As is becoming an annual tradition here at Push Square Towers, we’ve corralled our core group of staff writers and prodded them until they’ve told us what their favourite five games of the year are. With such a strong assortment to select from, added force was required in some instances. We've had to drag Ramsey away from prime holiday game time to bring you this list.
Fifth Choice: Assassin's Creed Origins
Assassin's Creed Origins ended up being the surprise hit of 2017 for me. The project always seemed to have potential, but I honestly never expected to enjoy the finished game as much as I did. Like all great open worlds, Egypt is a joy to explore. It's one of the series' best ever settings, and the level of detail on show is just crazy at times. I loved the shift to action RPG-style gameplay, and even after mopping up every map marker, I still feel the urge to travel back to Origins' sun-blasted sands.
Fourth Choice: Yakuza 0
I've been a huge Yakuza fan for years, but I'll be the first to admit that the series was just starting to drag a little on the PS3. Enter Yakuza 0, which made me fall in love with Japan's seedy underbelly all over again. The way the narrative is split between mainstay Kazuma Kiryu and calculated nutter Goro Majima kept me on the edge of my seat, and that devilishly addictive disco minigame is now one of my favourite property pastimes. It's a standalone origin story that sets everything up perfectly.
Third Choice: Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
"Oh FFS, Ramsey's put a bloody remaster in his Game of the Year list," I hear you mutter. Well you can get stuffed, buddy -- I adored Dragon's Dogma when it was running at 23 frames-per-second on PS3, and the comparatively stable PS4 port reminded me exactly why it's such a special game. This is crazy old Capcom at its finest. Dragon's Dogma is a dark and dreary action RPG with one of the best combat systems in the biz, and its truly haunting atmosphere makes it an unforgettable experience.
Second Choice: Tekken 7
Unbelievably fun fact: Tekken 2 was the game that made me buy a PSone. I was just a kid back then, but ever since, Tekken has been a mainstay source of entertainment for me and my family over the years. Tekken 7 brought the magic back after such a long time, and I reckon it's the best that the series has been since the now legendary Tekken 3. I can just never get enough of its bone-crunching gameplay, and I dread to think how many hours I've put into this latest instalment.
First Choice: Persona 5
Well would you look at that, it's Persona 5. Not only is Persona 5 the best game I played in 2017 -- by some distance -- I consider it to be one of the best games I've ever played, period. Really enjoying a game is one thing, but enjoying almost every single moment of one is another thing entirely, and that was me with Persona 5. The way it balances its multiple different gameplay components is masterful, and even now, more than half a year after its release, I can't get over how good it looks. Utterly spellbinding.
What do you make of Robert's RPG-heavy selection? Level yourself up in the comments section below.
Comments 38
Have you ever tried Horizon yet haha. Playing Origins atm and after that is P5!
Finally someone gets it right !
Feel the same way about Persona 5. No game came close to it. Up there with my favourite games of all time.
40 hours into Persona 5 and nope, waste of time. I don't understand what people see in this game. Looks cool but that's about it...
@kyleforrester87 ain't gaming great!
@hi_drnick only when I say so!!!
Excellent pick for number one!I still say Horizon is my number one but Persona 5 is my second without a doubt.
Was hoping to receive Assassins Creed Origins yesterday but I got The Evil Within 2 and some psn vouchers instead which I'm still more than happy with
@kyleforrester87 Go back and check Persona 5 was definatly the game you were playing
I really like Assassin's Creed Origins. Would even put it above Horizon: Zero Dawn. If you asked me before the year began if I thought the next AC would even come to close to being as fun as Horizon, I'd have laughed.
@Wazeddie22 dull dungeons..cool but repetitive soundtrack.. long drawn out sequences where I'm not in control.. frequent unnecessary exposition.. that annoying cat.. I'm pretty sure it was Persona 5!!
While i enjoyed Persona 5 and appriciate various elements that make it a good or a very good game, I can definitely see where @kyleforrester87 is coming from.
