10 unfinished games I want to return to in 2020

Although I've gotten better in recent years at not only playing, but finishing, the games I buy, a few still fall through the cracks. By which I mean I walk away from some titles before I reach their end credits.

I'm OK with that now and then. For example, I failed to beat both Penny-Punching Princess and Umihara Kawase Fresh! in 2019, but I have no interest in returning to either of them.

I also failed to beat Dandy Dungeon, Dragon Quest XI S, and World of Final Fantasy Maxima after starting them last year, but I desperately want to rectify matters in 2020.

Here's why, plus similar info on seven other unfinished games I hope to get back to and wrap up between now and the end of December.

Contact for the Nintendo DS

Contact (DS)--I explored a good chunk of this Grasshopper Manufacture-made game back in 2015. Sadly, I don't remember much about my previous Contact experience other than I mostly liked it. Mostly. (If memory serves, a difficulty spike, or at least a tougher-than-usual boss, irritated me rather severely near the end of my 11-hour playthrough.) That's enough for me to want to give it a second chance, though--especially since I do remember loving its looks.

Dandy Dungeon (Switch)--While coming up with the list of titles that serve as the backbone of this post, it struck me that I rarely walk away from games because I hate them. In most cases, I leave them behind when I go on vacation, when I become obsessed with a book, or when work briefly takes over my life. That first reason is what caused me to drop Dandy Dungeon after putting more than 20 hours into it last year. I've been struggling to go back to it ever since, and I'm honestly not sure why. The only answer I can come up with is that maybe I got all I wanted or needed from the game in the time I spent with it in 2019. Hopefully that's not the case, but I'll find out one way or the other should I manage to boot up my save file again in the next few months.

Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers for the Nintendo 3DS

Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers (3DS)--I devoted a good seven or so hours to this bizarre Dillon's Rolling Western follow-up in late 2018, and though I enjoyed what I encountered then, I only played the game for another hour in 2019. Typically, I don't recall why I walked away from it at that point, but I'm pretty sure another game was to blame. Something I do recall is that I was finding Dead-Heat Breakers a bit repetitive around the time I dropped it. Still, I want to know how its curiously post-apocalyptic tale ends, so I'm going to do my best to slip back in the saddle as soon as possible.

Dragon Quest XI S (Switch)--I have a real hit-or-miss history with the Dragon Quest series, which probably goes a long way toward explaining my ho-hum reaction to the initial eight-ish hours of Dragon Quest XI S. For the record, I adored both the first and the ninth game in the series, but found the seventh too long by at least half. Why am I currently leaning toward the latter with XI S? The lone culprit that comes to mind right now is that it's too just sleepy for me. In a way, I appreciate and respect that it's not as peppy as, say, Pokémon Sword and Shield, but I also wouldn't complain if it were a smidge more energetic. Regardless, that shouldn't keep me from Dragon Quest XI S' finish line forever.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the GameBoy Advance

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GameBoy Advance)--Against my better judgment, I started this Final Fantasy Tactics spinoff shortly after I started its sequel. Only one game could survive such an endeavor, and in this case, the one left standing was the DS follow-up. I don't expect to leave my aborted playthrough of the original hanging for long, though. I loved Tactics A2 so much that I spent more time with it than any other game last year, so I'm expecting to feel similarly moony about this precursor.

Great Greed (GameBoy)--I've started this Namco-made RPG numerous times since first becoming aware of it many years ago. None of those playthroughs ended with me watching Great Greed's credit roll, however--despite the fact that I adore pretty much every aspect of it. I especially like its snappy, one-on-one battles and its eclectic soundtrack. So, I'm going to take another stab at it sometime this year. Hopefully this time I'll make it far enough to marry either the king or the chief of bodyguards.

Great Greed for the GameBoy

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)--I put more than 10 hours into Breath of the Wild back in 2017 and 2018, and both stints absolutely thrilled me. Sadly, both stints were rudely interrupted by vacations. As I've already made painfully clear, that's often all it takes the break the spell a game has on me. I always--or almost always--intend to return to these discarded adventures, but only rarely do. I have no idea when or how I'm going to buck that trend with Breath of the Wild, but I promise to try my hardest to make it happen in 2020.

