My Favorite Games of 2019

I'm getting better at not buying more games than I can consume in a year, but I still play the occasional free-to-play indie title and wind up with a number of commercial games through promotional giveaways. The result is that I rarely play any game in its year of release unless it's a part of a favorite series, and even then, depending on how busy I am, a much anticipated game might get postponed.

These are the 12 games I liked enough to finish for the first time in 2019, in the order I played them. If the game is available on multiple platforms, the one I played on is listed first. My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).

Doki Doki Literature Club (Windows, Mac, Linux)

This is an excellent pay-what-you-want indie title that has been sitting in my backlog for a while. It was really popular in 2017, but never got close to the top of my list due to the fact I play a lot of visual novels and visually DDLC fell out of my usual genre preferences, even though I knew there was a twist. Despite its cheerful appearance, there's a not suitable for children or those easily disturbed warning for a reason (specifically those suffering from anxiety and depression). The less you know the better it's supposed to be, but if you want to be spoiled there's also my VN Talk write-up for the game.

Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (DS, remade as Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight on 3DS)

The Etrian Odyssey series is made for people have a fondness for old school dungeon mapping; the kind you do on paper. This is a game out of the unfinished backlog where I started it years ago and abandoned it. As dungeon crawlers go though, I like the EO series for providing us with lush, natural looking dungeons; non-traditional monsters; and an interesting variety of classes to build a party out of. EOII introduces an additional healing class which is nice, and expands a bit on the late game twist from the first EO, but otherwise doesn't have much in the way of twists itself. Overall I think I like the first game better, but the second isn't bad.

Code:Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ (PS Vita, PS4) *

This is the second fandisc in the Code:Realize otome series. Though it came out on Valentine's Day in the US, it's actually Christmas themed. Most of its content is alternate universe material based off of the Finis route in ~Future Blessings~ and will expect you to have played the previous games, but that said it's an excellent send-off to your favorite characters and well worth it if you enjoy the franchise. Those love interests who didn't already have weddings in their original timelines, finally have them here as bonus epilogues.

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince (PS4, Switch) *

Liar Princess plays like an indie puzzle platformer, though it comes from a more established Japanese publisher. A wolf accidentally blinds a prince who was trying to catch a glimpse of her while she was singing, and to make up for her mistake, the wolf gives up her voice to take on a human shape. She pretends to be a princess from a neighboring kingdom so she can guide the prince to a witch who can restore his sight, but along the way she has to take pains to hide who she truly is out of fear the prince would call her a monster. The story is very sweet and a little sad, and the art design is fantastic.

We Were Here (Windows, Mac, Linux)

A friend and I played this on a whim since it's a two player co-op puzzle-solving game along the lines of real world escape rooms, and it's free to play. Both players are separated and have to work together to solve clues that will enable them to be reunited. There are no jump scares, but the atmosphere is definitely on the side of creepy. It's possible to get game overs in a few places if you take too long, but the game has several checkpoints so you'll never be more than a quick puzzle away from where you failed. We Were Here took my friend and I about two and a half hours to get through and it was a fun way to spend an evening, especially if you like puzzles and escape rooms. You do need voice communication though, so if you're not playing in the same room you'll need a mic and the game comes with voice chat capabilities.

Divinity: Original Sin (PC, PS4, XB1)

I'd been hankering for a good party-based western RPG in the void of waiting for another Dragon Age, and though the worldbuilding took me a little time to get into, the game itself is pretty fun, though a bit merciless. It's turn-based, which is an oddity in this day and age. Each move takes a certain number of action points and each character gets a certain amount a round. Feels very table-top. The story is serviceable, but hampered by pacing issues. The dual protagonists are what the player makes of them, and I'd advise having some personality conflicts between them to bring out the more engaging banter. I played the Enhanced Edition which added additional quests and reworked some of the story (including the ending).

Persona 3 Portable (PSP, versions without female protagonist also on PS2)

Persona 3 Portable is the only version of Persona 3 to have a female protagonist option, and game is substantially different for it. All the Social Links have been redone, so even though the dungeon delving and overall plot is much the same as the original male playthrough, there's a lot of new secondary content and tons of VO has been rerecorded to change pronouns to match to the protagonist's gender on the female route. I can't imagine how much work that was, since English is so heavily pronoun dependant, but Atlus really went the extra mile, and I'm grateful. I actually had this game sitting partially completed for years, but just went back to it so I could finish before I played Persona Q2, which features the return of the female protagonist.

Bad Apple Wars (PS Vita)

If you like otome and have a Vita, this is a solid afterlife romance with no locked characters and is completely yandere free. (Which I consider a plus.) The art might not be as pretty as some, and there are a couple questions the game never answers, but I like the way it chooses to integrate romance-specific scenes into the common storyline so it feels natural rather than having the player bumble around trying to score points with a particular bachelor. In most cases, you have to work to get a bad ending. Showing up at all of a love interest's color coded scenes and not hurting him during late game Soul Touches is pretty much all you need to do to get the best endings, and the in-game flowchart makes it incredibly easy to revisit old scenes.

Final Fantasy XV (PS4, XB1, Windows) *

I went into this game with fairly low expectations, having bought it due to all the memes and a really good Christmas sale. Mark me surprised. This ended up being my second favorite Final Fantasy of the four I've played. It's not a perfect game, not by a long shot, but what it does well, it does really well, which is specifically the friendship between Noctis and his companions. The first half of the game is ridiculously open world just as the second is ridiculously linear, but oddly enough, the second half wouldn't work as well if all the free time in the first half didn't exist. It's a difficult issue to resolve from a gameplay standpoint, but I respect the gamble taken.

Death Road to Canada (Switch, PS4, XB1, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android)

This game boils down to being a more actiony, violent version of Oregon Trail. Instead of heading for Oregon, you and your buddy (or buddies since up to four people can play) are stuck in a zombie-filled America and you have to ration your supplies and scavenge for more as you head for the only safe country left; Canada. Like Oregon Trail, gameplay is a mix of random events, choices you have to make, and careful management of your resources. Something is going to go wrong along the way, and sometimes you'll die, but playthroughs are short enough that it's easy to just try again.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth (3DS)

This is one of those games that's not going to make sense to anyone unless they've played at the bare minimum Persona 5, but really, you'll get the most joy out of it if you've played Persona 3 and 4 as well. For people who've missed the female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable she's back and gets a ton of face time. It's a little bizarre thinking of a cast of 28 characters rolling through a dungeon all at the same time, but everyone gets to weigh in on everything even if they're not currently in the active party. It might not be realistic, but this game primarily exists as fanservice, so some break in reality is acceptable and even welcome.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (Windows, PS3, PS4, X360, XB1)

I'm not a diehard Holmes fan, but I do love myself a good detective game. Controls are a bit wonky for someone unused to FPS games, but the mystery-solving is good and I like that the game lets you make the jump from evidence to answers without necessarily confirming whether you are right. The possibility of getting it wrong and allowing the game to continue after you do, adds a little edge that other mystery games lack. It won't affect later cases, but it's nice not being forced to replay segments in the game until you follow the logic a developer had in mind. I would have liked this one more if two of the casess weren't hard to solve due to dubious logic or misleading dialogue from Holmes himself.