength they possess to help others. These Yakuza showing empathy for the troubles of everyday citizens.

This makes the game a positive power fantasy. I think we like the idea of characters from the underbelly of our world being noble, living by their own sets of values. It gives us hope that the worst among us are still redeemable and not everybody who does wrong is a bad person. That we all have the power to help others and change for the better. Like most things in life, it's usually not as simple as that, but such stories let us enjoy characters like Kiryu and Majima restoring a sense of justice to the world they live in. This is reflected in Real Estate Royale and the Hostess Club as Kiryu and Majima are freeing Kamurocho and Sotenbori from the ownership and influence of unsavory and unscrupulous characters. We as the player are using the strength of these protagonists to create a stronger sense of community by helping people. Everyone can use their strengths for the betterment of the community, and in this case, the strength of Kiryu and Majima is literal, their ability to fight with wild abandon, and win.

Walking around the streets, I was often overcome with despair at just how many groups of malcontents were picking on innocent people. At times it made me question, if so many are like this, why is the world worth saving? Even Kiryu seems to think he's only good at hitting people, but now thinking about the side stories and all the people he's helped, I know that's not true. His compassion, empathy, and sense of justice are his strengths. His power, and ability to exercise that power is what allows him to succeed in pursuit of these ideals. It’s the sidestories and the strength of Kiryu and Majima creating this togetherness that showed me that most people are doing the best they can. Some of the worst folk can come around to helping others. They might just need to get some sense smacked into them first.

Thanks for watching. Returning to the conversation on player agency, I think we sometimes forget how fulfilling narrative agency can be. I’ve already mentioned how the sidestories further endear us to Kiryu and Majima but that empathy and conviction is also present in the main story. I enjoy controlling Kiryu because I like him as a character and I want to see the decisions he makes next. Yes, I have little agency over his decision making process (which is why the side content is so compelling), but I still am controlling him, and there is a fulfillment is helping characters reach their goal.

But what do you think? Was there enough player agency in Yakuza 0 to satisfy you? Was it because of the main plot, or the sidestories? How much of the side content did you complete before you said “enough is enough?” Let me know in the comments. If you enjoyed this video, why not buy me a coffee? There’s a link in the description. If you’d like to help me out in other ways, please give the video a like, share it on your favourite social media sites, or subscribe if you haven’t already. Until next time, I hope you’re all having a wonderful day.