Let's Repeatedly Pause Persona 5's First Gameplay Trailer!

So, seeing as Persona 4 is my favourite game of all time, I'm understandably really excited about any news of Persona 5. We got a little teaser a while back, but no real tangible info was in it - the protagonist rides a train, and there's a few names of people working on the game. Recently, we finally got our first gameplay trailer, and this contains a bunch of stuff that's really interesting to me as a fan. I'm not usually one to freak out about such things, but Persona 5 is the game that might make as staunch a PC gamer as me buy a console that isn't two generations out of date.

So, I'm going to be using timestamps, and, just for consistency's sake, I'll be using them referring to this IGN upload of the trailer. Most of my musings will be about mechanics - the trailer doesn't give much of a hint about the plot outside the first few seconds - but I'll try and bring in as much story stuff as I can. Also, I've purposefully avoided translation so far - It's more fun to guess what the game is about if you don't know what everything says.

0:07-0:09 Assuming this is where the game is set, and not a location where our team'll be briefly going, it appears we're returning to a more big-city location a la Persona 3. I'm kind of glad, to be honest: As well as Inaba was pulled off, I feel a big city has more room for exploration than a small rural town, both in the gameplay and story sense.

0:10-0:30 It appears that our protagonist works as a thief, as well as being (as we'll see later in the trailer) a high school kid. This I'm iffy about: Part of what made Persona 3 and 4 work so well is that the protagonists were normal, relatable high school kids thrust into this magical world. If our party is a group of master thieves pulling off daring heists in their spare time, layering Personae and Shadows on top of that looses a bit of its impact.

0:35 onwards Oh God, I love this so much. It looks stylish, and sounds fantastic. It's that usual Persona flair, but even more refined. This seems to have made as much of an improvement on Persona 4 in terms of style as Persona 4 made on top of the already extremely stylish Persona 3. The music is going on my iPod as soon as it can.

0:54-0:57 Igor is back, surprising no one, but his assistants seem to be a pair of young twins? I'm curious as to whether they're related to Margaret and Elizabeth, or are new characters taking their role. I hope they avoid the cliche "creepy mysterious twins" trope, though knowing Persona, they most likely will.

0:58-1:00 Some kind of magical explosion on the street, or just a stylized transition? Hard to tell. In any case, the thing that emerges looks cool. My guess is it's either some sort of villain, or your starter persona (Much like Izanagi or Orpheus in the two previous games), depending on whether that was an actual explosion.

1:06-1:13 The first we see of actual in-game footage. Woot! It looks gorgeous, and appears to be from the first day, due to the train-riding (kind of a Persona tradition at this point). Your character gets a thing thrown at him by the teacher. Is this a gameplay element, a thing that happens in the story once, or the animation to initiate the "get asked a question in class" scenario?

1:14-1:20 We get to see a few characters, presumably your heist-mates. They appear to also be your school friends. You also get some sort of horrifying cat thing, much like you got some horrifying bear thing in the form of Teddy previously. You appear to goof around a bit, and then plan a heist at some sort of bar. I'm guessing this bar is what acts the same way the Junes food court did in Persona 4.

1:20-1:33 Some more of the animated stuff, showing off the side characters doing things. This is where I feel I'm most likely to make a mistake in my assumptions, because Persona is very good at wrecking my expectations of characters, but I'm guessing the male is pretty similar to Junpei and Yosuke, acting as the energetic and somewhat goofy right-hand man. The girl on the other hand appears to act like a genki-girl, leading me to suspect she'd be somewhat similar to Rise. The cat... well, is a cat, so it's hard to tell what kind of character he is, but he's obviously the team mascot a la Teddy. Note that by making these comparisons I'm not trying to say that the characters will be the same person with a different coat of paint, just following in the general archetype. After all, Junpei and Yosuke are different as can be, as well as Akihiko and his follow-up of Kanji.

1:34-1:35 Finally, the stuff I can really over-analyze! We get to see a menu, which, first off, looks stylish as fuck. However, what's interesting is the text on it. There's the typical Skill, Item, Equip and Persona menus, which are all but expected, but then there's a few interesting options. You have "Party", which seems to  be there in place of the old "Status" screen. It might just be a renaming, but to me calling it "Party" implies you'll be able to switch in members, possibly at any time. This would be more convenient than having to walk up to and talk to them outside a dungeon a la previous games, but unless they revamp how XP sharing works, it isn't going to make that much difference inside dungeons. You've also got a "Co-operation" menu, which confuses me. I assume it's either a mechanic that we haven't been introduced to yet, possibly working similarly to the on-the-field commands to your field from Persona 3 or some kind of co-op element. I wouldn't be too keen on the latter (From what I saw, the co-op type stuff they put into Persona 4 Golden was fairly meh, and I prefer my RPGs to be a lonely experience anyway).

