We don't have one of these traditional yearly threads, so let's make one!
What were your best games from 2017?
These can be "new to me" games that you played for the first time in 2017, or they can be games that actually came out in 2017. Feel free to split it into two lists if you have plenty to go around!
Personally, for me it's all "new to me" old stuff:
Best to worst:
1.
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword2.
Shadowgate (2014)3.
Mountain of Faith4.
La-Mulana5.
GG AlesteI would add the Turok 1 remaster near the very top if I could, but I think my experience with the original disqualifies it.
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I played
Skyward Sword very early in 2017, before BOTW was known to be coming (and no doubt I'll be years behind when I get around to BOTW...) Regardless of how that might contextualize my opinions, I thought Skyward Sword was excellent. While it really doesn't punch above all my other "5/5 favorite Zeldas", it did earn a nice bottom place within that tier. The story and characters plus expanding the Zelda lore was very memorable, which is probably why I enjoyed the game the least in the middle, when that stuff was more in the background. I also just have to give the game credit for having a lovely world that I wanted to spend time in and go on my Zelda-style adventures.
If I was going offer commentary about it flaws then I could go into detail though with why I think the combat system is the weakest ever in the 3D series, but I'll keep it short for now I guess. It's funny, because researching what people said about this game at the time one common opinion was that this was the pinnacle of Zelda combat, if note the future, of 3D Zelda combat. To me it was clearly a less dynamic combat system and a step backwards in other ways.
Also: Fi is the best Zelda companion, fight me.
Mountain of Faith! Excluding some prior experience with the demo, 2017 was my first experience with the full game. I cleared normal 1cc as ReimuB (on my 2nd attempt) and started playing Hard and doing practice stages. I am somewhat of a perfectionist who likes to master a Touhou game before moving on, and combined with juggling non-Touhou games I guess I'm always playing the entries in the series long after the game's activity has cooled down. I haven't dedicated myself enough to it yet to pick a favorite stage or track but I really enjoy the game. Without fail, returning back to Touhou will surprise me with how much I love playing it and make me wonder why I take so many breaks
For
GG Aleste I wrote an old
post that I won't try to summarize.
Shadowgate is just a really excellent point and click adventure game. It's hard to really explain why I'm so fond of it, but the fantasy setting creates context and ambience for lots of very memorable rooms and puzzles. I'm planning to post a LP for Shadowgate in fact if you want to watch me challenge the Master difficulty mode!
Playing
La Mulana was motivated by having so much fun with Shadowgate, since it is very puzzle-like in a different way. La Mulana is not an excellent game, but it is remarkable to me how a modern game decided to iterate upon what is usually seen as an outdated "NES design style" of using obscure clues and secrets to gate progression. Despite La-Mulana not being a truly great game, I did get sucked into it and the incredibly engrossing puzzle/labyrinth thing it's got going on which is why I have to mention it here.
The game is sort of like a huge metroidvania with an Spelunky-like protagonist, but in each zone you find a bazillion clues relating to secret doors, items and special actions you need to do in other parts of the game. The hard part is that 1) you get so many clues, and 2) they are given you to long before you need them, and far away from their relevant locations. I think it is the hardest game I've ever played that isn't directly testing the player's action ability. You really have to be made of tough stuff to persevere and uncover that next progression gate. Getting anywhere in La-Mulana, even if you eventually give up, is harder than completing most games.