Ninja Gaiden Black 2
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Baldur's Gate 3
Shadow Hearts
Atelier Sophie: the Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
Gunstar Heroes
Koudelka
The Punisher
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
Doom: The Dark Ages
Shadow Hearts 2
Xenoblade X
Goldeneye
Death Stranding 2
Resident Evil 2
Donkey Kong Bananza
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Metal Gear Solid Delta
Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King (3DS)
Hollow Knight
Trails 1st
Resident Evil 2 (PS1)
Resident Evil 3 (PS1)
Silent Hill f
Ninja Gaiden 4
Resident Evil 4 (Remake)
Shinobi (PS2)
I think this is a pretty much perfect game for what it, what was once a modern reimagining of an old classic series and successful in that and being a really fun game, if not frustrating at times. The visuals of the scarf as you ninja dash everywhere are iconic to this day and tate chains are one of the most fun mechanics in an action game imo. A perfect example of 'less is more'.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Alliance
Almost the definitive version of one of the Top 3 Final Fantasy games in the entire series, the voice acting isn't as evenly at the same high standard (But it is nice to FFXVI's Clive here, one of the better roles) that FFXII's was, overall I really think it really elevates the story or at least lets you buy into the whole 'This is in the same universe as FFXII' thing. The QOL is really good and will hopefully help a lot more people get into the game, not only is there an easier difficulty there's more on screen information for you to make informed decisions and there's basically no way to soft lock yourself now.
My issues are more that I wish I could play in Enhanced mode with Classic graphics and also still think the 'Classic' mode not actually having the PS1 script is a baffling choice that undermines the point of the mode being there in the first place, if I want to actually play the PS1 version I'll probably still have to go to emulation. Also, maybe minor but I did kind of miss the WOTL PSP content in the end, I missed Luso and Balthier, I really missed Dark Knight on my Ramza, even so, it's another reason why this might be the 'best' version but it's not a definitive version sadly.
That said, pretty easy GOTY for me, the base game alone is good enough and having it on the Switch 2 feels pretty special.
Credits rolled on Outer Worlds 2. That was a fun time!
There's no New Game Plus, which is a little disappointing but given I'd hit the max level cap several missions before the point-of-no-return I don't know what I'd get out of it. If I was to replay it (which, honestly, I might) I'd probably focus a bit more on specific areas rather than the jack-of-all-skills approach I took this time—and probably be a bit more principled than trying to make peace at all costs.
Keeper
Odd little puzzle game / walking simulator from Double Fine in which you play… well, a sentient lighthouse. It's very pretty and has a lovely soundtrack, and that's probably enough for a lot of people, but it doesn't give you much reason to care about its world - a lot of it is quite abstract and even in the more grounded bits things happen randomly and with little underlying logic to them. Your only means of interacting with the world are shining your light at stuff, and sending a bird to interact with stuff, so you'll figure out every puzzle soon enough even if only by trial and error. So you walk forward, because there's nowhere else to go, and you solve puzzles, because there's nothing else to do, and then after a few hours it ends. It is pretty, though.
Ninja Gaiden Black 2
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Baldur's Gate 3
Shadow Hearts
Atelier Sophie: the Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
Gunstar Heroes
Koudelka
The Punisher
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
Doom: The Dark Ages
Shadow Hearts 2
Xenoblade X
Goldeneye
Death Stranding 2
Resident Evil 2
Donkey Kong Bananza
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Metal Gear Solid Delta
Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King (3DS)
Hollow Knight
Trails 1st
Resident Evil 2 (PS1)
Resident Evil 3 (PS1)
Silent Hill f
Ninja Gaiden 4
Resident Evil 4 (Remake)
Shinobi
Sakura Wars 2
I really liked the first game but this game improves on it in almost every single way, honestly besides the final boss it was just a joy to experience from the start to end, one of my favourite games I played this year. I really hope we get the third game, it's apparently the series peak and also I'm just going to really miss the Imperial Assault Troupe who feel like old friends at this point. This is still, rough description but, half Visual Novel and Half Strategy game set in a Japan where Taisho never left, I still wish the combat was a bit better but it never made me groan when it came up. Despite that, and that VN and Strategy games are nothing new, this still feels quite unique to me.
The fact that this game seems to have died with the PS4 'reboot' game is one thing, but like, where is the respect? Sonic Crossworlds gets Sonic, Joker from Persona and Spongebob Bloody Squarepants as guest characters, but we can't get Sakura Shinguji or a level set in the streets around the theatre of the game? Come on man. Sakura Wars 2 was a massive success on the Saturn as I hear it and Sakura is one of the coolest poster girls Sega has.
Done with Outer Worlds now, too. Really appreciate all the QoL improvements for the sequel, but that core of wandering round with your pals, fixing (or causing) problems for various flavours of zealous sociopath is rock solid.
I'm not as interested in another go at it as I am with the sequel, though—probably because my experiences in OW2 made me much more deliberate in my character choices so there's less of a sense of "should have done that differently".
I have, of course, immediately restarted the sequel with the intent of a heavily speech-focused build and a strong anti-corporate approach, so we'll set how that plays out.