My World, My Way (DS)--I gave over 10 hours of my life to this Global A-made RPG in early 2015. At the time, I was knee-deep into #ADecadeofDS, a blog series I started to celebrate the existence and impressive game catalog of Nintendo's first dual-screened handheld system. As part of that series, I played a DS title for a week--and only a week--and then reported how long I spent with it, what I thought of it, and more. I was so taken with My World, My Way that I ignored my self-imposed "week only" rule and played it for seven more days. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for me to reach the game's climax. The question is: when (not if) I circle back to it this year, will I start fresh or return to my woefully unfinished save file?

My World, My Way for the Nintendo DS

VA-11 HALL-A (Vita)--I own way too many copies of this cyberbunk-tinged visual novel to have never completed it, but that's the embarrassing truth of the matter. The only way to save face, I guess, is to force myself to finish it sometime this year. The thing I'm most looking forward to re-experiencing during my latest run at VA-11 HALL-A: its sublime OST. I'm pretty sure I could listen to some of its tracks for hours on end without tiring of them.

World of Final Fantasy Maxima (Switch)--Given how long I hemmed and hawed over buying a copy of World of Final Fantasy Maxima, it's amazing I ended up adoring the 26 or so hours I spent with it in 2019. It has its share of flaws, but none of them have bothered me much. In fact, the only thing that's bothered me about this odd Final Fantasy offshoot is the sinking feeling that I'll be completely lost when I jump back into the fray after so many months away. Fingers crossed those fears are proven unwarranted.

See also: Five 3DS games and 10 Switch games I want to play in 2020

My favorite games of 2019 that aren't The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince or Lapis x Labyrinth

I may have declared Lapis x Labyrinth and The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince my favorite games of 2019, but that doesn't mean they're the only games I enjoyed this past year.

In fact, here are seven titles I also had a blast playing at some point in the past 12 months.

Dandy Dungeon (PC, Switch)--I named another Onion Games joint, the brilliantly bleak shmup, Black Bird, one of my favorite games of last year. I nearly did the same this year with the company's Dandy Dungeon. What stopped me? The main reason is that I failed to finish it--or, rather, that I walked away from it at one point and never returned to it.

Although I can tell you exactly why I dropped it (I went on vacation and didn't take my Switch), I can't tell you why I didn't pick it up again. Maybe it did the unthinkable and became too repetitive? I say that's unthinkable because I usually don't mind a bit of repetition in games. I mean, you're talking to a guy who happily spends hours grinding in pretty much every RPG he plays--even when it's not needed. But there's a forced grind to this one that perhaps wore on me a tad.

Still, I was full-on obsessed with Dandy Dungeon during the 22 hours I'd put into it before that point, as this post proves. Its gameplay loop, which adroitly combines dungeon-crawling and loot-gathering with time-sensitive puzzle-solving, is both exhilarating and amusing. Actually, amusing describes several other elements of Dandy Dungeon, too, including its graphics, soundtrack, and story. Wait, remind me why I'm not playing this brilliant game right this second?

Heroland (PC, PS4, Switch)--I'm still working my way through this one, an odd, mobile-game-esque RPG made by folks who previously worked on Fantasy Life, Magical Vacation, and Mother 3, but I've spent enough time with it (about 12 hours now) to know I like it a great deal.

My first impressions of Heroland weren't favorable, as the opening hour or two were filled with blather and early battles veered far too close to they-play-themselves territory for my liking. Both areas of complaint improved by leaps and bounds as I continued to plug away at the game, I'm happy to report. Especially the fights.

In case you haven't heard, you don't directly control your parties in Heroland. Instead, you guide them--by periodically giving orders either to the whole group or to an individual member. It's kind of a bummer at the start, but their tactical nature eventually makes itself obvious, and that's when my opinion of this FuRyu product turned toward the positive for good.

Helping matters along tremendously: the game's earworm-enducing soundtrack and appealingly unique look.

Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn (3DS)--I'm fully aware that both the original Kirby’s Epic Yarn and this barely enhanced 3DS port have their fair share of detractors. For me, though, they're the video game equivalent of comfort food. They're what I turn to when I want to relax, or when I'm longing for the "good old days."

The accessibly enjoyable gameplay of these titles is a big reason for that, of course, but their cozy graphics and whimsical soundtracks play major roles, too. I guess that's why I gobbled up Extra Epic Yarn when it came out this past spring, and it's also why I'm now naming it one of my favorite games of 2019.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (3DS, mobile, PS4, Switch)--I wish I could tell you why I waited until the release of Gyakuten Saiban 123: Naruhodo Selection (that's the Japanese title of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy) to finally play my first Ace Attorney game. Whatever the case may be, I'm glad I got my act together and went through the long-running series' opening entry earlier this year.