EDIT: Apparently "Co-operation" is close to what Social Link was called in the Japanese versions of previous game, and it's been brought up by other people that Social Link is missing from the menu, leading me to believe that this "Co-operation" is just the SLink menu. I'm half relieved, half disappointed: A Persona game with no SLink would just feel hollow, but I was also excited for a new possible mechanic. And yes, I am aware Persona and Persona 2 had no SLinks.

1:35-1:37 We see the equip menu, and man, do we have slots! There appear to have been two new slots introduced compared to what we had in Persona 4 - a "Gun" slot, separate from your "Weapon" slot, and a "Protector" slot, separate from your "Clothes" and "Accessory". There'a theory I have as to what the Gun does as opposed to your Weapon, which I'll bring up when the relevant bit of the trailer comes up, but it seems fairly clear you use your weapon for attacking just as you previously did in Persona - you see that weapons have two stats on them, and the numbers on said stats seem to indicate them being the old "Damage" and "Hit" from Persona of old. I'm not sure what your "Protector" and "Clothes" do. I have two theories, not based on anything else in the trailer. Number one: your Clothes act like armor used to in Persona 4, and Protectors give extra stat bonuses, like the shoes of Persona 3, but expanded to stuff beyond the limited things shoes could do. The other is that "Protectors" are your armor for combat, and "Clothes" change your day-to-day outfit that you have whilst Social Linking, be it cosmetically or for some sort of bonuses.

1:38-1:42 Looks like in-game cinematic. Some sort of creepy, pupil-less man in a uniform, possibly possessed or a Shadow, and a train (which he appeared to have been conducting) going off the rails in a station. Seems like it could act as either a dramatic start to the story, leaving a mystery behind (Like the first murder in Persona 4) or as a tense mid-game scene (Like the monorail shadow fight in Persona 3).

1:42-1:44 Woot, dungeon gameplay! Looks great, and your character appears to be quite acrobatic. The Shadows around seem to be some sort of knights, which makes me wonder whether that's a representation of the enemy that Shadow will be if you engage it in battle (which would be a pretty cool thing to have) or just a new model for Shadows. Your character also doesn't appear to have a weapon out, which makes me think they might be getting rid of the "hit enemies on the back to get an advantage" mechanic. I'd rather it still be in there, but if it goes I won't cry too much.

1:44-1:47 You appear to be jumping around on top of chandeliers, possibly during a heist. This seems quite dodgy to me: In my experience platforming in non-platformers is not a good thing. Still, it looks like it would work quite well, and I think adding more variety to dungeons can only be a good thing.

1:47-1:50 Once again, kind of worrying. You seem to be doing some sort of stealth thingy, which doesn't usually work outside stealth games. You do appear to be able to zap from cover to cover instantly, which should hopefully make it easy enough that it won't be an issue. I guess both of thse mechanics make sense in the context of you being a bunch of master thieves.

Now, time out, time out, time out. I just want to note something: All of the in-game footage that's happened so far is happening on the same day, Monday the 11th of April. If I'm not wrong, that's around the same time that Persona 3 and 4 start. Combined with my earlier theory that this is the first day of the game, this would mean that your main character is already acquainted with your first three party members on your first day of game, and you also get to do some action stuff. It'll be nice to not have another fish out of water start (not that there's anything wrong with that), and I heartily approve of shortening the overly long time before you get to play that almost put me off Persona. My guess is the story will start with you pulling off some major heist you've been planning, which'll somehow lead into you getting involved with Personay stuff. Possibly you're unknowingly stealing a magical artefact or something of that style.

1:50-1:52 I guess there's a specialized medicine shop now.

1:52-1:57 A bit of cutscene involving just hanging out with friends and the girl being slightly upset at the guy, good that they haven't left that type of stuff out: It's what made Persona 4 really stand out to me. Also an action thing where you appear to be running away, and the girl's dressed in an absolutely ridiculous pink latex suit. For burgling. Because pink is stealthy.

 1:59 It appears you get caught. Perhaps you get caught and let out under the condition that you do Persona type stuff? This would be kind of like how you end up working on solving the murders in Persona 4.

EDIT 2: If you slow down the footage you can tell that this cell is in the Velvet Room, guarded by the twin assistants. Interesting, maybe you have a less smooth relationship with Igor than previous protagonists did. I do hope he isn't a bad guy though, I liked him as the sole non-evil supernatural being in the SMT universe, this kind of oddball thing. Maybe it's still somewhat similar to the Teddy contract from Persona 4.

