And here is part two of our list!
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
2011 • DS
Not every DS game embraced the touchscreen’s unique controls, but Ghost Trick wrestled it into a brilliant puzzle-solving mechanic that complements its gorgeous animations and twistastic story. At the beginning, Sissel, our spirit protagonist, finds himself dead and imbued with special powers, aka “ghost tricks.” Amnesiac, he resolves to discover his identity and the reason for his murder.
Shu Takumi, also responsible for the Ace Attorney series, has created a motley crew of outlandishly cool characters that help piece Sissel’s life back together. Innovative, quirky, and full of humor, Ghost Trick almost makes dying seem fun.
Persona 4 Golden
2012 • Vita
Forget the last five years, Persona 4 Golden may be one of the greatest games of all time. An immersive world, memorable characters, snappy gameplay, and a killer soundtrack serve to make Persona 4 Golden an essential title. You may be saying to yourself, “I played the PS2 game. Do I really need to buy a Vita and play Golden?” The answer is overwhelmingly yes! The additional characters, scenarios, and music make a great game amazing. The fact that it’s on a portable console makes grinding for levels or building a relationship with that special someone all the more enjoyable as you can play the game in spurts.
If you haven’t played Persona 4 Golden, it’s time for you to confront your shadow and pursue your true self! The idea of letting this game pass you by is unBEARable. Go buy the game right now!
To the Moon
2011 • PC
Although To the Moon features controllable characters, 16-bit RPG Maker sprites that look like they were ripped straight out of Squaresoft’s golden age, and point-and-click collectathon puzzles, its primary focus is on narrative, much akin to a visual novel.
And oh, what a narrative it is. Poignant and tragic, To the Moon delves into the mind of Johnny, an old man on his deathbed who wishes to travel to the moon. You play as a pair of doctors who, by delving into his memories Inception-style, can pinpoint the source of his desire and implant the memories that will fulfill his dying wish. What they find there… I dare not spoil.
Experience it for yourself and then listen to the soundtrack, because the music in this game is kind of incredible. If you’re at all a fan of storytelling in video games, To the Moon is a must-play.
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
2010 • DS, iOS
When I first sat down to play 999, I wasn’t aware that I was about to experience one of the most engaging and thoughtful narratives I had ever seen in a video game. 999 is smaller in scale than its sequel and features 100% less flowchart, but its humble beginnings are deceiving. What begins as an intriguing and grim mystery in the vein of the first Saw movie expands into a completely bonkers science fiction tale that manages to back up its admittedly out-there science with confidence and consistent internal logic. Multiple playthroughs are a given, as they are required to see this tale to completion, with multiple branching paths and puzzle rooms that can bring you a step closer to uncovering the truth or deliver a grisly end. I would urge any fan of science fiction to give the Zero Escape series a try, and this is the place to start.
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
2014 • Vita
Wow, did this game come out of left field and rock my world when it came out in 2014. One of the wackiest titles on our list, the game is a fully interactive visual novel, and plays like a mix of Phoenix Wright and the Zero Escape series. If that sounds rad, that’s because it is. You play as Makoto Naegi, one of 15 new students at Hope’s Peak Academy, where every student in attendance is an “Ultimate”, meaning they are the absolute best in their field of expertise. But it turns out that Makoto and the rest of his classmates are imprisoned in the school for the rest of their lives, unless they graduate. The only way to graduate is to murder another student and get away with the crime, and if someone does graduate, everyone else dies. Super happy fun times.
The game is set up in six chapters, broken up as Daily Life and Deadly Life. During the former, players explore Hope’s Peak and are able to interact with the other students and create bonds with them akin to the Persona series. Deadly Life occurs when a student is murdered, and players have to find enough clues to determine who committed the murder, including an interactive trial sequence at the end of each chapter. Boasting a wonderful script that deftly tackles the macabre circumstances with over-the-top humor and charm, a diverse set of characters, and a fascinating universe that has since been expanded with other titles, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is an essential play for any genre fan.