Its brilliantly crafted characters and story as well as its eclectic soundtrack were the clear standouts for me, but I liked pretty much every other component of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, too. OK, so Capcom could've done a better job on the revamped visuals. And the game stumped me on several occasions. Neither of those things dampened my enjoyment of this visual novel, though. Hopefully they also won't keep me from digging its follow-ups when I tackle them in 2020.

Romancing SaGa 3 (mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, Vita, Xbox One)--There was a time not so long ago that I thought Romancing SaGa 3 might squeeze its way into the running for full-on favorite game of 2019. In the end, I put it here instead.

As for what prompted me to consider it a GOTY contender, that would be its tastefully updated graphics, its appropriately epic soundtrack, and its open-ended, quest-focused design. I also had a blast with its battles--or at least I did at first. The different formations, the odd party members, and especially the "sparking" of new abilities thrilled me for a good while, but at some point Romancing SaGa 3's fights lost a bit of their luster. I think it's because they happen a smidge too frequently (despite not being random, technically) and because the aforementioned sparking doesn't happen frequently enough.

Don't worry, I'm not giving up on it despite that disappointing turn of events. I'll definitely return to my playthrough, currently at the 26-hour mark, sometime next year.

Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe (GameBoy Color)--I may have stubbornly avoided giving this homebrew GameBoy game a go until several months after its initial, non-deluxe release, but once I broke the seal in that regard I quickly made up for lost time.

If you haven't read any of my other write-ups or interviews related to this Tangram Games-developed title, it's a glorious mix of Nintendo's Balloon Kid and Ferry Halim’s Winterbells, if that makes any sense whatsoever. The same can be said of Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe, which came out in late October. It's basically a colorized and otherwise slightly tweaked version of the original, though it also tosses in a new infinite mode for good measure.

If I had my way, I'd be ably to play both iterations of Tobu Tobu Girl on my Switch (or even my trusty 3DS), but since that's unlikely to happen in an official capacity, I'll keep plugging away at it on my hacked Wii. It's not the optimal solution for me, but the alternative--not playing this classic-in-the-making at all--is just not an option.

World of Final Fantasy Maxima (PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One)--I started through this enhanced version of World of Final Fantasy early in the year with fairly low expectations. Though I'd heard good things about the original release from folks whose opinions I respect, I couldn't help but think it wasn't going to be my cup of tea. Without mincing words, the non-chibi character designs horrified me and the battles--featuring party members with captured enemies stacked perilously on their noggins--baffled me.

Well, neither of those niggles bothered me at all after I spent a couple hours with the game. Which isn't to suggest World of Final Fantasy Maxima is without issues, mind you. In fact, I've found it strangely rough around the edges for a Square Enix product so far.

Still, Maxima's many charms--including the baffling battles I mentioned a few sentences ago, curiously enough--have outweighed its handful of blemishes to this point (my playthrough is hovering at 26 hours), so I'm hopeful that will continue when I circle back to it in the new year.

See also: 'My favorite games of 2018 that aren't Black Bird or Sushi Striker'

What does it say about me that Square Enix's World of Final Fantasy is the E3 game announcement that most excited me yesterday?

Don't worry, I'm fully aware of what it says about me--especially when some of the other games that were announced alongside this one at E3 2015 yesterday were the long-awaited Final Fantasy VII remake (for PS4, at least initially), the presumed-dead Last Guardian and the out-of-left-field Shenmue III.

What was it about Square Enix's trailer for World of Final Fantasy (watch it below or here), which will be released for both the PS4 and the Vita at some point in 2016 as well as one or more other systems afterward, that tripped my trigger?

I guess you could say the focus of my interest in this retro-modern RPG is its chibi character models, which recall the adorable, sprite-based ones that filled the earliest of Final Fantasy adventures.



Despite the praise I've heaped on World of Final Fantasy so far (well, kind of), I'm not chomping at the bit to pre-order it. That's going to have to wait until I see some more gameplay footage.

Plus, I want to make sure I won't be forced to control those ugly, non-chibi characters that also are featured in the trailer above before I even consider handing over my hard-earned cash for this throwback release.

How about all of you? Are you also (somewhat) excited for World of Final Fantasy? And how do you feel about the other PS4-bound games I mentioned at the beginning of this post?