Topic: What is your 2020 GOTY?

Now that 2020 has come to a close, I'm curious what everyone's game of the year is. I doubt many people would consider this one of the strongest years in terms of releases, but there were still some nice gems sprinkled throughout the year.

If we're talking about all platforms, I'd probably go with 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim on the PS4. If we're just talking about games released on Switch, I'd probably go with Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. It feels a little weird giving it to a re-release though, so I'll give honourable mentions to Animal Crossing NH, Hades, Paper Mario TOK, and Hyrule Warriors AoC.

Final Fantasy VII Remake on PS4 overall, but definitely Xenoblade Chronicles DE on the Switch front (even though I'm not quite done with it).

Honorable mentions go to Trials of Mana (PS4), Paper Mario: the Origami King (Switch), Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series (PSVR), & Super Mario 3D All-Stars (Switch).

This is cheating... but at a point where I started to feel down and like there was nothing I could do of any worth, I started to get into Danganronpa. It gave me something I could get into, and join a large group of fans. It sounds stupid but, it really helped. I also just have to say thanks to all the wonderful people here, you really helped me find some sense of joy in this year.

Hades would be my favourite brand new game this year but there's also Robotics;Notes Elite which was released in English for the first time, Xenoblade Chronicles DE which is a re-release of my favourite JRPG of all time and Little Busters! Converted Edition which was ported to Switch this year that would all be in contention if I were to count them.

Pretty Princess Party !!! 😆😆😆
My GOTY 2020 on Nintendo Switch.
I'm positive excited with my comment, no joking.
I really like to play girly princess games on Nintendo Switch, especially that game created by Nippon Columbia, same developer of various cute and girly games on 3DS Japan.
I felt granted there is one Japanese developer who still dedicates their games for girls and casual audiences.

I might get crucified for this, but I'd say One Step From Eden. I was a massive fan of the MMBN games growing up and I've recently gotten a lot more into roguelites, and that game combined those things in a perfect way. Awesome combat design, lots of variety in builds and characters to use, great spritework, it's really got it all. The thing that amazed me most, though, is that it was just one guy's project! Gave me Stardew Valley vibes how he (Thomas Moon Kang) just made the game that HE wanted to play, and taught himself how to draw pixelart, write music, etc. as those things came up.

I get why it didn't get that much attention--it's a pretty niche game all things considered and it never really had much of a following--but I was just floored by what it had to offer. For me, games like that are what keep this industry so interesting. It's a fun game at heart and it's solely focused on taking its unique central concept as far as it can. No extraneous elements, no padding. Just lots of solid game design and a clear idea of what it wants to be. The industry would do well to have more developers like that just run wild with their ideas and see what kind of interesting stuff they could make.

@RR529 Ah yeah Final Fantasy VII Remake was a really good one too! This year was my first time playing the original Final Fantasy VII to completion as well, so it was nice to see how they recreated a lot of the iconic scenes. I also loved a lot of Cloud and Aerith's interactions in Remake. It's one of the few games that got me to laugh out loud a few times.

@Blooper987 I don't blame you, the Danganronpa series is wonderful! I still go back and play some of the class trials sometimes, nonstop debates are really entertaining and satisfying. And I'm glad the Nintendolife community has been able to bring you some joy! Have you ever played the Zero Escape series? It's another visual novel series that often gets brought up with Danganronpa when people talk about their favourite visual novel series. It has escape room puzzles mixed in, so if you enjoy that kind of thing I'd recommend it.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons for me. Not only is it such a chill game and that I could make my own island and house to my liking, but I ended up finding such a wonderful community right here on Nintendo Life. I was able to help others out with stuff like sending items and DIYs, and that kind of thing makes me feel good. Not a perfect game by any means, but it's very delightful overall. I definitely agree with everyone saying this is the game that we needed in challenging times like these.