South Park: The Stick of Truth
2014 • PS3, 360, PC
While we await Obsidian’s sequel The Fractured but Whole, spoofing the superhero cinema craze, we can always return to The Stick of Truth, which spoofs the medieval fantasy craze. The hit TV show’s main characters, alongside a cavalcade of lesser-known characters and strange cameos, are all set pieces for a story built around a tabula-rasa character (you) who seems to have a knack for making friends on Facebook. This seemingly innocuous skill turns out to be pivotal to a plotline that lampoons our culture’s paradoxical love of medieval fantasy (Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and more) and love of talking about these pastimes on social media using modern technology. Add to that a giant pool of collectible items, equipment, “friends” (Facebook), and a gracefully simple turn-based combat system, and you have yourself one hell of a strange, and surprisingly good, franchise-based RPG.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
2010 • PSP
With so many Kingdom Hearts spin-offs and side games, it’s hard to push your way through the series, but if I were to recommend playing just one, Birth By Sleep would win hands down. Acting as a prequel, it gives some gravitas to the story of the main games while also introducing some memorable characters and helping you to make sense of some of the plot points in the overarching narrative.
Most importantly, Birth By Sleep provides the staple combat system for later entries: the command deck, which allows you to plan your attacks and customise Terra, Aqua, and Ven to your liking. Fighting your way through the Unversed is extremely fun and never gets tiresome. Most of the Disney worlds are new and exclusive too, so they’ll recapture different parts of your childhood and flesh out the history of the Seven Princesses even more.
Birth By Sleep starts something new for the series that works wonders, and it’ll satisfy your cravings until Kingdom Hearts III comes out.
Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward
2012 • Vita, 3DS
If 999 had been a standalone game, it would have remained a cult classic with a large handful of loose ends. Thankfully, it seems that writer/creator Kotaro Uchikoshi managed to get his publisher (Spike Chunsoft) to go forward with a trilogy. However, just as Uchikoshi would find ways to tie up some loose ends, he went on to create many more by developing a plot that went well beyond the narrative of Junpei and June.
In Virtue’s Last Reward, the player finds that it’s hard to see exactly how this game is a “direct sequel” to 999… at first. By the end — the true end — that picture becomes clear, even as new pictures come into the field of vision and leave the player all the more dizzied by the experience. Besides having one of the most enticing plots in visual novel history, VLR is infinitely more convenient than its predecessor thanks to its “branched timeline” navigation system, which allows the player to enter the game at certain pivotal scenes or the beginning of room escape sequences. This is rather than starting the game from the beginning tutorial sequence every time and waiting through fast-forwarded text to make a new decision (this problem is common with other visual novels and was one that plagued 999).
The greatest thing about VLR, however, is that it truly is the second game in a trilogy. There is more than one “cliffhanger” awaiting resolution in the third Zero Escape game, Zero Time Dilemma, coming in late June of this year. If you haven’t played 999 and VLR by then, you’re going to want to catch up. It’s worth it.
Pillars of Eternity
2015 • PC
Pillars of Eternity is hard to criticize. Truly, it houses just about every quality a hardcore RPG’er seeks. Gameplay quantity, astounding depth down to item descriptions and nations’ histories, an almost stifling degree of stat calculation with every single attack and ability, vast customization, varied and imaginative quests, an unpredictable central plot, and we’re only hitting half of the accolades. Some have chastised it as a Baldur’s Gate clone, but with so few out there to begin with — and to this level of quality and detail — is that such a bad thing once every several years? For those who wish to get lost in an actual world and leave feeling as if they’ve read a book, Pillars of Eternity has no recent counterpart.
Dark Souls
2011 • PS3, 360
Anybody who trekked through Lordran and lived to tell the tale can attest to what an incredible game Dark Souls is. Punishing but fair, Dark Souls sees would-be adventurers travel through a hostile, yet beautiful interconnected world in search of… well, something.
