Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
This year has been my year for getting into Danganronpa. The series has easily became one of my favorite video game series of all time after playing the 1st and 2nd game at the beginning of 2015, and adding Danganronpa Another Episode with it makes me love the series even more.
Gameplay-wise this one doesn’t really do you any favors. It is functional and actually polished, but overall it’s just not that fun to play a 3rd person shooter in this universe. Though that may be a negative in a sense, story-wise Another Episode is deeply interesting to go through. In the other games it was all about isolation but with this game you’ll constantly run into people gauging their feeling of the current status and the reactions of having children being murderous innocents. Also seeing how this game fits in between Danganronpa ½ and seeing the possibilities the upcoming 3rd game will have is super exciting to see develop. We all need more Monokuma in our lives.
~~~~Nabeshin
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Maybe Metal Gear Solid V is actually a broken video game. Not because it doesn’t work, but because it’s just not fair how good this game is. It’s definitely an odd sensation applying that idea to a Metal Gear Solid game, a series not really known for its gameplay, save for how weird it is. I mean, Peace Walker and MGS4 really were the best playing experiences in the franchise, and now we have V, which just blows them out of the water.
Few games in existance, open world or otherwise, have this much attention to detail, this much emergent gameplay, this many options, and this level of ingenuity. You’d be hard pressed to have less fun with this game that an absolutely blast, just with the tools of developing your base, capturing your soldiers, and modifying your loadout. Whether you’re guns blazing, artillery strikin’ or just perfect stealth, you can just do it. That would be all well in good if it wasn’t also shown through a polished, solid frame rate and an open world that doesn’t actually understand the word “jank”. MGSV goes beyond the pale, in the right direction.
As a Metal Gear game, it can be disappointing, but as a video game, it’s simultaneous breath taking on a mechanical level and a breath of fresh air, especially for the genre. I love and adore this game, and you should probably play it.
~~~~Alex
Persona 4 Dancing All Night
So much fun. I just love playing this rhythm game so much. Am I good at it? Sorta. Have I played the story of it? Nope. Is it just watching highschoolers dance and nothing else? Oh yeah and it’s great at it. Persona 4 Golden music is one of my most video game soundtracks of all time and just jamming to songs like “Time To Make History”, “Pursue My True Self”, and “Break Out…” to name a few is an absolute blast.
I do have to mention that as a rhythm game itself that it’s the most hardest/easiest one I’ve ever played. The screen is almost too distracting watching someone like Kanji bust-a-groove but at the same time the scoring is extremely forgiving at times to the point where you’re not really knowing where you’re making mistakes to improve on. Overall this complete nonscene of game is one of my favorites this year. You can’t get much better of a fanservice Persona game when you can have Nanako dancing to the Junes theme song.
~~~~Nabeshin
Super Mario Maker
Here’s the description: It’s a Mario game where you can create or play community made levels of from Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. You can be hugely creative making well designed traditional level. or horribly cruel making the almost impossible to beat levels. You’re able to make nearly anything imagineable with the tools they provide from the Mario universe and if that’s not your bag, feel free to play endless amounts of levels the community created.
My response: You had me at, “you can play Super Mario World.”
~~~~Nabeshin
Destiny: The Taken King
I never thought I’d like Destiny. I wrote it off, and thought maybe, in the distant future, Destiny could be a weird thought experiment that I’d indulge in. I tried it back in May, and was immediately reminded at just how well this game shoots. It shoots real good. Like, heads explode in a way that is just immensely satisfying. But here I am, diving in completely upon the release of the Taken King.
Hearing that this includes all of the content of the original Destiny, as well as what I was told was a massive amount of content that was added in The Taken King, maybe even more than the original game, I felt okay buying in this for $60. I never spent money on the original, so really this was the best deal I could have asked for. Diving into Taken King, you really can tell the difference. There was just a clear absence of feedback in the original Destiny; you’d just talk into a void and Ghost would probably just make a flatly-delivered joke that amuses no one. Now, in the Nolan North era, we have witty lines, character, cinematic displays, and also more than one person that can talk at any given time. Oh and Nathan Fillion. I love Nathan Fillion.
On top of that I’ve taken the time to play Destiny with other people and have just been having a blast doing so. The raids especially deliver a fantastic experience for coop, and it’s really nothing like I’ve been able to play in a FPS before. Now, I think, is the time to jump into Destiny, even if you were burned before.
~~~~Alex
