These Are The Top 15 Rated Games Of This Year So Far

@kinky-unikorn: The only hatred I possess is for the Beast. You don't know it, but it knows you. MS is a component of the beast; Sony is as well. I dislike both companies, but not the people that run them. It is not the flesh we fight against.

@i_p_daily: You sure do talk about me a lot for somebody that implies so much dislike for me...

#spunky ;)

@i_p_daily:

Define irrelevant:

Vroom Vroom games.

:)

@Desmonic: I don't see you complaining about me calling Persona 5 exclusive, why is that :-3

Also, pertaining to a different discussion- Persona 5 has sold 1.5 million worldwide. The 'niche' argument no longer holds, sorry guys, come up with new material.

In fact, if I'm not wrong, P5's last reported sales are higher than Gears 4's last reported ones. I may be wrong, feel free to send me a non VGC link if so.

Either way my point will stand.

@charizard1605: Because it says PS4 and PS3 there :P MK8 just said Switch.

@Desmonic: MK8D is indeed only on Switch, yes.

@charizard1605: Prrrettttyyyyyyyyyy sure MK8 is playable on the WiiU :v what features make it exclusive to the Switch? DLC + increase in FPS? :P If that's the argument, like I said, the Halo + Uncharted collections should be as well hehe

Other peoples opinions, yay? Some great stuff there and some stuff that is of no interest.

@Desmonic: Battle Mode, not on Wii U, including new stages and characters.

Uncharted Collection: Speed-Run mode, not on PS3, includes a timer, new skins and improved graphics :v

@Desmonic: K, but none of them is as major an addition as a battle mode, which is half of Mario Kart.

Thank you, try again :P

Agreed. I don't even read Japan is irrelevant much anymore. Maybe its also still alive because of Japan lovers. How long are they going to act like this is still a thing? I read it last gen and understood after the PS2 and prior gens they weren't as Prevalent.

It always comes down to what you, the gamer likes. Some gamers absolutely swear by scores. Have at it, I say. I swear by my interests. Don't care what that list tells me, there are games from all over that I am just not interested in.

As I told getyeryayasout I'm changing my name to "Danny Sixx" because I'll play HW2, Andromeda and Mafia 3 over quite a few of those games.

K, but Battle Mode already existed on WiiU so if anything it just added new maps and skins :v

Thanks, Uncharted and Halo collections are now full blow exclusives! :P

@Desmonic: you're preaching to the choir. I'm one of the people who argued that TLOU:R is a PS4 exclusive.

It's interesting that how the media is selling the Switch. Maybe Nintendo is very "friendly" to them.

60$ for a game that released three years ago and it's getting high scores. If it wasn't a Nintendo game...

But it's not! It's floppiness simply couldn't be contained on the PS3 and thus it "spread" towards the PS4 :P

The term exclusive has become a pathetic, fit it in how ever you wish these days in SW. Place has gone to pot.

Don't be a negative nancy bro >.>

It's Natasha, ok..................so who's this nancy? LOL

Hey, Breath of the Wild was bolded and the Wii U version was STILL mentioned. Could've gone a better way to list it though.

Nah, only MS pays off the media. ;)

Fine, but you need to finally decide which is better??!?!?

@hamburgharlot: "Persona 5 is such a niche game."

Now THAT'S damage control - especially because it seems like it's selling better than Halo Wars 2.

I'm going to fit my 2 cents in this thread which seem to fit the arguments going on.

The Japanese market very much matters, and has some of the best games of the gen.

I would call Mario Kart 8 deluxe an exclusive yes.

I would call most collections of games exclusive eg: Halo:MCC, Rare Replay.

@sHaDyCuBe321: I did 0_0

I'm looking for a game to buy (I think the only new game I've bought this year has been Horizon) does anyone have any suggestions?

I do not own, nor am I going to purchase, a Switch so Zelda is off the table. I was considering Nioh, I'm a big fan of Clavell's Shogun (both of which share the same protagonist) but I don't play very difficult games. I'd also rather not buy anything made by a Japanese company (haven't played a Japanese game I've enjoyed in a long time).

Any suggestions?

@cainetao11: Sorry, sorry, negative natasha! :P

Don't you bring reasonability to my argument! I want none of that!

All I want to know is who's saying Japanese games are irrelevant?

They have their fans and following but they dont appeal to everyone. Hell outside of a few select titles, the Japanese themselves buy less Japanese games than the rest of the world. Thats something to ponder on.

@R3FURBISHED: P5

Ok. So those 2 people must've picked up about 750,000 copies each around launch time, troll lmao

A JRPG? Big time pass, plus I really don't like anime.

I'm pretty sure the last Japanese game I played that was disappointing was Pokemon Gold/Silver.

It's insane how consistent the main Persona titles been. They seem to exponentially get better with every release.

If there was a Switch exclusive to argue, wouldn't it be Treasure Trove? Pretty sure all versions of Shovel Knight are getting upgraded to Treasure Trove and Switch just got it first.

@reduc_ab_: You think i hate you, that's sad. How can one hate someone they don't know?