I am curently really enjoying AC Origins. Your list is great, loved Persona 5.
@kyleforrester87 There's always one...
Nah, but like @Lurker has already said, I do understand where you're coming from. I absolutely adore Persona 5 but I'll be the first to admit that it certainly isn't for everyone. I think the pacing in particular is enough to put a lot of people off since it's all very (very) methodical at times. But I personally enjoyed that aspect of it — I enjoyed chewing through each scene bit by bit.
Honestly, I played Persona 5 like it was an anime. Episode by episode by episode, and I think that probably helped keep things fresh. Ultimate weeb tactic.
@ShogunRok I can see why people like it too, and had it received 7-9s across the board I'd be a bit less unreasonable with my criticisms of it. It's just I can't quite understand why it was universally praised so!
It's my loss though, I guess. JRPGs redeemed themselves for me this year with the brilliant Xenoblade 2 which I poured over 100 hours into this month and I'm still thinking about going back to it as I sit playing Zelda.
@kyleforrester87 Yeah I’m playing it at the moment and it sounds like I like it more than you but it’s beyond bloated. It’s absolutely insane how much padding there is.
Nevertheless, great list — another really varied one! If my list was a Sammy list, then this is a Toukiden 2 away from being a Ramsey list.
Finally the correct choice. Currently replaying Persona 5 for the third time, I don't think I've ever enjoyed a game so much.
Persona 5 is the ultimate game to seperate the Otakus from the fakearkus. I found the dungeons better than p4 but too long and some of the find the security card mechanics yawn worthy, and I wish the starting characters werent the most boring! But those moments when you are in the anime and it all clicks together are brilliant!
Great list again. Pushsquare writers are the best!
@get2sammyb can we expect a full write up when you are done? I adore the game, but would be really interested in your thoughts when you have finished. I can understand the criticisms. Is it my game of the generation? Absolutely, but even i can see that there was bloat. I thought i was done, but then found i had 2 additional dungeons which i rushed to complete to ensure i was done before my daughter was born. I have to admit, i resorted to farming the reaper using an exploit to level up so i could finish a little more quickly
@Rob_230 I doubt I’ll do anything on it at this point TBH. Haven’t finished it yet anyway. Long way to go. Apparently. 😩
Looks like I need to check out Dragons Dogma at some point, that one kind of passed me by somehow.
Persona 5 is brilliant, despite the methodical, almost ritualistic repetition of certain elements of the game. I do think the game could probably be shorter, but I enjoyed every moment of it so much that I didn't really mind the bloat. Definitely my JRPG of the year, although not my game of the year (BotW was the change I've wanted to see in the Zelda series for years).
@kyleforrester87 Oh man, if you think Persona 5 has dull dungeons, then never go back and play previous ones. The dungeons in P5 are actually hand-designed and full of puzzles and interconnectivity, whereas the dungeons in P3 and P4 were randomized hallways. Persona 2's dungeons aren't terrible, but the gameplay itself is horrendously boring, and the original Persona's dungeons are long, horrible mazes.
@ShogunRok Let’s not do that today - Morgana
@ShogunRok Haha Tekken 2 was also the game that got me to buy a PS as well. I remember being big into SF II at the time. When I went into my local Blockbuster one night there on the display was some fighting game with a humanoid lion. I had to try it out. A few months later my friend got a PS along with Tekken 2 which we spent hours playing and I have been hooked every since.
@Ralizah I played P4 for 20 hours and yeah, I can see what you're saying.
@Neolit NIER! NIER! NIER! Yes, I loved Nier, and it's a damn shame it hasn't shown up on someone's GOTY list yet. What gives...?!
@kyleforrester87 It was in Kell's. But... I have bad news.
Props for showing Dragon's Dogma some of that well deserved love and praise. I'd love a single player sequel.
Yeah, replace Tekken 7 with NieR and you got yourself a pretty solid list there.
@get2sammyb I missed that, but don't go telling me it doesn't show up in the official PS GOTY list, I'll be throwing down I swear!