Ninja Gaiden Black 2
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Baldur's Gate 3
Shadow Hearts
Atelier Sophie: the Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
Gunstar Heroes
Koudelka
The Punisher
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
Doom: The Dark Ages
Shadow Hearts 2
Xenoblade X
Goldeneye
Death Stranding 2
Resident Evil 2
Donkey Kong Bananza
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Metal Gear Solid Delta
Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King (3DS)
Hollow Knight
Trails 1st
Resident Evil 2 (PS1)
Resident Evil 3 (PS1)
Silent Hill f
Ninja Gaiden 4
Resident Evil 4 (Remake)
Shinobi
Sakura Wars 2
Metroid Zero Mission
Holy shit this is a short game, I basically beat it in two sittings! You can tell as you play too because you get upgrades at a rate of what feels like every 5 minutes, this combined with the rather shocking discovery that this game actually guides your path a bit more than I remember (not as much as Fusion but obviously more than Super), means you really don't have a lot of downtime, it's pretty action packed.
Also the bit at the end where you are stealthing through a Space Pirate base as a very vulnerable Zero Suit Samus goes on a bit too long and it's kind of not fun, even with the catharsis of getting your gear back and just absolutely destroying everything on the way back, but it doesn't ruin the game.
This and Metroid Fusion are apparently on the NSO, I can't remember if Fusion is as short as this, but I highly reccomend them both. Both in handheld mode should be a pretty comfortable experience, if you ever finish Metroid Prime 4 and still want some bounty hunting to do.
Do they have any of that early Metroid bullshit where you have to bomb random corners without any signposting?
They all do, I think, even Metroid Dread had a bit of that.
Zero Mission's pretty much the best one of the whole lot though, like Alastor says it's a kind of bitesize distillation of the whole Metroid experience that barrels you through bosses and upgrades at a tremendous pace. Fusion's OK but it's extremely linear and I remember one of the bosses in particular being an absolute bastard.
Can safely say nothing is as bad as when Super Metroid expects you to know your superbomb will shatter that glass tunnel, classic stuff. 
Also, secrets are usually denoted on the map with a circle but it's usually left to you to find where exactly, for story progression I was honestly surprised at how much Zero Mission guides you.
Ninja Gaiden Black 2
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Baldur's Gate 3
Shadow Hearts
Atelier Sophie: the Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
Gunstar Heroes
Koudelka
The Punisher
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
Doom: The Dark Ages
Shadow Hearts 2
Xenoblade X
Goldeneye
Death Stranding 2
Resident Evil 2
Donkey Kong Bananza
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Metal Gear Solid Delta
Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King (3DS)
Hollow Knight
Trails 1st
Resident Evil 2 (PS1)
Resident Evil 3 (PS1)
Silent Hill f
Ninja Gaiden 4
Resident Evil 4 (Remake)
Shinobi
Sakura Wars 2
Metroid Zero Mission
Metroid Prime 4
Oh boy
Do I go OFF on this game or do I wait til' others have got round to it so I'm not at least completely ranting to myself? Also, I know MPH has got it for Xmas so I dunno' if I wanna' completely burn his expectations to the ground. All I'll say for now is, which I think is fair, this isn't a very good game in my opinion, let alone Metroid or Prime game, very underwhelming to say the least. Please don't let the story/scriptwriter anywhere near this series ever again please.
I'll post full thoughts sometime later in the MP4 thread but for now I'm going to go back to playing a good Metroid game.
Ninja Gaiden Black 2
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Baldur's Gate 3
Shadow Hearts
Atelier Sophie: the Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
Gunstar Heroes
Koudelka
The Punisher
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
Doom: The Dark Ages
Shadow Hearts 2
Xenoblade X
Goldeneye
Death Stranding 2
Resident Evil 2
Donkey Kong Bananza
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Metal Gear Solid Delta
Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King (3DS)
Hollow Knight
Trails 1st
Resident Evil 2 (PS1)
Resident Evil 3 (PS1)
Silent Hill f
Ninja Gaiden 4
Resident Evil 4 (Remake)
Shinobi
Sakura Wars 2
Metroid Zero Mission
Metroid Prime 4
Metroid Fusion
Maybe because this was directly off the back of a Metroid Prime 4 playthrough, but this was a lot more fun than I remembered. I beat Prime 4 last sure, but GBA wise I just beat Zero Mission and I thought the comparison of the two would show why this is almost Anti-Metroid in comparison. Well it's definitely still really linear, but I came to appreciate that there's a ton of secrets out there (albeit hinted at with a circle on the map like in ZM) and I actually got stuck more times than in ZM. The gameplay is just really solid, the sci-fi vibes are still off the charts because of the setting being a spaceship currently housing a galatactic threat that is full of The Thing type implications of horror, and as my last point of comparison to ZM, the bosses in this game are much more fun, almost Megaman like in feel which tracks when you consider this is a predecessor to Dread and that game went all in on boss fights being more than a crazy DPS race.
Never again will I slander this game, I still think it's behind Prime 1, 2, Zero Mission, Dread and Super for one, but I don't think I didn't enjoy this even for a second. Talking of seconds, I beat this two minutes later than I beat Zero Mission at 3 hours 40 minutes so they couldn't be more companion games if they tried, especially with how they contrast.
Finally, I can't mention space horror vibes without mentioning the SA-X, the parasite that mimics Samus. I don't want to sound like a hater but they do a good job making this thing SEEM scary, but unlike EMMI in Dread you are rarely in any actual danger from it. The role in the story it plays is superb though, but I just think it's a bit overrated, it's not like Nemesis in Resident Evil 3.
