The Forest Floor: Top 10 Favorite Games of 2020

The top 10 list for my personal favorite and most disappointing games of the year. To clarify, these are not the "best and worst" games of the year. They are titles I enjoyed or was letdown by based on my own preferences and expectations. Most of the titles on my disappointing list are not even what I would consider bad games, they just weren't for me or were not what I was expecting.

I have ordered the list based on my overall enjoyment (one being the best) of games I played in 2020. Most of the games listed here will not be brand new 2020 releases. They are games I played in 2020 that were new to me.

See also, my Top 10 Disappointing Games of 2020

#10: Oure

Oure is simple, but soothing. You fly through the clouds as a dragon collecting orbs and periodically engaging in Shadow of the Colossus type battles. The controls are a little unconventional - L2 to descend and R2 to rise, which works just fine in the open environments, but makes the boss battles more frustrating than they need to be. Overall, a great game to relax with.

#9: VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

As the name would suggest, the player fills the role of a bartender in a cyberpunk city. Over several nights a host of eccentric patrons visit the bar and based on what the player chooses to serve, and whether or not the drink was mixed correctly, the patrons will react differently, altering the story. I really enjoyed VA-11 Hall-A's unique approach to player choice and replayed the game to experiment with different drinks, trying to see just how badly I could botch something or who I could get drunk. You gotta be a little adventurous with this one.

#8: The Outer Worlds

The Outer Worlds is set in an alternate future where large business trusts were never broken up, leading to a class-centric society dominated by mega-corporations on alien planets. Given this is an RPG from the creators of New Vegas, I went in expecting the Outer Worlds to be a pure role playing experience with extensive skill trees and ways of tackling quest objectives, but it isn't like that at all. It's an RPG that's scared to let you fail. The combat is shallow and most of the quests left me wanting more. The scenery is beautiful though, and the creature designs look great, if a little safe. The characters were pretty bland, aside from Phineas and Martin Moon Man. The player's traveling companions have distinct personalities, but lacked depth and a stake in the Stranger's adventure.

I have very mixed feelings towards this one. Everything about the Outer Worlds functions well enough and is fun on a surface level; its just very bland. The Outer Worlds has the foundation for a deeper, more meaningful sequel.

#7: Kingdom: Two Crowns

While I find the Kingdom series of scrolling games to be addictive, others have described them as "repetitive", and they kinda are. Each new entry in the Kingdom series is basically the same game with a new skin and a few tweaks to the gameplay to keep things fresh. The randomly generated king or queen can only move left or right and decide where to spend their money. Gold coins are used to hire workers, build new structures and upgrade existing buildings. Workers in turn generate most of the monarch's income through farming or hunting during the daylight hours. At night everyone retreats behind the walls in preparation for the daily Greed attacks - monsters that want the monarch's gold or the crown. Once you've figured out how everything works, it becomes trivially easy to survive.

#6: Panzer Dragoon (2020)

Panzer Dragoon (2020) is a very faithful remake of the original on-rails shooter, and just as short, at about an hour long. The short length coupled with the cut and dry story make this a hard one to talk about. It's honestly pretty straightforward - fly and shoot things. The series is best known for its masterful blend of fantasy and science fiction styled in the unique appearance of Jean Giraud's (Moebius) art. It's more style than substance and I think the visual design coupled with the 'short and sweet' levels made this an easy one for me to like as I am easily won over by art with a strong visual identity.

#5: Read Only Memories

I probably enjoyed ROM more as a visual novel than as a point-and-click adventure. There are some light puzzle elements sprinkled in, but most of the gameplay is straight reading without any branching paths. It prioritizes the narrative and characters over combat, checklists, or stat upgrades. The story follows the investigation of a sentient robot and a struggling journalist into the mysterious disappearance of their friend. Read Only Memories is also very LGBT friendly, painting a vision of the future that is far more colorful and progressive than is typical of the cyberpunk genre.

#4: GreedFall

Set in the 17th century, the player assumes the role of De Sardet, a diplomat able to ally with either the natives of a newly discovered island, or any of the foreign nations competing to conquer and colonize the land. GreedFall is a diplomatic RPG where fighting is always an option, but is never the best option; there's stealth, disguises and tons of skill checks. Most of the titles from small developer, Spiders, are AA quality games with dark souls-like gameplay difficulty - minus the finesse. You can tell Spiders put a lot of love and effort into their projects and GreedFall is easily their most ambiguous title yet. They really outdid themselves. The combat balance and quality of writing is far better than anything else Spiders has put out. GreedFall definitely has its share of problems (this two hour video covers them pretty well - Link), but I still had a good time regardless and am looking forward to the company's future projects.

#3: Rune Factory 4 Special

RF4 Special is an enhanced port of the original 3DS RPG, dungeon crawling, farming sim. Its a really charming, wholesome title to relax with. You play as a guy or gal with amnesia setting up a new life in a town protected by a wind dragon. There is a ton of content in the form of crafting, monster taming, festivals, and some pretty robust social and farming aspects.

#2: Astral Chain

Set in the year 2078, humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction by inter-dimensional lifeforms called "Chimeras". Most humans left on the planet are protected by a mega-city called "The Ark" and its Neuron officers who use "Legions" (tamed Chimeras) to fight the Chimeras. There are a few segments with some light detective work - retrieving data from a downed droid or having the beast legion follow a scent trail, but these aren't the main focus. Most of the time the player will be jumping through inter-dimensional portals in pursuit of Chimeras and using the legion's chain in a number of creative ways, such as a tripwire or zip line. I had a blast with the action heavy, intense gameplay in this one. Definitely felt burntout by the time the credits rolled.

#1: Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Ten years ago Wii owners petitioned Nintendo for a North American release of the original Xenoblade Chronicles in a movement called "Operation Rainfall". From what I recall of that time, Nintendo didn't seem to have much faith in Xenoblade and initially released it as a GameStop exclusive after years of pestering from American Wii owners desperate for something good (i.e. not shovelware) to play on the console. The game ended up being a hit, with the initial $60 GameStop copies selling out, driving up the price of used copies online to a couple hundred dollars until Nintendo did another run. The remake for the Switch looks amazing and includes a lot of quality of life improvements over the original, such as the addition of quest markers, an overhauled HUD and menus, and layered armor that lets the player change a character's outfit without sacrificing stats. Not all of the armor sets were remade, so its easy to tell which ones were upscaled from the Wii. Otherwise its a fine remake.