It's been about 5 and a half years since I did my last Top 100 list. Due to my OCD and compulsion to constantly create lists in my head I think it's time for an all new Top 100.
My first thought was to reevaluate the old top 100, but fuck it, it's easier to pick 100 new games that I didn't have on the list last time. In the past 5 and a half years I've played more than I usually have, largely due to COVID. And in that time I've played a lot of new great games.
Plus, when I made the last list, I avoided adding multiple games from the same franchises. So I can dip back into the Dragon Quest pool and a few others.
Anyway stay tuned. Starting tomorrow we're doing this shit again.
My first thought was to reevaluate the old top 100, but fuck it, it's easier to pick 100 new games that I didn't have on the list last time. In the past 5 and a half years I've played more than I usually have, largely due to COVID. And in that time I've played a lot of new great games.
Plus, when I made the last list, I avoided adding multiple games from the same franchises. So I can dip back into the Dragon Quest pool and a few others.
Anyway stay tuned. Starting tomorrow we're doing this shit again.
Recently Spotted:
*crickets*
Generic name, horrible artwork, amazing game.
Seriously, is that not fucking hideous?
God-awful promotional artwork aside, this was probably my favorite 90's arcade game before fighting games completely took over the scene. It was a typical 2-player hack and slash combat wise, but what made it special was all the companion characters you could rescue and join you in your quest up the tower.
You started as the typical warrior/barbarian who forgot to put on his shirt before he began his quest. From there, you can rescue a variety of side characters who are helpful at particular tasks (and awful in most other situations), good all around, or just flat out awesome. There's an archer, thief, priest, wizard, ninja, neanderthal ape dude with an axe, a flying lizard man, and a towards the end of the a lancer who pretty much renders the rest of the characters obsolete.
Basically it was every sword and sorcery/ fantasy trope you could think of in one game. All the heroes, all the monsters, they're all here. Pretty much everything I loved. Unfortunately this was very long for an arcade game (the tower you climb is 50 floors), and it ate a ton of quarters. So you either had to be rich or go for the downgraded SNES version. But either through home loan or lowering standards, this was one of the great fantasy games of all time.
Very fun game indeed. That promotional art is quite hideous.
In the Golden age of console jrpgs, there really wasn't a competitor to Square/Squaresoft. No one cranked out as many of them, at the level of quality they did. A few publishers wanted in on the market though, and if you looked around you could find a few of high quality. Capcom's Breath of Fire was one of the more notable ones, and the second in the franchise was by far my favorite.
The game's story was as good as any other jrpg out there. It basically involved a corrupt Church winning over followers and favor in the world, while quietly attempting to The world. It actually had a lot of similarities with Final Fantasy tactics, in that regard. It also had a really unique feature where you would meet shaman scattered across the world who would merge with your teammates and transform them into these overpowered badasses. And of course, in one of the series trademarks, it featured a really interesting variety of animal/human hybrid characters, which set them apart from most of the other RPGs around which typically featured your standard humans.
One of my favorite things about the series was it was all contained in the same world, but each game was set hundreds or even thousands of years apart from one another. So it was always interesting to see how the world evolved In that time. Some cities grew, while others disappeared entirely. Notable races in one game would be nearly extinct in others. That kind of in-game evolution made exploring every corner of the game worthwhile, because Easter eggs referencing older games would be scattered all over the place. Breath of Fire 2 had one of the coolest ones, because you could actually find an old character from the first one who was quietly hibernating, waiting to be awoken.
There was a little too much grinding, but that's a tough complaint to make about games of that era since most of them had the same problem. Really, the only thing you can hold against the game was a pretty god-awful translation.
Case in point, they couldn't even figure out zzzz.. is the standard noise for sleeping.
Still, even the awful translation has some value as it's so bad that it provides some unintentional humor. So you have a good game, a good story, and even a few laughs. Definitely a formula for success.
Loved the Breath of Fire up until the fifth one, Dragon Quarter. That was a heartbreaking game. Would love for Capcom to return to that franchise someday.
They actually did, but unfortunately the return was a mobile game that they only released in Japan. Not only that, but it wasn't even reviewed well for a mobile game. It was just crap all the way around.
Ah, that’s right. Totally forgot about that.
it's really not worth remembering, and I should probably apologize to you for even bringing it up.Thanks to The Legend of Zelda, the second half of the NES's lifespan had a number of adventure/action RPGs. Aside from StarTropics, which transcends all forms of art, I think Crystalis ended up being probably the best of them. It took a lot ideas for Zelda, and then added a stronger narrative, NPCs, and a world that was just a little bit more interesting.
Crystalis was another one of those games that Nintendo power completely sold me on. And they gave it a really strong feature and just looking at the number of items, magic spells, and NPCs you'd come across in the adventure made it seem like a game that had everything. And on that note, thank God for Nintendo Power. This game would not have been easy to figure out on my own. Even with a lunchroom Round table meeting of the minds, I'm pretty sure there would have been a few tricks involving some of the magic spells I would never have quite figured out on my own.
Interestingly enough, there's also not a definitive version of this game. A Game Boy color version was released, that had a significantly better translation and provided a little bit more detail on the story. However, due to the screen restrictions, the combat ended up being pretty wonky. So who knows if we're ever going to get a pixel remaster of this with the controls of the NES version and that fleshed out story from the GBC. Probably never going to happen, but it would definitely be cool to see.
I keep hearing about Crystalis but I've never played it. I believe it's on an SNK collection on Switch too, which I've been meaning to get.
Sounds like something the fan commuity would do.