Part two of my special feature (har har) on gaming of 2012. If Jim Sterling can have awards (bad ones; how XIII-2 isn't on his list of shittiest games of 2012 is beyond me) then so can I, I'm at least as arrogant as he is. Ahahaha.

This list is harder than it should be, as a lot of the games I enjoyed were released in late 2011, and I spent most of my time playing or replaying those...to be honest, it's more like a top three, rather than a top five, but there we are. Usual disclaimer about this shit being my opinion and you being able to sod off if you don't like it because I don't care whether you agree with me or not applies. Blah blah blah. These are in order. The winner may surprise you...or perhaps not, if you can remember my journal entries from January. Either way, enjoy~

5. Dishonored

I know, I know, I just got this yesterday...but I spent literally all morning today playing it, and it's already sitting pretty on my list...in fact, it's only because I got it yesterday that it's sitting in at third. This is a fantastic fusion of the best parts of Bioshock and Metal Gear Solid, and I'm in love with it already for it...sneaking around in gritty locations, either going with the simple route of running around and knifing everyone you see, or doing something more elaborate like stopping time, firing your crossbow at someone's face, then watching the magic unfold as time unfreezes. Rats have also taken on a terrifying pack mentality in this. You can also just not kill anything at all, and go with non-lethal takedowns...well, maybe in my second or third playthrough. The freedom this game affords you is fantastic; you can either go in all-guns blazing, or pick everything off one at a time...I've gone with a bit of both thus far, and think I prefer the stealth approach. It's infinitely more satisfying to sneak up behind someone and slash their throat out than it is just to charge, parry, and slash them apart in a couple of hits.

The setting is one of the most appealing aspects, though...it reminds me quite a lot of The Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2, with its delightful steampunk scenery, grimey alleyways and interesting technology. Can't really comment on the story yet; I've not been paying much attention. But this appeals to the sadist in me, and I've been presented with some very interesting choices thus far...kill someone directly, or indirectly bring them to ruin? Decisions, decisions. The ability to play however you please is one of Dishonored's biggest selling points, and I am so very very glad I managed to get my hands on it.


4. Pandora's Tower

I got bored of The Last Story pretty quickly - it just didn't measure up to Xenoblade; but then, nothing can - but Pandora's Tower I enjoyed a lot. The Zelda franchise could learn a thing or two about how to design decent dungeons from this game; whilst towers followed the sort of themes and patterns one might expect, they were sufficiently varied to keep me amused, and the story wasn't too bad either, if a little underwhelming. Although it was difficult not to feel sorry for Elena, and the added time factor added a reasonable sense of urgency.

But the main reason I kept playing this were the bosses, and the soundtrack. Much like Drakengard, Pandora's Tower drew upon classical music for its themes, making it an instant hit with me. A game that is daring enough to use Dies Irae as its main theme AND pull it off successfully is a noteworthy game. The bosses themselves were also much more varied than I had expected; people compare this to Shadow of the Colossus quite a bit, although I would argue that it is more streamlined and infinitely more enjoyable...and lacks the empty landscapes that characterized that game to me.

3. Borderlands 2

The original Borderlands was something of a surprise for me; initially, I didn't like the look of it, but I got the Game of the Year edition for my 21st birthday, and since then I've played it at least half a dozen times. It has an appealing art style, a colourful (if often annoying) cast of characters, and it's just plain fun. So naturally the sequel, which improves upon the gameplay of the original and even attempts to inject a little story into it (failing miserably, but making up for it with the NPCs) is definitely making my list.

Unfortunately, this game had all of the annoying NPCs in it from the previous game - Scooter and Claptrap namely, and the original Vault Hunters were extremely annoying for how crap their invented characters were - but the new NPCs more than made up for that. I love how fantastically novel they all are, Tiny Tina in particular. She needed more lines and sidequests; I can't remember the last time an NPC made me laugh so hard. Ellie was nice to see, as well. Handsome Jack was a wonderful antagonist...he was such a bastard. I know the moment when Mordecai's Bloodwing was killed was supposed to be a very serious and emotional moment, but I was too busy laughing at Jack complaining he didn't have a violin...then finding one and subjecting my ears to abysmal violin playing. The last time a villain made me laugh that much I was playing BioShock, running around killing people and taking pictures of their dead bodies for Sander Cohen. We need more villains like Handsome Jack; ones who can be nothing more than a voice over the radio, yet have so much personality that they put on an absolutely fantastic show. Jack, more than anything else, made this game worthwhile for me.