2:01-2:10 Your main character uses a gun instead of some other weapon. Notice this for later. Also, this appears to be an all-out attack. I love the look of it, but I think the animation takes way too long. I'd get irate at the Persona 3 and 4 animations, and they were a lot shorter than this. Hopefully bits of it are skippable. Still, I love how you get to see every character do their thing in more detail. They also appear to be fighting several of what in previous games was the persona Sandman.

2:10-2:20 Not much here, but I just realized there's a lot of highway imagery in this trailer. I wonder if that's relevant. It appears First Male Party Member and Animal Like Mascot are hanging out together, much like Yosuke and Teddy.

2:27-2:36 Real interesting. Just looking at this it seems like a) the main character is not necessarily entirely good (he sure seems demonic), and b) he may be transforming into his Persona rather than summoning it. This could lead to an interesting thing gameplay-wise a la Digital Devil Saga, or it could be simply a cool cosmetic effect. My theory is that your "weapon" is what you use as your Persona, and your "gun" is what you use in human form. I doubt it's going to go full Digital Devil Saga in its mechanics (especially since the transformation mechanic was kinda useless in that game), but perhaps your persona's attack is determined using your weapon (so your Bufu or Sonic Punch would do more damage depending on your weapon, but your normal attack would do more damage depending on your gun). If it does go full DDS, then it seems like your Clothes and Protector could be armor for you and your Persona, respectively.

EDIT 3: It's been brought up that this also kind of looks like a Shadow self from Persona 4, what with the yellow eyes and the transforming into something different. There's a point there, but somehow I doubt that it's the case. Shadow selves were very much thematically tied to what Persona 4 was about, and, unless there's some major reworking of what they are in the lore, they don't really fit in to what Persona 5 has been said to be about. I'm not too fond of the idea of having them back: Whilst I thought they were one of the stronger aspects of Persona 4, I don't believe that they need to be shoehorned into more Persona games.

Whatever, I'm still fucking hyped.

The 2nd Best Thing I Played In 2014

The Wolf Among Us

Yes, TellTale did indeed manage to pull its fantastic trick twice. The Walking Dead was my favourite game I played in 2013, and, for a brief time, my favourite game ever, so it's no surprise that I'd loveanother game by the same people. Whilst  Wolf Among Us suffers from many flaws in execution that pulled its score down when I reviewed it, it's still a fantastic story told fantastically. Add to that the fact that it's a story than, when given the choice of premise and premise alone, I'd choose above The Walking Dead in a blink, and you've got yourself a real winner. Wolf Among Us maybe shows me an issue with the name of these awards: They're not quite "The Xth Best Thing", but more like "My Xth Favourite Thing". Wolf Among Us may be flawed in many ways, and is likely not the 2nd Best Thing I Played In 2014, but it certainly is my 2nd Favourite Thing I Played in 2014, and that's more than good enough to secure this spot. Don't mess with the Big Bad Wolf.

Introducing: Animu Reviews. Also, Animu Review: Sword Art Online

Recently, I've really gotten into anime, which has resulted in my game-playing time drastically falling, meaning I can't really review that many games. Since I love writing, I may as well review the stuff I'm watching. Anime has a really interesting way of telling stories, especially having not really experienced the style too much before. It often ignores the "show, don't tell" rule that's so important in western media, especially when it comes to character motivation, but it manages to somehow be just as effective. Still, it's often a whole lot of fun to watch, and I regret very little of my time with any of the anime I've watched so far.

There's a few really cool ones I've already watched that I want to talk about some day (in particular the three series of Aria), but right now I want to write about the most recent anime I've watched, Sword Art Online. I watched it so recently, in fact, that, as of first writing this, I finished the last episode no more than 10 minutes ago.

Sword Art Online, or SAO for convenience, is one of the better regarded anime series out there, and I watched it on a whim upon noticing it being on Netflix. The "gimmick", if you will, to this one is that it mostly takes place inside a virtual reality world, namely an MMO, the titular Sword Art Online (or, at least, in the first arc). It's an idea so obvious I want to say I've seen it a million times before, but the truth is I can't think of anything else that does this kind of thing. The Matrix and Assassin's Creed have similar ideas, but Matrix takes it in a completely different direction and, let's be honest, Assassin's Creed's animus is just an excuse for the gamey elements of a videogame. Which means it really doesn't need an excuse.

The first arc begins with the long-anticipated VRMMORPG, SAO's release. We meet Kirito, our main character, and a roster of side characters. Soon, it's discovered that there's no log-out button, and that the gear the game is being played on has been engineered to fry the player's brain if its removed. The same punishment is given to player death within the game. The only way for everyone to get out is for someone to beat the game by defeating the boss on the hundredth floor of the world, releasing everyone. This is all for the entertainment of the creator of SAO, Akihiko Kayaba. It's a simple set-up, but is actually a brilliant framing device for the story. It instantly explains away a lot of plot-points that would otherwise either not make sense or be contrived.

