Paige FTW: The Decade That Was
There has been a trend, as we depart the first decade of the millennium into the Roaring Twenties, to look back at the best games of the decade.
I find it rather hard to look back at a game that came out in 2010 and compare it to one that has released today — we are talking totally different console generations here, and how can you compare that on any fair scale?
But I will spend this week talking about some of my favorite titles that came out in the last decade, just like all the cool kids are. (As always, I admit that I skew heavily towards RPGs.)
THE RENAISSANCE OF FIRE EMBLEM
My most dearly beloved strategy series was dead, or so we all thought, until Fire Emblem Awakening (2013) revived the series and brought back to the fore as one of Nintendo’s powerhouse franchises. Fates was OK, but Three Houses (2019) is a masterpiece of addiction that I still haven’t fully finished.
STARDEW VALLEY (2016)
I think I spent like, at least 90 hours building a farm. And the game still calls to me like a drug addiction. Enough said.
MY FAVORITE SHOP ON THE CITADEL: MASS EFFECT 2
My theory is that the second installment of a trilogy is usually the best one. That may be true for, say, Captain America movies, but it’s been a bit shaky applied to games — except for Mass Effect 2, the high point of the space-based series. All the moving parts just come together so satisfyingly.
THE BIG, MEATY RPG
I’m just going to group these all together: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) is just a straight-up masterpiece of a game. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2016) is equally game-changing. And, you know what, I liked Final Fantasy XV (2016), despite its many flaws.
