Top 5 Games of 2014

With all the games that came out last year, it shouldn’t have been easy to pick the top five games of the year. Instead it was effortless. With no further ado, let’s get down to it (especially since I’m half a month late)!

Persona Q: Quality Fan Service

There is no doubt in my mind that Persona Q was made by Atlus Games as pure fan service. The jokes aren’t too well thought out, but the main story is creative and detailed, adding a new layer to the ongoing Shin Megami Tensei world.

Fans of Persona 3 and Persona 4 start off their journey with Persona Q with a tough choice, which main character they will take control of. Both Minato Arisato (P3) and Yu Narukami (P4) are available along with the entire cast of both games since Persona Q takes place in the middle of story of both Persona 3 and Persona 4. No one is dead yet and neither team has conquered their enemies.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! some of you are saying. How can both casts be fighting Shadows at the same time? The story lines take place a year apart!

In Before it’s Out: Persona Q

The next installation in the Persona series by Atlas will be Persona Q: Shadow of the Labryinth, an RPG that mixes the cast of Persona 3 and Persona 4. Made for the 3DS and 2DS, the gameplay will be similar to Etrian Odessy, including chibi character versions of the casts.

Being a huge Atlas fan (and a bigger one of the Persona series) I was super excited to find out that Persona Q will be brought to the U.S.

Ignorance is NOT Bliss

Let’s get this out in the open: I am a big fan of Nintendo. Sales are down and the Wii U is not performing as hoped. I blame this on their game line up, which looks great – when the games eventually come out. Most people disagree, claiming that Nintendo hasn’t had a good line up of video games since the GameCube. While I can’t speak about that system – I played it, but didn’t really care too much since it was high school and there was a thing called boys – I can talk about the Wii.

The first system I every bought the month of launch, I’ve been a fan of this system since the beginning. Zelda was coming out, Paper Mario, but I didn’t get a Nintendo game as my first Wii purchase. I bought Trauma Center: Second Opinion. Why? I honestly have no idea. I seemed like a good idea at the time. I loved this game.

First Impressions: Game of Thrones RPG

Game of Thrones is an action RPG for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 published by Atlus and co-written by George R.R. Martin, the brains behind the books that have spawned all this craziness. My first criticism of this game is: Not as many boobs as advertised. Moving on from my tits fetish (Don’t judge me, you have one too), this game is phenomenal story wise, okay game play wise, but crashes and burns with animation.

See this?

Apparently people hate staring at that guy. The biggest criticism of this game is the animations during the multitude of cut scenes. This head (and the others belonging to people you talk to) doesn’t move much, has one expression (or has an intense expression that doesn’t match the dialogue), and his lips don’t match his words. In other words, it’s Elder Scrolls: Oblivion all over again. But people loved that game! So why do they hate this game?

My opinion is the criticism from this game come from people expecting more action from their action RPG. I can’t blame them for that, nor can I say that the animation isn’t shitty, because the animation is shitty. What I can do is call them immensely silly for expecting anything that has even the loosest ties to the Game of Thrones franchise to not have expansive dialogue, story, and cut scenes. Atlus would have been better off comparing this game to L.A. Noire or Heavy Rain as it’s closer to that style of game play than the Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age.

So far, this game is mostly what I expected: lots of people talking, less so me killing things. I actually cleaned my living room, set up my file cabinet and organized my files all while listening to the fully voice acted dialogue during cut scenes for the first three chapters. All this chatter is broken up by your own conversation selections and combat, but there’s still so much that it’s like listening to T.V. (I don’t watch T.V., I listen to it – stop judging me).

First Impressions – Devil Survivor Overclock

Shin Megami Tensi: Devil Survivor Overclock is a tactical RPG for the Nintendo 3DS. Published by Atlus, it is an enhanced port of the DS game, Shin Megami Tensi: Devil Survivor. For those who aren’t familiar with Atlus, the company commonly re-release their games, but always gives players who enjoyed the original content a reason to spend their money again. To do this, they enhance the original game with slightly improved graphics,  new story lines, and new music. New features for Overclock are: an added 8th day, as opposed to 7 in the original release; improved, higher-resolution visuals; full voice acting; the ability to choose different difficulty settings; and an increased 20 demons to fight with.

Set in Tokyo, players take control of the Hero (left) as he meets his friends Yuzu and Atsuro. You’re supposed to meet up with your cousin Naoya, but he never shows. Instead, he’s given Yuzu “COMPs” (which look exactly like your DS system) for the three of you to have. Atsuro (being the lovable, too-smart for his own good sidekick) decides to hack the devices which triggers an email telling the future being sent to the three of you.

Yes, email that predicts the future. This is an Atlus game and it is set in the Shin Megami Tensi universe, so immerse yourself and don’t ask too many question or your head will explode.

In Before It’s Out: Game of Thrones (RPG)

Anyone who knows me, knows I’m an Atlus fan girl. I have loved everything of theirs that I’ve ever gotten my hands on for its rich stories and realistic characters – even the ones who never speak. Yet, when it comes to the Game of Thrones phenomenon, I’ve been disinterested – after reading the first two books, the third stalled out and I never finished it, so the T.V. show never seemed like something I would enjoy.

Then I heard there was going to be a Game of Thrones RPG for the Xbox and the PS3. My first thought was someone was trying to cash in on the name for the sake of making some money. And then I heard that someone is Atlus. This caught my attention with an immediate reaction of, “Oh God, I have to have it!” I settled down after a few days and decided to do some research into just what I was going to be paying for; I was not impressed. The videos showed half-assed graphics and declared one of those “Play as four different characters” games which always suggests to me that they couldn’t come up with a good enough story to run with only one set of characters. At the time, they had only released two of the story zones and I was sorely disappointed.

Today, Atlus sent me an email telling me to take a first look at the combat for their Game of Thrones RPG. What the hell, I thought and pulled up the video. As the video wound down I was both surprised this was the same game and again excited to get my hands on it.