The Blanket Fort’s Top 5 Games of 2017

Throughout 2017, many games were released. Some praised this year as one of the best in history with games such as NieR: Automata and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild being released. Some labeled it as the year of the JRPG with many big name releases such as Yakuza 0 being released in American and Persona 5 being released internationally. We at the Blanket Fort have also played many new and old games this year as well as reviewed and talked about some games. But, today we’ll just be talking about our favorite games of the year. The rankings are arbitrary as it can be difficult to compare a sports game to an FPS, but number one is my favorite game of the year.

5. Dead Cells

Dead Cells is a game developed by French developer Motion Twin. The quality of the game and the love the creators put into it is obvious from the jump. While still technically being in early development, the game is still worth every penny. The combat is fast and fluid. It’s aggressive and wastes no time trying to kill the player character.
There isn’t much here in terms of story. The player takes the role of a parasitic organism that takes over the body of a recently decapitated prisoner. There are a few characters to talk to who assist the player character, but not much other than that. This game is gameplay first and gameplay only.
The developers describe the game as a Roguevania and a soulslite. It’s a mix of different genres. The player unlocks different ways to explore the environment ala a metroidvania. Each time the player character dies, they are revived with a new body and and the castle resets, similar to a roguelite. Finally, the game takes inspiration from the Souls series with its rolling, pattern based bosses, and with weapons and spells all having unique mechanics.
The music feels epic and induces panic in the player, letting them know that they will die soon. The sound performs the job of music in games perfectly: to both fade into the background and manipulate the emotions of the player.
Graphically, the game uses highly detailed pixel. The game is very flashy and uses many particle effects upon the death of enemies and collection of treasure. This can be quite distracting from some, but really exciting to other.

Play this game if you like the art of games like Hyper Light Drifter or the mechanics of games such as Rogue Legacy.

4. Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth

The latest in the Etrian Odyssey series of dungeon crawlers made its way to the 3DS console in November of 2017. Etrian Odyssey is a series of dungeon crawlers in which the player is a guild leader. They must hire adventurers in order to brave the labyrinth of Yggdrasil and find what lies at the bottom. From there, they travel through the dungeon in first person solving puzzles and defeating random encounters. This game possesses two unique aspects that separate it from its peers. The first is the cartography system. The player has to create their own map that can be as detailed or as vague as they desire. The bottom DS screen is a grid that players can draw on and put notes on so they don’t forget where they found certain objects. The second is the F.O.E. system. There are some enemies that are so powerful that they don’t appear as random encounters. They appear on the map and walk around, follow the player, and/or just sit around. Some only appear during certain times. They are all incredibly powerful, compared to the other monsters on the stratum, and they can join an already ongoing encounter.
Instead of focusing on what’s the same, here are some key differences that separate this game from previous entries. Characters are now customizable. The player can change their hair, eye, and skin color. There are four races, each with their unique classes and racial skills. The Legendary Title system allows higher level players to choose one of two paths they want to travel on, each specializing in an existing aspect of the base class.

Play this game if you enjoy games such as Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey or classic dungeon crawlers in general.

3. Persona 5

This comes as a surprise to no one. Easily one of the most popular games of 2017, it deserves most of the praise it receives. One part visual novel and one part dungeon crawler, this game is the apex of the Persona franchise. You play as an unnamed protagonist, normally called Joker, after he has been tried and sentenced to probation after assaulting a man. He moves to Tokyo and tries to live out her probation in quiet, but soon finds an app on his phone that brings him to a world where people’s feelings become real. From here, he joins with a cat, Morgana, and two classmates, Ann and Ryuji, to use this newfound power to change the hearts of evil adults. Throughout the game, the player will solve cases, bond with citizens around town and attend class in order to build their repertoire of skills and connections to take down the corrupt.
There isn’t much to say about this game that hasn’t been said before. The game is stylish, fun, and has a great plot. Confidants and dungeon crawling are melded in a way that makes one affect the other. The game also brings in many mechanics from the mainline Shin Megami Tensei franchise into the Persona franchise making it appealing to fans of both series. The music is great to listen to and never gets tiring despite its repetitiveness.
Despite the constant praise, the game has some flaws. The ability to date women in their late twenties despite being sixteen can be a bit weird for some, and more than a little hypocritical. The game suffers horribly from ending fatigue. Many of the dialogue choices made are meaningless as there is only one true ending, but many JRPG’s suffer from this. The game also fails to bring back same sex romance options of the earlier Persona titles or the option to play as a woman from Persona 3 Portable. While these don’t ruin the game, it can be frustrating to some.

Play this game if you enjoy visual novels, dating sims, or games like Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.

2. NieR: Automata

The second slot was a hard pick. Dead Cells, Etrian Odyssey V, and Persona 5 were all easy pics and quickly came to mind when thinking about which games this year were great. Dead Cells is fun personified and incredibly difficult. Etrian Odyssey V continues the tradition of excellent dungeon crawling and beautiful, interesting worlds and music. Persona 5 was a pleasant surprise as I’m not fond of the Persona franchise. This spot was a toss up between Hollow Knight and NieR: Automata. As I found Hollow Knight frustrating for not giving the player nearly enough early game options, though it’s still a fun game, I had to hand it to NieR: Automata.