Surprisingly useful.

For instance, take the common situation where Kirito's in trouble, but his friend, who had no way of knowing where he was, shows up at the last moment to save him. Normally, this would make no sense, but, oh, wait it's an MMO. Said friend was worried at Kirito's prolonged absence, and used his friends list to find out exactly where Kirito was. It also allows for rules to be installed that makes the writer's life easier, like the fact that players can't be harmed in towns. Perhaps one of the more useful elements are the health bars, which both explain how characters can keep fighting at full capacity even after being seriously damaged (the only point of health that matters is the last one), and also allow for an easy visual queue that shows us who's doing better in a battle or how close Kirito is to death.

Unfortunately, the MMO setting also comes with some hindrances. There'll be occasional moments that make no real sense, considering that this is a computer-controlled world. A lot of battle scenes that would otherwise be tense loose a lot of impact when, like me, you're aware that if these players know anything, they'll be carrying healing potions on them. There's also a problem with the rules of the game occasionally changing to fit the situation. For instance, in the very first episode there's a big deal made about how mobs don't respawn, making EXP and loot drops be valuable, limited resources. This leads to Kirito making a decision that arguably changes the entire rest of the SAO arc dramatically. However, later on, there's an episode where an opposing faction is said to be tyrannical by having taken control and restricted access to monster spawn points. This is rare, and doesn't come up often enough to be any real hindrance, but whenever it does show up it annoys me to no end.

Look at that. That shit looks gorgeous.

One thing to mention now is the artstyle and music. I'm not a huge fan of the anime look, though it can work occasionally (I showered praise on Persona 4's art, after all). This is one such instance. The world looks absolutely gorgeous, everywhere from graceful rich cities to peaceful forests and intimidating dungeons, and the fighting is stylish and colourful, with swords flashing bright colors as characters unleash their "skills". I'm also a fan of the character design in the first arc: It very much feels like each character is an MMO archetype, from Kirito's obvious DPS loadout to Agil's support gear and Heathcliff's tanky paladin-style look. The use of game HUD type elements is also brilliant, both due to their slick look and their usefulness in conveying story beats. The music is mostly just there, but there's a few battle tracks that are absolutely gorgeous and appropriately adrenaline-pumping, and I really like both opening songs.


The first arc, taking place within SAO's world of Aincrad is divided in two pretty radically different sections. The first is practically a series of disconnected stories involving Kirito, each centered

The guy and girl on the promo materials eventually fall in love?
No way!

around a different secondary character, most of whom don't really show up again for the rest of the series. The exceptions are Klein, the comic relief character that Kirito befriends in the first episode who'll show up here and there, Agil, a recurring supporting character, and Asuna, Kirito's love interest. This first section is entertaining enough, but feels plotless. Kirito sort of wanders from mini-story to mini-story, and, whilst each individual episode is satisfying, they don't really mean anything in the long run. The only real story progress that is made is the increasing floor number that the front-lines are said to have reached, somewhere far off-screen.

The second section of the arc is a lot more story-focused, and really where the series shines. It chronicles Kirito's evolving relationship with Asuna, from rivals to lovers, and, whilst the actual relationship I found cliche but moving, the stuff surrounding it was a lot more interesting. The way people are shown to live within SAO is fascinating, and, though the plot is a meandering "We've got to get to the top!" style thing, the individual moments are entertaining enough for the whole thing to not get dull. Saying too much about him would be spoilerific, but I also found Akihiko Kayaba to be a really intriguing figure in this part of the arc.

I actually really like the character of Asuna in this section. She's pretty much your standard, overused

My favorite character. At least initially.

"beautiful but deadly" ice queen deal for much of it, but somehow doesn't come across this way at all. For much of the arc, she's a genuinely cool (no pun intended) figure. This made me a bit sad in the later part of the arc, when the romance has bloomed and she takes more of a backseat supporty role. I'm not usually one to be bothered by this kind of stuff (I try to stay as far away from both sides of the GamerGate discussion as possible), but I couldn't help but feel she was put into a traditionally feminine role that just didn't suit her character up to this point. Sure, she opens up to Kirito and becomes less obsessed with clearing SAO, but I have a hard time believing she'd stay back as much as she does.

Still, otherwise, the second section of the SAO arc is really fun to watch. It gets genuinely tense at points, and knows how to keep an appropriate pace without overdoing it: it intersperses just enough alternately goofy and moving stuff in between the battle scenes for everything to still have the impact it deserves without getting in each others way. There's also what I personally found a pretty surprising twist in there, which I didn't expect in what seemed to be an extremely straightforward story up to that point. Still, I couldn't help but feel that the Aincrad arc ends a bit prematurely: There still seems to be character development to complete, and the end of SAO sort of comes out of nowhere, way before the game is actually scheduled to end.

