Critical Acclaim +: Open Mic

[spatular]

Yeah! Mirrors edge is awesome to the max.

[Sambob]

Okay gimme the mic.

Fifa <insert number here>

I generally love the fifa games but at the same time they hold the title of most frustrating games in the world.

I can play this solidly for a day and love 23 of the hours but guarantee that the last hour will be filled with rage and hatred. No game ruins my mood more than this one. But it always gets high scores, it sells well, and 90% of my time spent with it is joyous.

[Bob]

Bit late but have another 'great job' Slymon. I have loved this thread and it has been great looking back at games I have loved or not loved quite so much. Going to be adding my own game to the list some time soon when Fifa isn't stinking it up

As a late Mirror's Edge comment. I loved it when it came out but man, it has dated so so badly. It was fiddly at the time but last time I tried to play it (a couple of months back) the whole thing just felt so clunky and random. Really nice memory though.

Are you going to be adding the open mic games to the list at the start Sly?

[DANGERMAN]

I think this generation has been the first time Fifa has actually been good. It was a shakeup when it came out on the megadrive, it looked and was presented like anything else, but it wasn't anywhere near Sensi or iss.

The 32bit era was the nadir of football games and Fifa, I'd argue that only iss64 and Sega Worldwide Soccer were the only actually good football games. The ps2 era is all about pes, which I don't think has been as good since.

Most of this generation Fifa has been pretty brilliant. The presentation has been great, although it's got slower to get in to a game. There's a stupid amount of content, be a pro mode was better than the main game, Ultimate Team might have turned into a cynical cash grab but it was a cool mode. I remember Fifa 10 getting on some goty lists and a few people getting annoyed, but it totally deserved it

[Sly Reflex]

I've never ever enjoyed a FIFA game, The only football games I've ever liked were Sensi and ISS.

I never really understand why footy games are so big. If I wanted to play the game I'd just join a team. It's an activity I can do that's cheap and readily available.

[Bob]

Now I’m going to talk about Nier and I am going to start strong. Ignoring opinion and subjectivity, Nier is one of the greatest games ever made. It is a true marvel and if it had the budget of the overpaid, silage producing shooter studios then everyone would know it.

POW!

 

So back to being reasonable. Nier is about a guy whose daughter gets kidnapped by nasties. He goes and saves her and meets a load of weirdos along the way. It is Japanese, so you know what I mean by weirdos. There is the white haired, scantily clad transgender female, the little boy who looks like he has a moon for a face and wears your nan’s fancy tablecloth and the wise cracking, all knowing Tome. It is fucking mental.

 

This and Deadly Premonition are two of the main reasons I love my wife. Since I would have never tried them if she hadn’t pointed them out. I had seen trailers for Nier and it made it look like some awful DMC clone so when she told me it was a JRPG I nodding but secretly laughed at her on the inside. Because we were at that stage where you constantly lie to each other to increase the chance of touching butts later.

 

At first it does seem like that. The game starts with an overly long prologue where you are smashing your way through wave after wave of enemies. Then it shifts and you leave your house to find what looks like Hyrule field at which point I almost exploded because IT LOOKS LIKE ZELDA I LOVE ZELDA GIVE ME MORE!!! And it is kind of like Zelda, there are definitely Zelda inspirations there. One of the boss fights in particular, which has you throwing bombs into it’s mouth. There is so much more than that though. There is a crazy amount of variety and inspiration in the game.

 

Side scrolling, isometric dungeon crawling, bullet hell inspired bosses, text adventures and puzzles dressed up as boss fights. It sounds like a mess on paper but everything fits perfectly in context. The game is so refreshing for something out of Japan. It doesn’t hold your hand the whole way, it doesn’t explain everything down to the finest detail before you even get a chance to see it. It is experimental and it doesn’t always work but when it does, it is something completely unique and wonderful.

 

Then there is the music. It has one of my favourite soundtracks and it is one of only a handful of games where I found myself standing still and looking around while listening to the music. Just taking it all in. We actually had this song playing at my wedding because we both loved it so much.

