I played a lot of games in 2018… Although since I’m slowly drowning in my game backlog, many of those games weren’t from 2018. For example, I finally played Yakuza 0, which turned out to be a phenomenal game in every way. With that said, 2018 featured a lot of standout releases, so here are the ones I enjoyed the most.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country
While Xenoblade Chronicles 2 came out in 2017, its large DLC expansion Torna ~ The Golden Country came out in 2018. As a prequel to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, it received a standalone release and technically can be played on its own… but in doing so you’ll spoil most of the main game’s backstory, so I really recommend playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 first. Torna is a fantastic experience that actually improved on the game’s formula in a lot of ways. It was a more serious and emotional game, though not without its moments of humor, and it was a perfect slice of Xenoblade goodness to hold us over until the next game.
For which I am waiting patiently.
Earthlock
When I reviewed Earthlock: Festival of Magic back in 2016, I found it to be an interesting, nostalgic experience that didn’t quite live up to its potential. Developer Snowcastle games revamped the game for 2018 as Earthlock, and wow. They took the original mediocre release and turned it into something I have no qualms about recommending to anyone who enjoys classic turn-based JRPGs. New optional content, fleshed out character development, and an improved story fixed the areas where the original struggled. I was impressed by just how much they improved Earthlock, and I’m definitely looking forward to see what the developers do with their next game.
The 25th Ward: The Silver Case
The Silver Case is a weird visual novel/adventure game from Suda51, and its sequel The 25th Ward is also weird. Really weird. It’s hard for me to describe exactly what I played, but I was invested even when I didn’t know what was going on. Sometimes bleak and disturbing, sometimes darkly hilarious, and always bizarre, The 25th Ward: The Silver Case stands out to me as one of the strangest games I’ve ever played.
Deltarune: Chapter 1
When the official Undertale Twitter account alerted everyone to an upcoming announcement and then posted a link to something called Deltarune, I downloaded it immediately. I expected it to be a demo for Toby Fox’s next game, but I soon realized I wasn’t going to finish it in a single sitting. Far from the short demo I expected, it just kept going! Deltarune: Chapter 1 ended up taking me about three hours to complete, and I’m still not sure if I should consider it a really long demo or a short game that will get a sequel. Whatever it was, it had some great new twists on the Undertale format, a good sense of humor, and an ending that left plenty of room for speculation.
Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait until 2025 to play the rest.
God of War
I played a lot of God of War in 2018. Having never played a God of War game before, I asked fans of the series if it was important to have knowledge of the previous games beyond the basic concept, and they assured me that while it would add context to Kratos and his character development, I would be perfectly fine starting with the newest game. So of course I decided to play the God of War Saga first, because: character development! And really, it was worth it. The new God of War is filled with exciting moments, wonderful character interactions, and fantastic exploration (along with me remembering bits and pieces of Norse mythology as I played), but the emotional payoff from having taken Kratos’s earlier revenge-fueled journeys with him made it all the greater.