With this, begins the second arc, the Alfheim Online arc. Or, as the subtitles insist in writing it, ALfheim Online (I guess to be able to abbreviate it to ALO). This second arc feels a lot weaker than the first. Kirito gets out of SAO, but for some reason, 300 ex-SAO players never woke up, Asuna among them. However, a picture of someone who looks very much like Asuna taken by players briefly cheesing their way to the endgame of ALO encourages Kirito to try and beat this game as well.

Welcome to Alfheim. Not much to see here.

The ALO arc also has story taking place in the real world, as well as the story within the world of ALO. This story is... OK, I guess. The main thread involves Kirito's adoptive sister, who is in actuality his cousin, developing a romantic attraction for him and being rejected. They also unknowingly meet within ALO, where she proceeds to fall in love with him in-game as well. This story is not as moving as it thinks it is, since it feels more like a high-school crush than anything else, which at least slightly mitigates the rather uncomfortable incest stuff. Still, it did get a few emotions to come out of my dead heart, so it must be doing something right.

Unfortunately, the ALO setting suffers even more than SAO from being a virtual world. As ALO isn't a deathtrap, the penalty for death is merely in-game. This significantly lowers the stakes of every battle: When Kirito is surrounded on all sides by hostile players the tension is somehow lowered by the fact that the worst that can happen is some gold or EXP loss. The world of Alfheim is also less interesting than Aincrad, and considerably worse developed. Whilst Aincrad had a very clear social hierarchy, as well as a lot of exploration of what the consequences of having a real society based around MMO rules (guilding in particular) would be, Alfheim has some tension between nine player races, which is barely explored, and of which we only get to know six (Kirito being the only player we get to meet of one of them). Aincrad is also a lot more diverse, due to the way that floors work acting as an excuse for completely different enviroments and cultural inspiration for cities, whilst all we see of Alfheim is generic forest, generic cave, and generic medieval town. The character design also suffers, with a lot of the characters looking goofy in-game due to their huge ears, being a lot less striking and suffering from a lack of variety.

Kirito, mate, I like you, I really do, but you look really stupid.

The main plot of the ALO arc has a lot of good points, but these bring with them huge negatives. Kirito spends the entire time working toward a goal which seems a lot less far-fetched than the 100th floor in SAO, which gives the story more momentum. There's also a more imminent threat: Asuna, still not woken up, is about to be forcibly married to Sugou, a man who is shown to be truly detestable. There are also some more intimidating threats revealed later in the story. This adds a lot more tension to the proceedings, as Kirito is forced to work against a time limit he's not sure he can beat.

However, Asuna spends most of the story sitting in a cage, not doing much, relegated to the typical princess-in-a-tower role, talking about how she's waiting for Kirito to come save her. This isn't something I usually have an issue with,  as long as it's done well (though it rarely is) but I found it disappointing that we didn't get more time to admire the cool hard-ass Vice Commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath, Lightning-Flash Asuna (which, by the way, is a goofy nickname). The fact that Asuna is just supremely dull in the ALO arc doesn't help.

To be fairer, have a look at one of the cooler places in Alfheim

The other characters here are a lot more memorable than in the SAO arc, perhaps because there's considerably less of them. You've only really got Kirito, who is as much of an archetypal young hero as ever, his sister Sugu (and her in-game avatar, Leafa), his "adoptive daughter" Yui, Asuna and the villain, Sugou. I've criticized Asuna, but Kirito does his job decently: He's goofy when he needs to, cool when he has to, and is better at showing emotion at reasonable times and reasonable levels for reasonable reasons than most characters in his position, though, to be fair, this remains largely unchanged from the SAO arc.

Leafa is a fairly good character. As I said, in the real world her story is rather touching despite its rather uncomfortable nature. Still, she has a strong personality, and comes across as noticeably different from Asuna, despite filling the same role she did in the SAO arc. The writers are pretty good at keeping her story from becoming too oppressively sad, and she's still often shown to be cheerful. My biggest issue with her is how weirdly fan-servicey she is, in both her incarnations. Whilst the SAO arc avoided fan service for the most part, both Leafa and Sugu have a weird number of shots of their breasts (which appear to change size and get ridiculously huge for these occasions) and hips. This also spreads to Asuna during the ALO arc (even including what comes dangerously close to a tentacle rape scene for no apparent reason), so perhaps it's a new direction the producers decided to take. Still, Asuna isn't around nearly as much, so we don't really get much of this with her. It just seems strange to suddenly include a fanservice character after having not gone in this direction for the first arc, especially considering how much screentime Asuna (a supposedly very attractive female character) previously had.