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/V1CjxQXXA7o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

The story is where it all really comes to life for me though. There are so many twists and turns there with some fantastic voice work which started my obsession with Laura Bailey who plays Kaine. There are too many great moments to mention but one in particular that sticks with me is a side quest involving an old woman in a lighthouse. She has been waiting at her lighthouse for her long lost lover who has been sending her letters telling her he is coming home soon. At one point in the quest you are asked to make a choice and it is the only time in a game I can think of where I have had to take a break to think about what I have to do. Even if the rest of the game was crap, then this would always stay with me for causing such a powerful emotional response.

 

Upon completing the game you are asked if you want to go back and play on new game plus. Something I don’t normally bother with but this promised to be a bit different. Which it was. Some spoilers ahead here so I will do dem tags. Although last time I tried they didn’t work properly. So we will see, surely this text warning will do you? Anyway…

 

The game starts with a fairly long text section of one of the main characters thoughts during a particularly harsh section of the story. Then you play the game from the halfway point. Only it is a bit different. There were several cutscenes in the main game where the shadowy enemies seemed to be communicating. This time though they are subtitled so you get to see what they are saying. Plus there are additional cutscenes showing the Shadows away from the player. This changes the story completely and with the revelations at the end of the main game you realise that the Shadows are the lost souls of humans from thousands of years ago. Lost and not knowing what to do.

The Zelda inspired boss fight I mention is a small child who has been lost for years and befriends a robot. When Nier shows up at the place they live they get scared because humans hunt Shadows and attack Nier. Yep, the game features unknown child murder.

There is a new twist on nearly all of the boss encounters as it is revealed that they are all just defending themselves or whatever.

 

So you complete new game plus and the game asks you if you want to do it again. Overall there are four endings… I think. Huge spoiler now. In the final ending you discover that for a happy ending to exist. Nier can’t. So the player is asked to sacrifice himself. Which is easy enough to do, except it is a bit different. You are told that there would be no trace of you, no one would ever know you existed. Then the game tells you to do this you have to delete your save game. Everything. I think I had played the game for over 60 hours at this point. I wasn’t convinced the game was telling the truth and decided to do it. Then you get to watch as the game slowly deletes your save game. It erases the amount of kills, the completion percentage, time played, character name. Everything gets erased one by one. Then the game ends and you are kicked back to the menu. To find nothing, no trace that you ever even played it. I can’t think of a better way to make the player feel their decisions.

 

I understand if no one reads this. It is a bit long. I’m not even sure if it really fits the critical acclaim thread. Although it definitely has a cult following. I think really I am just soap boxing about a game I really love. It is topped on my list of favourite games only by Final Fantasy VII and I really wish more people would experience what the game has to offer. Even if they hate it, I think people owe it to themselves to give it a shot. Here is a dodgily recorded version of the introduction. That opening monologue alone sets it aside from the usual, “we can do this if we work together and follow our hearts. For the future!” Japanese style of storytelling.

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/g4VPBx7XHOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[HandsomeDead]

I'm still annoyed at myself for not picking up Nier. It didn't get much love when it was released and around a year later a collection of smart people started saying it's one of the best games this generation, and I was like 'fuck sake, really?' and I do still want to play it.

There's Drakengard 3 to look forward to. It's made by the Deadly Premonition devs and a few ex-cavia people who did Nier. I know the person who did the soundtrack is on board.

EDIT: Fuck it. Bought.

[Sly Reflex]

That happy ending.

[radiofloyd]

Yeah Nier is one of those games I must pick up for the 360 along with Resonance of Fate and a few more.

[dante76]

Bought! ! Thanks Bob!

[radiofloyd]

Where are you all buying it from out of curiosity?

[HandsomeDead]

I just nabbed the cheapest I could find off eBay.

[dante76]

Ebay for about £5

[Bob]

Top purchasing gentlemen. You won't regret it. ... You better not regret it.

[Sly Reflex]

I see Eurogamer has been reading MFG and ripping off its best threads to supplement its daily content.

[DANGERMAN]

I was toying with ripping them off and posting them here but didn't think it was worth it with this thread. We should probably do an award thing at the end of the year

[Sly Reflex]

I actually thought the Eurogamer thing was just going for titles this generation. Turns out they've gone for a like for like thread/article.

I've only missed 1 game so far and that was because it was too young to get into the criteria. I wonder what else I'll have missed too?