Here at Gamespace.games we are excited to talk about our game of the year for 2020! Here you’ll find our expert staff picks so you can be sure you didn’t miss the best game of the year.
TORI’S PICK: ANIMAL CROSSING NEW HORIZONS
Animal Crossing New Horizons was my game of the year because it provided a feature-rich advancement of the classic life simulation series. But more than that, it was a point of consistency in my life. Having control over slowly shaping the future of my island gave me peace!
My island was a place I could go back to and keep making memories. At first, it wasn’t much… but we found a way to have fun anyway!
But as the island grew, we celebrated a lot of holidays… (and wore a lot of costumes) …
…hung out with all my friends, from on my island, and off!! …
And built some cool things to be proud of 🙂
Overall, I think that it was a really good game that really made gaming in 2020 special. Here’s to another year of crossing animals 🙂
– Tori
JANE’S PICK: FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE
Truly, the odds were stacked against Square Enix. All around the world the fans watched with bated breath, daring to hope, to dream, of something that could live up to the masterpiece of the original powerhouse JRPG epic that is, wait for it, Final Fantasy VII. Brilliant as they are, could the geniuses behind Chrono Trigger, which I’ve definitely played, and Final Fantasy XIII–2 recreate something so high octane, romantic, and legendary as the original PS1 classic?
I hope I’m not the first to say that folks, the magicians at Square Enix did it again.
With the biggest, fanciest graphics I’ve ever seen, Final Fantasy VII is back. That’s right. All your favorite characters are back and bigger and shinier and sleeker than ever in Final Fantasy VII Remake for the PlayStation 4 console. I reached out to Square Enix last week to find out if they have plans to release Remake on the superior PC, but they’ve yet to respond to my email, and I’m starting to think maybe I got caught in their spam filter. Regardless, the game runs well on the hardware, despite some pop-in that could be easily corrected by my gaming rig.
Folks, I have to be honest. When I first heard about Remake, I was skeptical. I feared it would become the next Duke Nukem Forever, doomed to something that gamers call “Development Hell,” which is when a game takes so long to develop that it becomes bad in the process. I am happy to say that this is not the case. I should have known to keep faith in Square Enix‘s development team.Â
Every aspect of this game is polished, from its skeleton to its meaty, toothsome exterior. Despite the story being unfinished, the game feels like a full experience. Final Fantasy VII‘s ever-present story centering around direct, environmental leftism to avert the upcoming apocalypse brought on by the negligence of people in power was as important in 1997 as it is in 2020. The problems of the world of Final Fantasy VII are around every corner, the literal and figurative cracks in the society that the Shinra Corporation built becoming impossible to ignore. Final Fantasy VII is a story about risking what little you have in your uphill life for the sake of the greater good of not just humanity but the very planet we live on. Perhaps even in spite of itself, Final Fantasy VII‘s message resonates with anti-capitalism.
There are a couple little gestures that I prefer from the original 1997 title as opposed to this new interpretation, but I think that’s a good thing. Final Fantasy VII Remake, as a work of fanservice, goes out of its way to distinguish itself from the original game in some respects. It manages to be a perfect balance of fresh and familiar.Â
The different unlockable dresses for the Wall Market scene is really what took this over the top for me. In my mind, this is a perfect representation of how this game knows what it is and exists passionately and doesn’t try to really be anything that it isn’t. It’s complete and total fanservice, and as a complete and total fan, I couldn’t love it more.
-Jane
PS: Stop telling me it’s “not a new game,” yes it is, it was released in 2020. I’m not responding to any more tweets or comments about this.