Hello, my name is boobs... I mean Leafa.

Another of the more important characters, Yui, is a strange one. She was arguably a major character in the SAO arc, despite only being in it for a couple episodes, due to her pretty massive influence on Kirito and Asuna's characters. Giving you her backstory would be spoilerific, but she ends up becoming kind of an adoptive daughter for Asuna and Kirito, going as far as referring to them as Mommy and Daddy. It's rather moving in the SAO arc, because of how briefly it happens, and her return in the ALO arc is also originally moving. However, she gives many more indications at her true nature here (which makes her presence less touching, though saying what she is is, once again, spoilerific), and she's around enough for it to be unsettling that the 16 and 17 year old Kirito and Asuna have pretty much adopted a child now.

However, perhaps the strongest point of the ALO arc is Sugou, the villain. I won't say too much, but
he's an absolutely brilliant character. He's a really hateable figure, and is also terrifying in that, for a lot of the arc, there genuinely doesn't seem to be a way to stop him. Unlike Akihiko Kayaba, who offers a clear way out and disappears, Sugou is constantly present through the story, and is most definitely not playing fair.

Unfortunately, he's perhaps set up a bit too well as unstoppable, because the ending of the ALO arc reeks of bullshit. There's a series of plot contrivances that not only can't be explained by the fact that this is an MMO, but actually make even less sense that way. Still, I found it hard to care: Sugou is shown to be such a piece of human scum that I didn't really mind letting the writers bend the rules to have him get his comeuppance.

A man who can make that face cannot be trustworthy

The final episode of the series could technically be considered part of the ALO arc, but, after the first five minutes, is just as relevant to the SAO arc. It's a lot less action-packed, and almost serves as an epilogue, but it puts a nice, satisfying end to what's happened so far, whilst still leaving room for more to happen in this world with these characters. Which, as it happens, is good because the light novels this is based on went on considerably longer. And there's also a second series of SAO, named, shockingly enough, Sword Art Online II.

And now, introducing, the Animu and other film-type stuff review system!
 
Which works exactly like my game one, except there's 5 fairly self-explanatory ratings at the end rather than 2 obtuse ones scattered through the review.

Character & World Building: 7.5/10
The two arcs seem to suffer from opposite problems: Aincrad is a really cool world, but there's too many characters for many of them to be memorable, whilst Alfheim is bland but inhabited by a smaller, more interesting cast of characters. Still, the problem of each world doesn't really bring down my enjoyment of the events that happen within them. The biggest hit this category takes is the series' handling of Asuna, who is immensely enjoyable to have around before she gets officially together with Kirito and frustratingly boring after.

Story: 7/10
Both arcs have problems with their overall story. The Aincrad arc, probably the worse one as far as story goes, sets a far-away objective, and then meanders around before almost stumbling into it at the end. Whilst the meandering is entertaining enough to forget about the overall objective, that's just as much a diss at the main plot as it is a compliment to the meandering about. The Alfheim arc, on the other hand, sets a much clearer and more attainable goal, and focuses more on getting there, but is forced to also spend time in the real world, which reduces its sense of momentum. It's also got a few plot threads that don't really go anywhere, or at least have a fairly minimal payoff. The fact that death isn't permanent anymore like it was in SAO is also a big hit, since situations loose their tenseness as soon as you remember no one can die.

Visuals: 5/5
Absolutely gorgeous in almost every regard. Environments look amazing, battles look amazing, characters look amazing (though less so in the second arc), and it has some really nice implementation of videogame HUD elements: Stylish, non-intrusive, and useful for the plot.

Sound: 3/5
Kept from being the average 2.5 by the fantastic intro songs and the couple amazing battle themes. Most music is appropriate enough for the situation, but easily forgettable, and voice-acting is standard anime fare. I mostly watched the Japanese version with subtitles, though I did switch to English a couple times out of curiosity, and what I heard of the English dub also seemed very run-off-the-mill.

Enjoyment: 9.5/10
As this is perhaps the only non self-explanatory category: This is the enjoyment I personally extracted from this thing, ignoring things that I know are objectively bad that I subjectively didn't mind. A huge amount of fun from beginning to end: SAO manages to be tense, adrenaline-pumping, funny, feel-good, disturbing, saddening, and relaxing exactly when it needs to be. Despite all of SAO's problems, I grew attached to Kirito and Asuna, and, despite its horrific death-trap nature, I fell in love with Aincrad. Even if just for those three, I'll likely be revisiting this series.