This game is a comeback story. The original NieR was a huge flop. The mechanics were panned as abysmal. The changes to the game to appeal to western markets received mixed critique. While many fans praised the story, characters, and music, it was generally assumed that Yoko Taro was done in the gaming industry. However, he managed to convince the publishers at Square Enix to give him another chance and partnered with Platinum Games to create something that is all around good.
As a sequel to NieR, you play 8,000 years after the events of the first game. Aliens invaded at some point and have been at war with humanity over control over the Earth, using machines as a military. In response, humans have retreated to the moon and use androids to fight for them. The player controls 2B as she works with partner 9S in order to defeat the machine lifeforms.
The game is a hack n’ slash with some RPG elements. The game uses chips which the player can equip to mold 2B as they see fit. The game also has bullet hell elements in which they player flies around defeating enemies on a pre-determined path. The game as a whole is akin to Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and the Devil May Cry games.
The game’s most notable aspect is the music. I don’t know how to describe it, so just listen to this.
Then we get to the story. Despite being praised left and right for it’s philosophical and deep story, we found the plot to be poor. Where the game shines is presentation over substance. Yoko Taro knows how to keep an audience hooked. The backstory and setting of the world isn’t just revealed through cutscenes. Sometimes, stills with paragraphs written over them are utilized, characters may appear in the background hinting at future developments, lines may be heard after hacking an enemy, and some information is revealed by upgrading one’s weapons. Taro shows, but doesn’t tell, but then he tells without showing. Almost every literary technique unique to gaming and some that aren’t unique are utilized in some way making each playthrough feel fresh. There are also five “endings” to obtain that tell an expanded story upon each playthrough.

Despite the main plot being weak, the story and history of the world is impeccable, especially if one has played the original NieR. The characters are cute and suffer immensely over the course of the story. The mechanics are fun and flashy. There is always something interesting going on. The boss fights other than Simone aren’t very inspired, but they do their job. It’s overall an excellent game.

Honorable Mention

Other great games were released this year that simply didn’t strike as much of a chord with us, but we highly recommend these titles.

Hollow Knight is a metroidvania style game where the player is a beetle. The art is cute and the music is fancy. What stopped it from being one of our top five was that the early game hell felt contrived. There aren’t many movement options in the first level, a block, or a dodge, so some bosses can feel incredibly difficult. It’s still a wonderful game. Try if you like games such as Dead Cells.

XING — The Land Beyond is an environmental puzzle game where the player must learn the story of four souls in order to move on in the afterlife. The game is beautiful and well paced while also having moments of frustration. What stopped it from being in the top five is the clumsy platforming sections. They offer a fake difficulty in an otherwise casual game. However, if you like games like Portal, play this.

Horizon: Zero Dawn is an amazing game in every way. It is easily the best game on this list, bar number one. It has excellent graphics, a decent story, amazing mechanics, and is politically forward without being in the player’s face about it all the time. However, it’s a game that does everything right, but lacks its own identity. Most of the games on this list have mechanics and aspects that are unique or stand out in a sea of games for doing something particularly well. However, Horizon doesn’t push the bar. It simply does everything right. The graphics are amazing and the enemy designs are highly inspired, but once the player becomes used to them, they fade into the background. Once they do, all you’re left with is a good game.

1. Pyre

Absolutely everyone saw this coming. Anyone who knows us knows that Supergiant Games is our favorite developer. From the minds that brought you Bastion and Transistor comes another game with a single word title: Pyre.
In Pyre, you play as the Reader whose job is to lead read the Book of Rites and lead the Nightwings to victory. For the crime of being able to read, the Reader was dumped into the Downside and found by the current generation of Nightwings. Because they are crippled, they cannot participate in the Rites. Mechanically, the game is one part visual novel and one part sports game with RPG elements. Outside of the Rites, the player follows the stars to their destination. The player is often given opportunities to talk to different members of the Nightwings to grow closer to them, advise them on which path to take and what to do when they get there.
Once the Rites begin, the game turns into a combination of combat and rugby. Each team is allowed three players. After the Celestial Orb falls, the player must obtain it and jump into the enemy team’s pyre in order to douse it. The first team to douse the enemy’s pyre wins the Rite. Characters have different abilities to reach the pyre and defend their own — some characters have large auras they can use to protect their pyre while others are really fast and can give themselves a speed boost temporarily. As characters level up by participating in Rites, they can learn new abilities to enhance their current ones as well as equip charms that provide bonuses such as increasing the health of the pyre.

Graphically and musically, Supergiant has not lost their touch. They still utilize their tried and true 2D handpainted art style. However, this time around, the game is far more colorful than before. The landscapes are more inspired and stand out from not only their peers, but from other Supergiant projects. Playable characters are also far more diverse with the Nightwings containing members from different races including wurms, harpies, and demons.
Musically, it’s Darren Korb. This time, the music is all over the place, but in a good way. Bastion’s music was inspired by blues and bluegrass and kept a consistent theme. Transistor was the love child of opera, pop, and electronic music with many of its songs accompanied by the beautiful voice Ashley Barrett. This time, Korb had his work set out for him. The scope of Pyre was far too large to have a single sound to run with. However, the songs never feel out of place. Moon-touched is floaty and fits the character, while Thrash Pack is rebellious and it makes perfect sense as the theme for The Dissidents. The only downside is that the vocal pieces are more directly tied to the story rather than the songs that were symbolically tied in Bastion and Transistor.
Pyre is the sports game for those who don’t like sports games. It’s fun, fast, beautiful, and our favorite game of 2017.

And that’s all. 2017 had some amazing add-ons to older games such as the War of the Chosen expansion for XCOM 2. Some games were ported to new systems to bring new life to the franchise such as .hack//G.U. Last Recode. Some are calling 2017 the best year in gaming since 2007. However, we don’t believe in the best year; just good and bad games. Sleep tight.