Games of the Year 2020 - 1st Runner Up

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Nick: Romance of the Three Kingdoms XV 

Over the last several years, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series has gotten away from its more turn-based roots and created a bit of a divide in their fanbase as a result. While I absolutely pine for more turn-based strategy gameplay as well, something about this latest release really clicked with me in a way that the last few did not. For being such a dense strategy game, it was surprisingly easy to pick up, even with the new changes in this release. I found myself restarting multiple times, convinced I could get it perfect the next time around. Of course, that never happens, and that’s the beauty of this series – but boy was it addictive. 

Pierre-Yves: Final Fantasy VII - Remake

I haven't "felt" anything like Final Fantasy VII's remake made me feel in a long time. It was simply brilliant. Having releases on our four day Easter weekend, while in lockdown, I loaded it up on the Friday and finished it by Monday a mere 36 some odd hours later. Now here's the thing with FFVII, it's not even one of my favorite Final Fantasies, it's not even in my top 5, BUT, the remake? it sure as hell has made it up and into that top 5 alongside FFIV, FFVI, Tactics and I'll figure out what actually got booted later. The scripting of the characters, the personality that Cloud finally has making him likable, and that they weren't afraid to start messing with the timeline to make something new while still keeping some familiarity. I've been trying to not go back and replay it again and again as the next time I do will be for a platinum run while on the harder difficulty.

Susan N: Tell Me Why

Dontnod has previously published a number of titles that I’ve enjoyed immensely and Tell Me Why is no different. It is my first runner up because I love the concept of having two siblings who live through a traumatic childhood that reunite years later. One sibling discovers that the other has transitioned. Not only are they dealing with physical and emotional adjustments, but they have to deal with their past in order to move forward. For me, I was drawn to this game because of the publisher, the concept, the characters, and the fact that GLAAD was directly involved in its accuracy.  Tell Me Why is a spectacular and visually stunning game that I absolutely adore. It is gut wrenching and I love it.  

Richard: CrossCode

I don't know how I missed CrossCode when it first came out. The characters are funny, gameplay is solid, and it feels like you're playing an MMO without those annoying other "real" people. If it weren't for the occasional crash or the fact that the plant biology section would freeze the game when looking at it (which I haven't checked to see if they fixed), it would definitely contend for first place.

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Games of the Year 2020 - Top Picks

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Nick: Final Fantasy VII – Remake 

There were a lot of really good remastered releases this year, but Final Fantasy VII was completely remade, and the results were amazing. Admittedly, I would loved to have gotten the full game all at once, and not just part one of three – but what we did get was a beautiful presentation, excellent storytelling and engaging combat that leaves me anxiously awaiting the next installment. The devs took a big chance changing up so much of the original game, but it paid off nicely 

Pierre-Yves: Persona 5 Royal

Picking ONE title over everything that we've either reviewed or played for our own enjoyment over the course of the year isn't easy. So it's with a lot of thought that I finally landed on Atlus' re-working of their already hit Persona 5 with the Royal treatment back in March. Having played most of Atlus' work over the years, and having fallen in love with the Persona series itself from Junpei's leveling up to Teddy's antics, Persona 5 Royal just hit all of the right notes from the social simulators to the various styles of dungeon crawling for that JRPG fix that had been a bit lacking in my life. With a brilliant story that never felt rushed, even near 100 hours later and trying to finish up those trophies I'm still loving this title as I try to both find that damned Reaper and not get one-shot...

Susan N: Spiritfarer

Of the games that I’ve played and reviewed this year, Spiritfarer is the clear winner for game of the year. It is an adventure game with some light platforming. On top of its pleasing graphic, the story of each characters end of days is beautifully depicted. There was more than one occasion where I teared over the passing of a character (particularly Alice and Atul.) Spiritfarer handles the topic of death respectfully and each character represents a family member or friend of the dev team, making the game an amazing tribute to those they love. Furthermore, Spiritfarer is a game that can be played by all ages. Finally, the game is respectful of all players who have different faiths. All in all, Spiritfarer is my favorite title of this year and it shouldn’t be missed. 

Richard: Death End re;Quest 2

When I was looking back at the titles I'd reviewed this year and saw Death End re;Quest 2, I thought "hey, I've only got 3 trophies left to platinum this, and 3 for the first title", so I went back to the first game to finish up the platinum trophies. Now, it had been a while since I played the first title, and good lord were the improvements they made to the battle system readily apparent in the second game. It almost physically hurt to go back to the clunky and oftentimes infuriating things in the first title that were improved so well in the 2nd. Compa certainly does take their gameplay improvements seriously.

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