In my experience, 2016 has been one of the strangest years in gaming. Every single game that I was anticipating this year either didn't meet my expectations or was delayed into 2017. While that would make me usually consider 2016 a failure in terms of games, there were a lot of games that weren't on my radar last year that astounded me. After 2016, I can't begin to predict what my Game of the Year will be in 2017, though I'm hoping it's Persona 5. These games, from RPGs to visual novels, are the best games that released last year.
10. Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright (3DS)
"NEVER FORGET THAT YOU CHOSE THIS PATH" -King Garon
How do you create a sequel to one of the best strategy games ever made? Before its release, Fates had a number of daunting tasks: surpass the quality of Fire Emblem: Awakening, justify being split into three separate games, and shake up the established Fire Emblem formula. Fire Emblem Fates certainly fulfilled the last point of changing the Fire Emblem formula with its biggest strength and its biggest weakness. In the sixth chapter, the plot branches into three separate games. Your avatar character, henceforth named Corrin, has to choose between the family that adopted and raised them in tyrannical country of Nohr, his birth family from the peaceful land of Hoshido, or to refuse both sides. Because of this choice, Fates branches into three different games and the three routes, called Birthright, Conquest, and Revelations. Since these games share only the opening six chapters, I decided to count them as different games.
Of the three routes, Birthright was the first I played because it was marketed as the most similar of the three to Fire Emblem: Awakening. Birthright is indeed similar to Awakening as its map objectives, campaign difficulty, and tone are all similar to that of Awakening. New gameplay tweaks, like an overhaul of the pair-up mechanic, stat changes from using weapons, and Dragon Veins that modify the environment help Birthright create an identity sufficiently different but reminiscent of Awakening. Players that joined the Fire Emblem series with Awakening won't have trouble adjusting to the numerous gameplay tweaks.
Unfortunately, Birthright fails part of what made Awakening special: writing. Where Awakening's story achieved the delicate balance of grand and personal, familiar yet unpredictable, Birthright's story is often slow, unsurprising, and lacks a sympathetic protagonist. The support conversations, one of Awakening's highlights, feel dull and repetitious in Birthright and the second act of Birthright's is paced incredibly slow with little else happening but foreshadowing. Thankfully, the last act does provide some welcome tension between Corrin and his Nohrian siblings.
Birthright did greatly improve Fire Emblem Awakening's gameplay with a number of great tweaks, additions, and a general flare in its presentation. While the writing holds back Birthright from being truly great, the core gameplay is a wonderful evolution of the Fire Emblem gameplay that has enthralled me for years.
9. Final Fantasy XV (PS4)
"Well, what can I say? You guys... are the best." -Noctis
After finishing Final Fantasy XV, I didn't quite know what I had just finished. It's been over a month since Final Fantasy XV's credits rolled and Noctis's journey ended and I still don't quite know what I think of Final Fantassy XV. Final Fantasy XV's character drama, fast-paced gameplay, and respect for the history of Final Fantasy make it one of the best games of 2016. Conversely, the numerous problems with the combat system, mounds of untapped potential, and its game breaking glitches make it one of the worst games of 2016. Through highs and lows, Final Fantasy XV is certainly one of the most memorable games of 2016.
Final Fantasy XV's simple premise of Prince Noctis and his three best friends embarking on a road trip to Noctis's wedding creates a wonderful backdrop for the real attraction of the game: the interaction between the brothers in arms. The relationship between Noctis, Prompto, Gladio, and Ignis leads to some of the best moments of the year, even if the story those moments are buried in can be muddled and confusing. Story aside, the gameplay is some of the most stylish to come out of Final Fantasy in a long time. At any moment in combat, you can teleport to an enemy with a Warp strike that deals tremendous amounts of damage and creates the potential to stagger the enemy and create combos. Unfortunately, that style covers a lack of depth present in the combat in other JRPGs and ARPGs. Combat is often a blurry experience that feels enjoyable until your companion's AI don't understand the danger they're rushing into and get themselves killed. Even summoning, a Final Fantasy staple, can be confusing to use with the unclear prerequisites for each summon. Even the interesting magic system has its problems as your magic spells don't have friendly fire disabled leading to a plethora of moments where you shock, burn, and freeze your party while attempting to battle normal enemies.
Despite all of those problems, Final Fantasy XV is one of the most strangely compelling games that released in 2016. For every single flaw I see in the game, for every portion of the game that could have used more development time, this feeling that this game is something special won't go away. It's hard to describe why I enjoyed Final Fantasy XV
8. Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (3DS)
"Objection!" -Apollo Justice
In 2015 I played the entire Ace Attorney series. The series' amazing plot twists, fantastic music, and hilarious dialogue made Ace Attorney into one of, if not my favorite, gaming series. Less than a month after I finished Dual Destinies, the sixth installment in the Ace Attorney series was announced and my excitement was through the roof. Dual Destinies was a return to the high points of the first game and I knew that Ace Attorney's future was bright.