I didn't care for the story - yet another anticlimactic ending and an excuse to milk the franchise further, hurrah! - but everything felt considerably more polished, and I actually died a couple of times as well. There was more to do with the area challenges you could either ignore or do, and most of them you did anyway by way of playing the game, and the sidequests themselves were just more involving and funny. Like Ellie's gang war, or Tiny Tina's tea party. This was definitely the game we should have gotten the first time around, and the original Borderlands was pretty damn awesome as it was.

...plus, Zero talks entirely in haiku. How cool is that? There are also numerous wonderful references in the dialogue that are delightfully subtle. I have yet to try the expansion packs, although I expect great things, given how fun the original's were. For once, a decent sequel to a Western game that does enough different to be worth the purchase. BioShock and Assassin's Creed could learn a thing or two here, and Call of Duty should be taking extensive notes.

2. Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland

I know I said Meruru was going to win this...but then I thought of something else, and it hopped ahead, if just barely. But that doesn't say anything less for the quality of the finale of the Alchemist of Arland trilogy...and what a wonderful finale it was. Just as Totori improved on Rorona, Meruru improved on Totori, and whilst I'd never ask for another instalment - although I will beg for the PS Vita version - I'm genuinely sorry to see it end, because it's just so much damn FUN. Over the last three years I've grown very attached to Arland and its denizens, and that the story ends now seems a shame...but it ended on a very high note.

Time management isn't as huge a factor as it was in past games either, which is nice. Rorona was insane, because you had to manage your life as well as everyone else's to get the true ending, and room for error was so marginal it was nerve-wracking throughout. Totori wasn't much better, because you could be halfway across the map and need to be back in time for dinner certain events with characters. With Meruru, you get a lot of events at once at times, but essential things are very difficult to miss; you have a greater feeling of control over what ending you trigger. It isn't so much about triggering character flags, which gives the game a very natural feeling, and puts you more in control: you can choose to build Rorona's pie shop, or you can ignore it entirely. If you want the Hot Spring ending, you can build the Hot Spring. It's not quite so black and white anymore. You still have the objective of population growth, so it isn't entirely directionless, but it has a nice balance between entirely free-roaming and controlled gaming that gives you plenty of room to play how you want; something that was started in Totori with adventuring, but has since been perfected in this.

It also adds to the charm of the game: it is, after all, about daily life and world-building. Things change around you - literally, as buildings pop up on the delightful pastel-style map - and life moves on, and being a Princess and the central protagonist, Meruru is at the heart of it all. It feels natural, and adds to the depth of Arls and what has already been established with the past two games. This is part of what makes Meruru such a fantastic game: it has two games worth of history to draw from, and if you've already played those two games you can get into the world instantly. Seeing old faces return - some for a second time - is wonderfully nostalgic, and it's nice to see how far they've come...or haven't come. Some, like Mimi, have changed completely, and others like Astrid remain exactly the same. In Rorona and Totori, a lot of time passes, and people change, but there is no physical change; the physical change for some characters is a nice one, and it adds a sense of closure to past events. There is enough of the old in here to tie it to past events, and enough of the new to make it so that you're not just treading over old ground. This is what sequels should be like. There is clear progression between Totori and Meruru, and yet the core gameplay remains the same. Item synthesis is still terrifyingly addicting