Dark Souls eschews linear narrative in favor of environmental storytelling — that’s not to say there’s not a rich plot, just that it has to be sought out and put together with a little detective work. Along the way, they’re sure to have tense, hair-pulling encounters with all manner of hideous beings, in which patience and careful observation are rewarded over button-mashing. Few titles have had such a profound effect on this decade’s gaming zeitgeist as Dark Souls, and although it won’t appeal to everyone, the praise and hype surrounding it is absolutely deserved.
Undertale
2015 • PC
What was life like before Undertale? It’s hard to imagine the Internet without its existence now, but pushing the jokes and memes aside, Undertale is a fantastic game that is hilarious, heartwrenching, and rewarding. It’s one of the few games to capture an EarthBound feel through its irreverent charm and humour, but it’s very much its own game, as reflected in its amazing cast of characters and fantastic battle sequences. The ability to go the route of a pacifist or full-out murderer throughout the game and the weight of that choice on the narrative is brilliant and really brings home the consequences of your decisions, all while tearing down the fourth wall and laughing in the face of the structure of RPGs in general. It feels like a love letter to the RPGs of the 8- and 16-bit eras, but retains a modern feel through its mechanics and story. All in all, Undertale is an excellent example of what indie developers are capable of, and a reminder we don’t need big cinematic budgets to lure us toward a good story.
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
2010 • PSP
Back in the 16-bit era, Ys III: Wanderers From Ys was a divisive game. Not unlike Zelda II, Ys III shifted away from its predecessors’ top-down style in favor of side-scrolling platforming action. Although visually eye-catching with an excellent soundtrack, the gameplay itself was sloppy and lackluster at best. Ys III appeared destined to fade away as a footnote, until Falcom revamped this little-game-that-couldn’t from the ground up. The resulting game, retitled The Oath in Felghana, features fast and furious combat, an expanded plot, sidequests, voice acting, and some of the fiercest and most cleverly designed boss encounters ever seen in an action RPG. Oath is now widely considered to be the best Ys game to date, and it’s undoubtedly one that fans of this charming series can’t miss.
Torchlight II
2012 • PC
When Diablo III was released, many fans of its predecessor were disappointed at the changes that had been made to its formula. And although plenty of people are having fun in that world now, Torchlight II will always be the game of choice for those who prefer a different formula. Lots of stats, lots of loot, all the mods you can eat, and a faithful pet who fights alongside you and goes back to town to sell vendor trash and pick up potions and scrolls? What’s not to love?
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
2010 • DS
Although the Layton series has deservedly exploded into two trilogies and spin-offs, Unwound Future captures a side of Layton’s stiff upper lip that immediately results in close proximity to onion slicing. Initially expected to be a single trilogy, it’s no wonder that the “final” installation surpasses all other iterations — adorable but devious minigames, perplexing sliding puzzles, captivating melodies, and unabashedly heartwarming and heartrending character development alongside a fantastical premise (to be solved with gentlemanly logic). If you only have time for one Layton game, this has to be it.
The Walking Dead
2012 • PC, XBLA, PSN
Telltale Games have made some unique content for many existing franchises in the past decade. Perhaps the most popular among them are the two seasons of The Walking Dead games. Utilizing the graphic novel more than the AMC television series, but still weaving a unique plot that uses the main characters as supporting characters or even mere cameos, Telltale gives us the story of would-be prisoner Lee in the first season, followed by Lee’s “daughter” (post-apocalyptically adopted) Clementine in the second season.
In each of the five episodes of both seasons, key decisions determine who lived and who died, which areas are explored and which areas are abandoned; by the culmination of each season, the choices add up to how the surviving members of your struggling crew perceive you, and perhaps, how you (the player) perceive yourself as the character and as the player behind the character. Yes, this game is functionally little more than an adventure game with many quick-time events and branching dialogues, but in the end, that simple structure is more than enough to pile on the finesse of the beautiful art style, the memorable scenarios, the characters we love to love and those we love to loathe… and so much more. Bravo, Telltale.
