Gone Home 2 obviously.

Uh, you think I don't know that? I absolutely loved Grandia 3's battle system. At it's best Lightning Returns rivals it, especially when you've got a semi-action based system to it(timing of guards and evade). It doesn't hold up on all battles (like random battles), but against tough enemies, damn it's good. It's sad how the hate has blinded people. How are you any different that the people that thought Grandia and SH have shit battle systems?

Grandia 3 had a crap story, and people gave it low reviews and so Square doesn't make those games anymore. Same with Valkyria Chronicles with Sega. Now we're likely to never get battle systems like Grandia, VC and what Lightning Returns gave us. Suikoden? Who knows. The genre is worse off when companies realise people just want carbon copies of old games. Pokemon sells a bunch, you want that battle system in FF?

Lightning Returns has a pretty damn good combat system. Shit story, but it's the only place I'll get a battle system like it, so I'll take it. At its best, the battle system is just, wow. Too bad people want to just jump on the hate.

I'd have played Bravely Default if could bring myself to play RPGs on handhelds. After Valkyria Chronicles 2, I just felt so underwhelmed by how much is sacrificed in handheld games/RPGs over a console version. What's the point really, just for the story? That's always massively subjective. For instance I'd have gotten 999 too, but after seeing a mate play it, I couldn't care less about that series now.

@toast_burner:

If you get it from GMG, you can get it for £30

Some stores are adding their own cuts on top of that: http://www.gamestop.co.uk/Xbox%20One/Games/45883/xbox-one-titanfall-bundle?&utm_source=tradedoubler

£370. Getting closer and closer to PS4.

LR:FFXIII's time limit has been a mixed baggage for me. When you just miss something, or find out your whole trek to a certain place was pointless because you aren't there at the right time, it can be extremely annoying. That said, you can still do a lot and can still get things done rather well. I haven't been looking at a guide for in-game things (just finding out how many quests there are and such), and I've done a hell of a lot in 3/4 of the time period allowed. There are many people complaining about the time limit, but it is pretty fair. If you suck at the battle system you will struggle though. The time limit exaggerates that.

I will say though, one reason I liked Catherine over Portal 2 was because the puzzles in Catherine had a greater sense of emergency. You had a kind of time limit to solve puzzles, whereas in Portal 2, you usually didn't. It personally made the puzzles more satisfying to me in Catherine than in Portal 2.

I don't particularly like the time limits in Persona games. Mostly because you will fail without a guide to do a lot of things. I feel that cheapens your first experience of the game. It's part of why I don't really care for the Persona series.

I guess it's not just down to the time limit set, but how the game is built around it.

Eh, I don't rank the worse I've played in order, but the bottom 3 are FFIV, FFVIII & FFXII.

IV because the game has no plot, only plot twists and 'meh' characters. Gameplay-wise it's nothing special, and hell, people complain about the crystarium but when you level up linearly AND blindly in IV, what the hell? People be picky with their hate.

VIII because the story fell apart. Some of the most annoying characters too. Gameplay was alright I guess, though abusable, but that is up to the player really.

XII because of bad pacing really. Loved the dialogue, but the story was so sparse and dragged on. Reddas was awesome though, and was what XII needed on a full scale. He was only in the party for like 3 gameplay hours, but his whole story subplot got told in that time. Because of Reddas, this probably isn't dead last. Gameplay-wise, the MMO style wasn't my thing, though I can see how certain people would adore it. In the end, the gameplay bored me too. Never did try the Zodiac License board (or whatever it was called) that made leveling better, but meh, pacing was bad. Oddly enough, I hated Balthier for the reasons people hate Snow.

Middle tier would be FFVI and FFXIII. After FFVI, Chrono Trigger and a couple other games, I now know better than to trust nostalgia fools harping on about older games being MILES better than newer ones. But at least I'm not totally blind in hatred to kick VI down further. It's so weird how VI has so much more in common with VII than IV (story-wise), yet the nostalgia geeks lump IV and VI together. Either way, at least now I know better. XIII has its share of flaws, but damn, I had fun with the gameplay, and it wasn't a copy-paste job from older FFs. It was it's own unique thing, but sadly people just want the same old same old gameplay. No wonder COD never changes.

2014 is the year of the RPG for sure.

At this moment, I'm most hyped for DA:I. That's mostly because I feel there's a massive amount of room for improvement and new things. This is EA though, so I also expect failure. While I am hyped and will definitely get Witcher 3 and Dark Souls 2, I feel like both games will be similar to their last game. Witcher 3 is supposedly becoming more like Skyrim, so not so sure there either.

After playing the demo, I'm cautiously looking at Lightning Returns too. Couldn't care less about the story, but I'm always a sucker for turn-based battles and it wasn't that bad for a solo action-rpg.

Not looking forward to any Tales Of games. Xillia left too much of a bad taste. And even though I did like Vesperia, I know even that game faltered towards the end. Companion AI needs major improvements too. I'd lump Persona 5 here too. Atlus have never impressed me with their stories so far (of what I've played), and while gameplay is turn-based, I do dislike the 'weakness' aspect. I'd probably still play it though over a Tales Of game.

I'm not getting a Wii U, so no X for me. I could actually play Bravely Default now if I wanted to, but I don't like gaming on handhelds.

FFXV isn't coming out next year. No way.

I may remember wrong, but last year GS separated PSN and PS3 games yea? So Journey won PSN GOTY and wasn't nominated in the PS3 section. So, Charizard's point still stands, and going by the past, I kinda agree.

GS will look stupid though if an 8/10 game wins GOTY, regardless of the semantics of one reviewer vs all staff.

Essentially, any remaining exclusives that win are possible competitors to TLOU. Heck, Resogun could be in contention too. Forza 5 too. GTAV and Bioshock Infinite are very unlikely. I wouldn't say TLOU has it locked down, but how many of the rest can actually best GTAV and BI too?