The cast is, predictably, fantastic: Gust use a lot of standard-issue anime voice actors, but most of the cast are virtual unknowns or fresh blood, and it gives the characters a certain amount of life...when you can't associate a character with another character, that character is suddenly a whole lot more interesting. There is some actual DEPTH to the voice acting, as well; unlike certain games I could name (coughfinalfantasythirteencough) characters are capable of more than just one emotion. Meruru develops with her nation; she goes from being a selfish, spoiled little princess to one who genuinely cares about the wellbeing of her nation. Her development seems more natural than either Rorona's or Totori's and, whilst her reasons for starting are entirely selfish, there is more of a personal investment in this, since you effectively decide how the nation is going to develop, and the more attention you pay to it, the more Meruru grows as a character. Rorona was more or less on her own with the workshop, and Totori adventured by herself. With Meruru, it's more of a team effort: she's got Totori to support her, she's constantly getting reports from Rufus about the state of affairs an what she needs to do next to advance the nation, and other characters often use her as their first port of call, because she's at the heart of it all. She is, after all, a Princess, and it's her task.

Also going to mention presentation here, because presentation has come a long way since Rorona, which was a slightly enhanced PS2 game in terms of visuals. Visuals don't really matter in games for me, but they ARE stunning in this one. The Atelier series has always had a pastel feel to it that isn't quite anime, but is much, much prettier than even the likes of Eternal Sonata. Colours are bright and cheerful, but not blatantly in-your-face in the manner of cel shading, and Meruru looks like something out of a classic storybook. That it responds to your chosen development only makes it better. Then, of course, there is the soundtrack, which is amazing, building on what already existed and expanding on it with some new tracks, deviating from the standard country fare that the Arland games have had thus far and throwing in a little rock and metal for good measure. The soundtrack also evolves in accordance to the landscape: the world map theme becomes more lively as you develop the nation; it puts me in mind of Yoshi's Island, where the map theme developed the closer you got to the end.

...that, plus I love Cadena. Both Rorona and Totori had quite reserved opening themes, and suddenly Meruru throws this loud, in-your-face opening to shake things up.

How Ayesha will top Meruru, I do not know...but I am definitely looking forward to finding out. Gust have become very good with their localizations over the past few years, and Meruru sits at the pinnacle of it all. Definitely worth a look-in.

1. Katawa Shoujo

Surprise! Really, who is surprised? I almost forgot about this, actually. Katawa Shoujo is something I followed in the final stages of its development - when the outcry started - with moderate interest, because it promised something that was completely different. The concerns about its nature were quite valid - 4chan is hardly the pinnacle of internet civilization, and I believe the name itself is classified as offensive, although I'm afraid my Japanese isn't advanced enough to know anything about that - but I decided to take the "Eh, if it's overly sexualized, I'll just delete it" attitude...it was free, after all, and whilst I'd had unsuccessful forays into the visual novel territory before, it couldn't hurt to try it before judging it. For doing something this daring, it warranted at least this much.

Holy crap, was this one a rollercoaster and a half. Katawa Shoujo is probably the most emotional game I've ever played, in that it elicited more reaction from me than just outright surprise. It made me FEEL, which no other game can claim. I've had "Holycrap!" moments from JRPGs, to be sure, but I've never actually felt anything for characters like this before. It made me angry, it made me sad, it had me on the edge of my seat, it had me running to catch the train to University because I just didn't want to stop playing it, and it actually made me feel happy and accomplished when I managed to get the best ending for the characters. I hated Hisao's attitude, but I think that was entirely the point...he seemed to represent the "normal" point of view, which was both relatable and a nice jab at the people who had been bashing the creation of the game. He was a starting point, I suppose you could say. Hisao didn't really matter, though: what mattered were the girls.

So, to the matter of the girls. I started with Lilly's path, which is perhaps a good thing, because had I started with Shizune's - who I am most pointedly going to ignore for the duration of this little explanation; she was a black mark on the whole thing - I wouldn't have carried on. Lilly's story was sensual and extremely well-written, albeit a bit cheesy in the traditional romantic way, but it definitely suited her character. Lilly's story also stands out to me in that it was the only one that really involved another of the girls, Hanako. Hanako actually ended up better off in Lilly's story than she did her own, which made her own story all the more infuriating, albeit in a good way. I wanted to strangle Hisao by the end of it. Emi's I'm going to gloss over, because I honestly didn't care for it...it all made sense by the end, but Emi herself was a very shallow and uninvolved character, and I think of all of them she was the most stereotypical and predictable: a girl with no legs who likes to run. There wasn't quite as much effort put into Emi as the others, I felt...she was still leaps and bounds ahead of Shizune, but nonetheless.

