GOTY 2015: Honorable Mentions

Welcome to another installment of Game of the Year 2015 content on KamiDaHobo.com! If you missed the previous article on Games That Didn't Make The Cut, feel free to hop over and give it a look. This time, we're looking at four honorable mentions. While the games that didn't make the cut were a bit disappointing, these are titles that are Game of the Year caliber, but were barely nudged out of making my official Top 10.

GOTY 2015: Honorable Mentions

There's only one reason that Xenoblade Chronicles X didn't make the Top 10 this year: I don't own a Wii U.

I'm confident enough in what Xenoblade Chronicles X showcases, and adored Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii (I think it's the best game for the system, alongside Super Mario Galaxy). I'm a massive fan of Final Fantasy XII, and Xenoblade seems to continue the tradition of party management, large areas of exploration, and very deliberate gameplay systems.

The size of the game world in Xenoblade Chronicles X is staggering, and really seems like a world ready for you to explore. The use of mechs to traverse the environment and showcase the game's scale is a great move, and really shows off the positives of the engine. 

"But Wes, you're giving a game an Honorable Mention, and you haven't played it? That's insanity!", I hear. Yes, yes, but call this "seasoned intuition". Everything I see, from the track record of the developers, to the previous installments in the series, to the overarching gameplay systems, lets me know that this was a game developed with my preferences in mind. Fetch quests don't scare me (hello, 800+ hours of WoW), party management is right up my alley (FFXII, Dragon Age: Origins, Xenoblade), and the occassional JRPG melodrama fits the bill nicely (Star Ocean, any current Final Fantasy).

I'll put it this way: If there's a single game that has sold me on the existence of the WiiU, it's Xenoblade Chronicles X.

There's a certain phenomenon in the gaming industry, and I'm curious as if it's prevalent in other industries as well: concept fatigue. Why was Uncharted 2 hailed as a classic, while Uncharted 3 was knocked as derivative? Halo 3 and ODST are fantastic, while Halo 4 misses the mark? Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 seems okay, but Call of Duty: Ghost is just a step too far? You could argue that the quality of the experience diminished between releases, but I think there's something else to it.

This phenomenon is abundant in the Assassin's Creed franchise. While releases were brought out every year, fans started getting "more of the same", and even if the same is good, it's not different enough to warrant another serving. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag got praised for shaking things up, and rightfully so: The open world gathering mentality started in Assassin's Creed 3 was finally put to good use, the naval combat was a breath of fresh air, and the setting was something we haven't seen before. Then, comes Assassin's Creed Unity, a by-the-books Assassin's Creed experience, and it gets lambasted for being a boring glitchy mess. So why is Assassin's Creed Syndicate on the list? This is the game that really embraces the Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood mentality: Tight mechanics, original world, likable characters, and a story that actually goes somewhere.

Victorian-era London is ripe for exploration, and feels like a perfect home for the series. The streets feel crowded, but not too-much so. The enemies are smart enough, but not so smart that your small hiccups in stalking and manipulating the world around you goes punished. The game gives you a bit of leeway on how you'll pursue your missions, and the controls work well enough that if you can imagine it, odds are good that you can execute it. 

While there are many videos of glitches, sound cutting out, and some overall messiness in the PC version, I've had a good time with it. I haven't personally come across any of the screen-tearing that others have noticed, and I'm actually invested in these characters. Sure, the 'history' part of this installment is a bit laughable, but I actually embrace the shenanigans and fictional embrace this game shows.

With the recent announcement that Assassin's Creed is becoming a 'once every other year' series, and the great foundation laid by Syndicate, the series may be on the up-and-up from here on out. Let's just hope that the dreaded concept fatigue doesn't ruin what could otherwise be a stellar thing.

Disgaea is a series I've always found near-and-dear to my heart. It's my favorite aspects of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre, with the sense of humor of a Saturday morning cartoon. The game wants you to break it, and end-game damage in the trillions is not out of the question. This series has always been a power-leveler's dream, and rewards you for manipulating the mechanics to be ever in your favor.

I'm happy to say, that Disgaea 5 is the best of the best in the series. While my favorite Disgaea will always be the original, Disgaea 5 is easily in the same league. If you go by mechanics, Disgaea 5 actually surpasses the original by leaps and bounds: Adding squads, proper 'revenge' mechanics, a meta Quest system (think of them as mini-achievements), and Skill Shops is just the tip of the iceberg. There's an MVP system which showcases the most valuable unit of each fight, rewarding them with rare rewards and XP multipliers. 

There's a certain addictive nature to strategy RPGs that are similar in nature to 4X strategy titles like Civilization. "Just one more fight" becomes the mantra, as there are so many gameplay systems working in tandem, you're bound to unlock or discover something new with every fight. 

A truly stellar installment in an already great series, Disgaea 5 should be just as much of a system seller as Bloodborne or Uncharted 4. Believe it.

My love of JRPGs goes way back, and an unsung hero in the genre for me has always been the Saga games. Saga Frontier 1 and 2 were open-ended JRPGs for the original Playstation, and they are very divisive in nature. The game doesn't hold your hand, and unless you do specific things in a specific order, progressing through the story can take weeks. I fall into the camp that the Saga games aren't very friendly if you just want a straightforward JRPG experience, but rather should be treated like an MMO: A place you go to visit every once in a while and enjoy your time finding out how things work.

Legend of Legacy has this mentality in spades: Not only is there no clear 'leveling up' mechanism (random abilities and levels will be granted whenever the game feels like giving them to you, for the most part), but the game rewards FULL discovery. You're granted maps of locations before you enter them, either from quest givers or the town shop, and it's your job to play cartographer. The more complete your map, the more complete your reward.

This game isn't Bravely Default, there's no clear-cut direction and guide you can follow to have the 'optimal' experience. While the graphics and presentation are very similar to Square's 3DS entry, the philosophies involved in playing the game couldn't be more different. Bravely Default rewards players going to see the next part of the narrative, while Legend of Legacy rewards you for building your own narrative. The island of Avalon is ripe for discovery, but it's up to you and your party on how you'll handle the dangers set out before you.

It's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's quite alright. However, that's precisely the reason it's on my list: Games like this aren't made anymore, with our reliance on reading GameFAQs guides for optimal routes, achievement hunting, and instant-gratification Twitch viewer-accessible experiences. This is the slowest of slow burns, and it's a game I truly love to play, because I always learn something new each time I boot it up.