As visual novels, the content Ace Attorney games is mostly reading but gameplay is split into two segments: investigation sequences and trial sequences. During the investigation sequences, you'll be trying to unearth as many clues as possible to defend your client in the court sequences where your team of lawyers tries to exonerate their client from increasingly intimidating circumstances. Spirit of Justice introduces a new aspect to trials called Divination Seances. This ritual allows the court to view the last moments of the victim's life. While initially an interesting concept, the application often results in frustration instead of mystery. There were multiple times where I highlighted a discrepancy between the Seance and the testimony given only for the game to reject my logic. In fact, there were multiple moments outside of the Seances where the game's logic seemed to break from the progression of the case.
Gameplay mechanics aside, Ace Attorney games are only as strong as the selection of cases and unfortunately, Spirit of Justice has the lowest quality of cases since the second (and worst) entry in the series. The cases either last too long, don't last long enough, or just don't feature an interesting cast of characters. Akin to Justice for All, Spirit of Justice is saved a superb final case. The final case of Justice for All tested whether Phoenix had a bigger commitment to the law or his friends to great effect. Spirit of Justice's final case excels because of the amount of character development that Apollo Justice undergoes. The last case's quality is also assisted by having twists that actually surprised me, especially the final act.
While Spirit of Justice suffers from predictable cases and frustrating mechanics, the final case almost makes up for the flaws present in the earlier cases in the game. Certainly a far cry from the quality of Dual Destinies or the original Ace Attorney, Spirit of Justice offers an acceptable conclusion to Apollo Justice's character arc and one of the best final cases in Ace Attorney.
7. Steins;gate 0 (PS4)
"I just wanted to disappear." -Rintaro Okabe
I played the original Steins;gate this year and I loved the mature take on time travel, referential humor, and fantastic characters. I got Steins;gate 0 as a Christmas gift from my brother and I consumed the entire visual novel in less than four days. While Steins;gate 0 doesn't reach the lofty heights of the original work, it's still an enjoyable addition to the wonderful world of Steins;gate.
Steins;gate 0 isn't a prequel or a sequel, but rather a midquel of the original game. Due to how spoiler sensitive Steins;gate 0's plot setup is, I can't give a plot description, but know that it is supplemental material to the original game. While not technically necessary, it does detail how certain events in the true ending of Steins;gate come to pass.
Steins;gate 0 lacks some of the clever writing and emotional impact that the original had. While there are a plethora of emotional and shocking scenes, they don't have the personal magnitude that the original mastered. That's not to say that Steins;gate 0's story is unenjoyable, in fact, it's quite the opposite. Steins;gate 0 tries to accomplish something different from the original visual novel and due to that shift in focus, story just doesn't have as much emotional potential.
While there is a lack of emotional impact compared to Steins;gate, Steins;gate 0 does significantly reduce the complexion of unlocking the endings. Steins;gate's true ending was unlocked by an incredibly confusing chain of events involving sending specific texts to characters that's near impossible to do without the assistance of a guide. The branching points within Steins;gate 0 are much more obvious than the original game and each ending within Steins;gate 0 contains information critical to understanding the entire plot. This does lead to some confusion as to what events take place on what routes, but if you follow the recommended order of endings, it's much easier to understand each ending.
It's impossible to talk about Steins;gate 0 without comparing it to the original Steins;gate, and in that comparison, Steins;gate 0 falls short. Even though it doesn't meet those expectations, Steins;gate 0 is a fascinating science fiction visual novel that adds another layer to the wonderful Steins;gate universe.
6. Hyper Light Drifter (PS4)
"It's like 2D Zelda, but with dashing" were the only words I needed to be sold on Hyper Light Drifter. Zelda clones seem to be fairly common in the indie scene. However, because of its immensely positive critical reception, Hyper Light Drifter seemed to be one of those many indie games worth of the Zelda comparison.
Similar to the olden days of Zelda, Hyper Light Drifter's focuses combat and exploration over story and it shows. The sword in Hyper Light Drifter is the most satisfying weapon I've wielded in a long time due to the combination of speed and weight behind each attack. Combat is satisfying not just because of the swordplay but because of the excellent dashing. Because of how necessary dashing is in exploring the environment, it naturally integrates into use in combat to great effect. With how often its used and how necessary it is to survival, dashing makes the combat in Hyper Light Drifter fluid and fast-paced.
The guns in Hyper Light Drifter are just below slashing and dashing in terms of the most interesting and necessary parts of combat. Instead of finding ammo in the environment, your guns are recharged by attacking enemies. This necessitates close quarters combat, no matter how aggressive your opponent is. The dashing, slashing, and gunplay in Hyper Light Drifter culminate in the fantastic boss fights. With the exception of Dark Souls III, Hyper Light Drifter has the most tense boss fights of the year with the aggressive bosses forcing adaptation and use of all of your weapons for a hope of survival.
Hyper Light Drifter's gameplay is exceptional but the game occasionally suffers from a few communication issues. The story requires a lot of analysis and educated guesses to make sense of but that rarely impedes upon the enjoyment of the gameplay. What did occasionally impede my enjoyment of the game was how vague Hyper Light Drifter was about its economy and collectables, but that issue is quickly solved after a small amount of experimentation.
I occasionally wondered about what was happening in Hyper Light Drifter's world, but once I started playing and understanding its combat, I didn't care about the story. The satisfying and aggressive gameplay, fantastic boss encounters, and well designed movement were what made Hyper Light Drifter quickly exceed the description of "2D Zelda, but with dashing" to become one of the my favorite games of 2016.
Read the next page for my five favorite games of 2016.