@SwitchVogel I loved One Step From Eden too. It'd be in my top five roguelites on the Switch at least. It's a shame it didn't gain more popularity as it's super fun when you get into it. There were a lot of complaints about the difficulty but that would mainly be a result of people not giving it enough of a chance. It feels a bit overwhelming at first but once you get a hang of the mechanics and how to build a strong deck, winning regularly becomes simple pretty quickly. Even more so now since the balance patches.

You guys have convinced me to pick up One Step From Eden. It was on my radar for a while, and noticed it's currently on sale, so I decided to finally take the plunge. Excited to give it a go!

It’s 2064 Read Only Memories for me. The game is funny and charming. Great story too.

Final Fantasy VII Remake for me. I had impossibly high expectations going in, and they delivered. What a game.

On Switch it's between Animal Crossing and Horace.

My backlog is so deep that I usually don't get to the current year's games until quite some time later. I finally got around to Luigi's Mansion 3, which I now feel is a top ten Switch game because it was so much fun. But the newest game that I did play was Coffee Talk. It isn't the best visual novel on Switch, but I enjoyed the story and atmosphere immensely.

I have a feeling that my favourite game of the year will be Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which... I haven't played yet. The same goes for most of the other interesting games that came out this year so, as it stands, I think I'll have to give it to Animal Crossing. I didn't get as into it as I did with New Leaf, but it's still a lovely and relaxing game that kept me busy for 100 hours throughout the year. I also really like 51 Worldwide Games and Journey to the Savage Planet.

Final Fantasy VII Remake

I thought Squeenix would mess it up. And they almost did with the plot ghosts and KH-esque silliness at the end. But, overall, it's an extraordinary remake that betters its source material in nearly every way, shape, and form. Utterly nostalgic, yet it also feels like the model future FF games should base themselves on.

On Switch? Paper Mario: The Origami King, for sure. I really enjoyed my time with it.

@PSVR_lover

Lucky you. The rest of us non-time travelers are still living through 2020.

i see no one played half life alyx

I'm gonna go with many others in this thread and say Final Fantasy VII Remake. This game really went above and beyond my expectations, really fleshing out Midgar and its inhabitants and turning this reimagining of FFVII into a classic in its own right. I also have the (perhaps controversial?) opinion that it has the best battle system in the series (at least of the games I've played).

Runners up are Persona 5 Royal and Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. The former is my favourite of the bunch, amongst my favourite games of all time (see: avatar), but is pretty much only an enhanced rerelease so not as impactful as Remake. Xenoblade Chronicles is also a top-tier RPG and, although I'm not finished DE, based on completing the 3DS version I'm sure it deserves mention here.

A great year for JRPG remasters/remakes I suppose?

@timleon I agree FFVII Remake has the best battle system in the series, particularly in the boss fights, it really shines.

It feels like the first battle system since FFX-2 that the majority of people like.

Unfortunately, I won't get to play FFVII Remake until later this year, when it comes to Steam .... I don't think it should be considered for GOTY or anything until the other parts are all out, though

I mean, I think I only played 3 games this year that actually came out this year. All of them were pretty great, but far from all time classics or anything that amazing. And the best games I played weren't from 2020.

I'll say Mario 35 though. It cost nothing (in the sense that no one bought NSO for it) and you get the most interesting thing they've done with Mario 1 in any way since the GBC version in 1999 (barring Mario Maker, which is heavily based on what fans do with it) and the most compelling 2d Mario since the pre-Mario 64 days. I've seen a lot of people kinda meh at this game, but I think its a brilliant twist on Mario 1 and the most fun I've had with a battle royale game. Even better than Tetris 99, which is just Tetris with more opponents, this feels like a brand new take on Mario. Nowadays I also have a real fondness for these quickie, play around 20 minutes at a time, type of games and this fits that wonderfully. I mean, its still flawed because Mario 1 is not the best playing game of all time (though you'd be shocked at how many NES games made after it play 10 or 100X worse), and its inherently limited by only being Mario 1. But for what it is, it is really cool.