@kyleforrester87 I played P4 over the course of a year or so and I really enjoyed it that way. P5 is going to be the same for me — just playing it in spurts and when I do, I always really like it. It’s a game that is pretty easy to resume after a break, unlike some games. I don’t expect to finish it for a long time, while playing other games in between sessions with P5. The cat is a lot more charming in small doses 😂
And yes .... I say we riot if NieR is not on the official PS GOTY list! @get2sammyb
I love Persona 5's soundtrack. I still listen to it's music often and I finished the game in May!
@kyleforrester87 I love P4 to death, but those dungeons are horrendously boring to play through. It's why I love P5 so much: they took the strong social aspects of P3/P4 and married them to superior dungeon design and battle mechanics.
Although, if I'm being honest, it doesn't take long for every fight to devolve into "All Out Attack"-athons. I wonder how many hours of my life I've spent watching the animations for those attacks play out...
@Ralizah The boss battles were pretty sweet and often I'd be winning them by the skin of my teeth, but the moment to moment battles got pretty stale for me and coupled with the overly long ending animation and Morgana bigging me up every 15 seconds it just got a bit too tiresome.
@Neolit What's wrong, never played a 30 hour prologue before?!
@Neolit I'm guessing that question was aimed @kyleforrester87 instead,especially going by his reaction lol.But no I haven't played it despite it being a game I thought I might of bought day one.Going by all the praise it has though I think I really need to see what the fuss is about
@kyleforrester87 I like the game, but you have some true statements! The exposition sometimes is beyond boring and has some of those classic japanese culture things where they need to say the same exact things 3 times in different sentences like we're all 5 yo.
Anyway, I also think HZD is overrated too and I don't think it's the best game I played this year, like so many people say! It's a great great game but boy some of the quests were really boring (only the story saved them)...so yeah not everyone can love the same games I guess! UNLESS IT'S YAKUZA 0 <3
I loved Persona 5, it's my second favorite game of this year, just behind Horizon.
And Robert on that picture looks like Beck. xD
@kyleforrester87 Everybody has different opinions. For example, the new Zelda is way overrated, terrible combat, boring quests, no dungeons at all, the narrative is awful. It's really lame how you need to collect memories through the open-world. Don't let me start with the useless dlcs, I'm still pissed that I bought that garbage. A new difficult mode, are you serious?
I had a way better experience with Horizon and Persona 5. ^^
@PS_Nation ahh I'm only maybe 10-15 hours into Zelda. I'm not really sure what I think of it. I liked it, then I wasn't sure, now I'm enjoying it more again. I dunno if I'll stick with it, but I went full throttle and got all the DLC from the start so I should stumble across the extras over the course of my play through. I am already enjoying it more than I did Persona. The exploration is a lot better than Horizon (especially since I disabled the shrine sensor) but I don't know if I'll end up liking it more than that game overall...
I just finished P5 yesterday and it was one of those games I just didn't want to end. I loved everything about it. I've been playing since release and "taking my time" with it! Now that I've finished I have a persona shaped hole in my world...well at least until I start a new game+ that is!
@kyleforrester87 Like some others here, I can see what you're saying. The only one I really agree with is Morgana. Worst character in the game, and it ain't a contest. Everything else I could personally apply to almost any RPG. At least the exposition and pacing anyway. I could deal with those after playing MGS4.
I understand the game isn't for everyone (and I mean that in the best possible way), but for me personally, it was a mix of everything I like in a RPG: enjoyable combat, honest dungeon design (though it does get bad a couple of times), characters I could get into, a good balance of challenge and accesability, and a plot that's, while ultimately unsubtle, is enough to leave an impression on me and get me thinking. I'll admit I'm not too much of an RPG whiz, but it did the job for me and then some.
I find Dogma to be pretty awful. Bad combat, incredibly errand-driven. Disappointed to have spent the money on that one. Can't say the others on the list really appeal to me, other than perhaps Tekken, but thankfully there is enough variety out there that we all can enjoy games suited to our own tastes.
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