I don't hate you, i like your comedic style when it comes to damage control, it's hilarious :)

@lrdfancypants: Well fancy pants and your comment, so there's 2 for ya lol

@i_p_daily:

Hehe :p.

Still, you resist.

I love you.

@charizard905 You missed Bayonetta on PC mate, 90 on Metacritic

Isnt Shovel Knight just a packaging of the base game and all its DLCs?

All I am going to say is that I am glad Ni-Oh made the list. It's my Silver Medal GOTY and only because Breath of the Wild is a ridiculous instant classic masterpiece that will probably be a go-to game twenty years from now when we are talking about Gen 11 consoles and shit.

That's no back-handed compliment to Ni-Oh, either.

Sucks for the guys who made Shadow Tactics that there game just blipped off the radar almost immediately.

PLAY PERSONA 5 FFS

@charizard1605: Is it a linear/on rails rpg or is there additional content to progress with? FFX was the kind of game that made me want to speed through a school zone and it seems that it is the quintessential "jrpg" ever since to the mouth breathers. If it's not in that vein, color me interested. I know nothing of the series mind you.

FFX sucks.

Persona 5 is hard to describe. Uhhh. It's linear in that it's not open world and there is a very tight story being told? But the game gives you full agency and control over your character. You basically play as a high school student, with the story set over the course of an entire year. You get full control over the character through each day of this year- and you have full control over what the dude does with his time. You can attend class (or slack off), you can hang out with one friend or the other, try to go after a girl you like, you can study in the library, work a part time job, play a video game, watch a movie, play sports...

And this is before the actual meat of the game is brought into the picture. Persona games follow the story of high school students who get involved in tangible manifestations of society's collective unconscious. This means you also have to dungeon crawl, and that can take up more of your already limited time.

Question- why would anyone do one thing or the other at all? Because everything that you do in the game contributes towards progress. Let's say you decide to study- studying improves your Knowledge, which means you do better on your exams, and also that you now have the chance to get closer to the studious character. Why would you want to get closer to them? Because the closer you are to a character, they better and more useful they are in battle. They'll be able to withstand attacks, shield you from hits, gain more experience, and unlock more abilities, among other things. Everything, either directly or indirectly, works towards enabling you to progress through the game's dungeon progression better.

Basically, it's full, total, absolute, true roleplaying. You're in a very definite, defined story, but you choose how you go through it. You decide how you spend your time, who you want to get close with, what you do with your free time, how much time you want to spend on dungeon crawling, all of that. All of this is wrapped up in some of the best aesthetics in the industry (stylistically), some of the best written and most empathetic characters, the best soundtracks in the industry, and some great, compelling, very well written stories, which handle some actual, meaningful things. Previous games in the series have tackled abandonment, suicide, abusive parenting, homosexuality, gender identity issues, abusive friendships, the pressure to perform and live up to expectations, external loci of identity, social consciousness, society's inherent desire for negative things to happen to generate gossip and discussion, unrequited love, rape, sexual abuse, child deaths, psychopathy, and the power of rumors, among other things, and Persona 5 goes a step above and beyond all of this to deliver the most thematically nuanced and mature story in the series.

All of this is to say, it's a great game. It enables player agency, not like Breath of the Wild does, but in letting you experience a very defined story in your own way. I do think it's something that warrants a look at- after all, it is the second highest rated game of this year, the highest rated PS4 game of all time (not counting remasters), the second highest rated game of the generation, and the highest rated JRPG of all time.

It is in a way.

Basically Persona has 2 styles of gameplay. One of these is very akin to the dating sims you can find on say... Newgrounds, it is fairly open ended, with you being able to skill grind or hang out with people to engage in various plot threads... the actual plot threads themselves are very linear however, so don't expect any Escape Velocity Nova kind of branching. The other part of the game is a linear dungeon crawler. That nonetheless has better combat mechanics than any Final Fantasy that isn't tactics.

Overall, Persona is more open ended than it on rails. So there is that.

I have made my absolute hatred for Persona very clear in the past, so I tried to stay as positive as possible.

Great year for gaming!

I'm one of those people who likes to git gud/grind hard for rare loot or bonus stats. Can I do that or is the time constraint a hinderance against min/maxing?

So it depends on what you mean. Are you talking about just min/maxing your battle stats? You can do that endlessly. You can grind that endlessly without any in game time passing- time in Persona is discrete, in that it only passes once you choose to perform and complete an action, right? So if you choose to stay in the dungeon, time will not pass in game unless you exit it. Whether you exit it after reaching the first checkpoint, or do it all in one go, is up to you at that point. This means you can focus on grinding as much as you want without worrying about the time constraint (though resource and mana management become factors at this point).

Min/maxing everything, including your relationships and social stats? That... can be done. But you need to be very careful with time management (since that is of course a central mechanic in the game), and you might even need a guide. My best advice to first time Persona players is to forego the social min/maxing, and just focus on the experience and enjoying it (though, sure, go ahead with battle stats min/maxing if you want to do that).