Overall: (7.5+7+5+3+9.5)/40 =
               32/40
               (simplifies to 8/10)

I think it's enough to say that I'll be watching SAO2 as soon as humanly possible. For all its flaws, SAO is a fantastic time. It's gorgeous to watch, it's got entertaining storylines, and, despite the fact that by all rights I shouldn't, I get ridiculously invested in each episode I watch. Whilst the ALO arc was somewhat weak, it was still a great investment of my time, and the SAO arc was, in almost all respects, an absolute blast. The series is far from perfect, but it manages to get enough right for the flaws only to appear when looked at in retrospect.

The 3rd Best Thing I Played in 2014

FTL: Faster Than Light

I love games that create a world. People often misunderstand what I mean by that: They assume I mean an in-depth world, with tonnes and tonnes of lore and backstory. Often, this is the case: That's the reason I love stuff like The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect or Dragon Age. However, sometimes a world can even be randomly generated, have next to no lore, and still be really captivating and charming.

That's precisely what FTL excels at. It creates a Star Trek-style sci-fi world, where the galaxy is full of unmapped corners and exciting, but deadly encounters. It manages to perfectly encapsulate the feeling of being a brave starship commander, brushing up against the deadly unknown, pursued by a fleet of overpowering force. In many ways, it's more Star Trek: The Game than any Star Trek game ever released.

Add to the unpredictability of the unexplored a deceptively simple combat system, overwhelming difficulty, and you're practically guaranteed to be constantly teetering on the edge of disaster: You're just one ship out against a hostile galaxy, and you're more stumbling through the galaxy in hopes of not dying than anything else. This is amazing levels of fun, and endlessly replayable. In other words, FTL is one hell of a game. If Amnesia is the pinnacle of inducing emotion through gameplay, FTL is the master of worldbuilding through gameplay. I absolutely love this game, and it's a sign of how many quality games I played this year that it's only coming in third.

(Don't name your games Initials:What They Stand For though. Faster Than Light: Faster Than Light. Devil may Cry: Devil May Cry)

The 4th Best Thing I Played In 2014

Fistful of Frags

I'm largely a story and atmosphere-based gamer: Those are the things I value the most. As such, I'm not a huge shooter fan in most situations, yet alone of online shooters. I played a lot of Team Fortress 2, but that was mostly as an excuse to hang out with friends. I dabbled in Tribes: Ascend, but that never really caught my attention. Part of the reason I ended up burned out on Team Fortress (which, don't get me wrong, is a phenomenal game) is how random a lot of my deaths seemed: I'd get sniped from across the map, a Spy would stab me out of nowhere, a critical rocket would fly into me just as I turned a corner, or an Engineer would set up his sentry in the most. infuriating. position.

I eventually heard of the western-themed Fistful of Frags through TotalBiscuit's popular WTF is... series, and he gave it a hearty recommendation. I can't really say I was too impressed with the showing, but I thought I'd give it a try. It's free, right? How could this hurt?

What I got is one of the absolute most enjoyable online experiences I've ever had. Fistful of Frags is an extremely hard game. As an online shooter, this means that it's extremely fair. If you're dead, in almost every circumstance, it's because your enemy was better than you. The fact that the gunplay is challenging also makes it extremely satisfying with every shot hit. This is no Call of Duty, where you can hip-fire mid-sprint with perfect accuracy. If you want to pull off a shot with a revolver, you're going to have to slow down and carefully aim your shot, but if you slow down too much you'll become an easy target. Every battle is a tense balancing-act between mobility and accuracy. Shotguns are easier to hit with from a close range, but hold few shots or require long animations between them, making you a sitting duck when you're out of ammo. Bows are silent and long-range, but require several shots to kill with and arc like motherfuckers. Rifles will likely take out your target at range, but require you to use actual iron sights (None of this "holo" or "red-dot" nonsense), making hitting an enemy from afar really difficult, as well as often suffering from the reload issue. Every gun feels fantastic to use, every encounter is a tonne of fun, and every match devolves into a frantic battle for survival.

Take all that, add a bit of silly western flavor into the mix like the ability to dual-wield
any combination of one-handed weapons, restoring your health by getting drunk off whiskey and having your aim sway, and a community full of people willing to limit themselves to a gentleman's boxing (and kicking) match when required, and you've got yourself an absolute blast of a time.

The 5th Best Thing I Played in 2014

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

I'm not a fan of horror games. I don't like feeling scared, and I've got a bad case of being an absolute scaredy-cat, so even the least effective horror leaves me stirred. That said, it's been years since anything managed to disturb me so deeply that I had to go back to the habit I left behind at 11 years old: Sleeping with the lights on. Amnesia managed to do this to me.