Now, to the one I really want to talk about: Rin. It was Rin's story more than anything else that made me bump Katawa Shoujo to the top spot in this list. There isn't anything to compare Rin's story to really; even her best ending was bittersweet, and the road getting there was one filled with extreme depression and conflict. I think the most appealing thing about Rin is that she actually resisted the romance aspect of things; everyone else gave in pretty quickly, but getting close to Rin was like trying to chew through brick at points. She was far more developed than any other character - what you saw wasn't what you got, by any means - and her thought process was fantastically complex. One second she's absently blunt, and the next she's throwing an amazing wall of text in your face that is damn near indecipherable. I think that was what made Rin most appealing: I didn't immediately get her. She actually required some thought to understand, and even then you could be way off.

But what was best about this game was that the concerns about it were entirely unfounded. Even with Hisao mentioning it constantly, I completely forgot that the girls in it were disabled; it didn't matter at all. No attention was drawn to it; it wasn't the focus of the dialogue. It was Hisao's focus, but that was HIS problem. He couldn't come to terms with it, and that was his own personality defect; it made him pitiable and pathetic and often detestable, but as I said, I think that was the whole point of his character. Nobody else seemed to care, and the matter was just brushed aside. I loved that about this game; it was just like any other visual novel of this nature, and it was extremely well-written, considering the source and the controversy that surrounded it. It was just like any other dating sim, yet it had some unique material in it which wasn't even consequential to the writing. In short, it was handled maturely, and was more than I was expecting, given the outcry. The only real problem was Kenji, who was not even remotely amusing, but I suppose you get something like that in every game, and he only popped up every now and again anyway.

I also have to give this game props for giving you the option to turn off the explicit scenes; it attempts to cater to everyone, and whilst most of the explicit scenes were cringeworthy in both writing and presentation, making me wish I HAD turned them off - this was particularly true of Emi's story, which was about 80% explicit and 20% everything else - it was a part of the experience, I suppose...I doubt Lilly or Hanako would have had such emotion to their storyline (with Lilly it seemed to be the culmination of a lot of emotional buildup, with Hanako it made me rage because it was essentially rape and I loathed her storyline anyway, no matter how well-written it was) without them, and with Rin...well, there is nothing to compare Rin to, really. I'm not really into that sort of thing, but at the same time, I can't imagine the game without it.

The only problem I can see with this is the huge difference in the quality of the writing. My order of play was Lilly -> Hanako -> Emi -> Rin -> Shizune, and I think that definitely affected me in my judgement. If I had played Hanako's story before Lilly's, I may not have been filled with such murderous rage when I played Hanako's story. If I had played Shizune's first, perhaps I wouldn't hate it so much...coming off Rin's, it was utter shit. If I'd played Rin's first, I probably would have written the others off when I did them, because she instantly became my favourite. If I'd played Emi's first, I might have written the whole thing off, because it came very close to confirming all the accusations against the game. Play order is very, very important with this one, and I just got lucky in that I went with Lilly first because she was the most intriguing, and through Lilly I was introduced to Hanako, and so on. If I absolutely had to recommend this to someone, I'd suggest a play order of Shizune -> Emi -> Lilly/Hanako -> Rin, to get the worst out of the way first so they're at least experienced...Rin would need to come last regardless. I'd be tempted to put Hanako before Lilly, but without Lilly's path experienced first I don't think Hanako's is anywhere near as emotional as it is otherwise. It's a difficult thing to judge properly. xD

Either way, Katawa Shoujo, a game done by an amateur studio, a one-off, wins the award from me for this year. It's definitely worth experiencing, and if you can get past the negativity surrounding it and just enjoy it for what it is, it's very enjoyable indeed. I don't know if I'll ever play another visual novel now...somehow I don't think anything else is going to be able to compare.