I wrote a post about how effectively the game uses its mechanics to convey horror. It's truly a brilliant, twisted thing that Dark Descent does. This, combined with its masterful sense of pacing, its fantastic aesthetic, and the intriguing but disturbing storyline that Daniel slowly remembers as he goes deeper into the terrifying depths makes for a truly unmatched experience. Like many of the games that made it onto the list, I never finished Amnesia, but this was a consequence of the game's resounding success at doing what it set out to do: Terrify me so deeply that I didn't want to come back. Still, judging from everything I've seen, I made it about 2/3rds of the way through, and, despite my distaste for horror, Amnesia managed to make an overwhelmingly positive impression on me. This is a game I strongly recommend to anyone without a heart condition, and probably my favourite horror game of all time.

The Best I Played 2014: Introduction and Honourable Mentions

So, the year is over again, and, because most people do these things, I feel like it's time to look back at what fun and fanciful times I spent in 2014. Much like in 2013, the main issue with this is that I don't really play modern games: Most of my purchases are made on Steam during sales, or the occasional second-hand pick-up for a game on a console outdated by a couple generations. As such, rating my top games from this year would produce a very short and very biased list.

Now, not all of these games will have been reviewed on this blog. The reason for this is twofold: First, I (relatively rarely) get lazy after beating a game and don't review it. It might be just sheer laziness,  but sometimes I just don't have anything to say about a game, as was the case with the first Metal Gear Solid, which I hinted at at the end of my Persona 3 review. The second reason is that I feel a game must be finished before I can review it, especially considering my inclination toward story-based games. There's been a number of these games that I haven't finished, or that are unfinishable, and, as such, no review will go up.

I have an internal one-franchise rule, mostly to stop my last year's list from having three Phoenix Wright games on it, and to stop my number one or two from being HearthStone each year. This means that a couple of the games I'd put on my list are relegated to the honourable mentions gallery: A place where I put games that I feel deserve a spot on the list, or at least a mention, but don't fit on there for one reason or another. By pure coincidence, that is exactly what the rest of this post will be dedicated to filling out.

Honorable Mentions:

HearthStone: Goblins vs Gnomes
Yes, I am still playing this darn thing, and I'm still having just as much fun with it as I did last year. It's certainly the game I've spent the most time with this year, and I don't regret any of it. There's been a couple of expansions that have shaken up the meta, the small "adventure" of Curse of Naxxramas, and the massive Goblins vs Gnomes. Whilst GvG was slightly disappointing to me in that it didn't slow down the meta as much as I hoped, it still provided 120 new cards to play around with, and more HearthStone is always welcome. With more card combinations that ever to play around with, as well as a now slightly less net-decky meta, the game is better than it's ever been. Now, Blizz, if only you released an expansion that didn't encourage aggro even more, that would be great.

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
After playing and rather liking the two latest Persona games I decided to check out some other games in the underground giant that is the Shin Megami Tensei series. Being a bit intimidated by the famed difficulty of the main-stream of the series, and having been informed the Persona combat system is different enough to not really be good preparation for them, I tried the supposedly easier Digital Devil Saga. What awaited was a somewhat grindy RPG with a really enjoyable combat system and a very twisted world. The story is intentionally kept minimal, but effective, and the game oozes atmosphere out of every pore, building a creeping sense of unease. It's not horror, per say, but you can tell that there's something wrong with this world. Unfortunately, I never finished this game, getting side-tracked by real-life stuff. Another reason why it's stuck in honourable mentions is that there'll be another SMT game on the list proper, surprising no one who reads this blog.

Dust: An Elysian Tail
A game that I only started playing toward the end of the year and haven't yet had the chance to finish, this is one I actually struggled desperately to keep on the actual list, but got just edged out. It's a Metroidvania/Platformer/Beat'em'up title made by a one-man team. The game looks absolutely gorgeous, rivalling even Bastion's beauty, previously unchallenged in my eyes. To add to this, it's also an extremely satisfying, very fluid beat'em'up, though I wish the enemies had a little more health. It's a blast to play, it's gorgeous to behold, and the story isn't half-bad either.

SpaceChem
Yet another game that just barely didn't make the cut: SpaceChem is quite possibly the greatest puzzle game ever made. The mechanics are next to impossible to describe, but they are exactly what a puzzler needs: Extremely simple, yet creating an absolutely dumbfounding amount of depth. The puzzle-solving allows for a surprising amount of different solutions, even though for each level the game asks for the same end result. The best description of the game I've ever seen is on MatthewMatosis' channel, with this handy link leading you there (you should watch his other stuff, too. It's all top-notch content). Unfortunately, I'm too dumb to get more than a dozen levels in, but it's a really nice game to spend an evening puzzling over, and the feeling you get when you succeed is really without peer. It's really my own stupidity keeping it from being really high on the list.