Justin literally hasn't cast spells like this before. This unassuming magical adventure has nothing to be ashamed of.

Previous Mages of Mystralia Experience

• Saw it shoot up the sales charts on opening weekend.
• Heard good things from friends that had played it.

Initial Expectations, Hopes, Dreams, Fears

• I was afraid it would be boring or completely forgettable.
• That spell casting system looked interesting.
• Would that spell casting system be too complicated?
• It sure looks pretty, so is there something broken under the hood?

What actually happened

Mages of Mystralia does an amazingly efficient job of setting up its story alongside establishing plenty of reasons for you to have empathy for your playable character. This young girl is outcast by her community for having powers she doesn't understand, and together we're going to figure out how to use these incredible powers to save the world. In short, I'm in! I was pulled into this game world immediately and I cared about what was happening. It's not that the story is all that unique, but a lot of games tend to botch the setup and never recover. Mages of Mystralia starts strong and never wavers.

This is a game that has been crafted with care and feels very comfortable in its own identity. Mages of Mystralia is definitely inspired by some of my favorite action RPGs, but it never uses that inspiration as a crutch. The fundamentals of an action RPG are all in place here. The controls feel great, the setting is interesting, and the enemies are fun to wand to death. Underneath it's familiar atmosphere, is a unique sum of clever and purposeful game design ideas.

After you are let loose a bit, it becomes obvious that the magical spells and the action and logic puzzles that come with them are going to be the stars of Mages of Mystralia. Evolving my fire spell from merely being a means to light torches into a deadly fireball, opened my eyes to the interesting and customizable spell options that are in my future.

It's not just an adventure game though. The action in Mages of Mystralia does keep you on your toes, and the boss fights are surprisingly satisfying as well. I thought I'd get a single stand out game mechanic to hook me and bring me back, but Mages of Mystralia has the total magical package going on here.

Will I keep playing?

I've been going back to Mages of Mystralia on a regular basis since I initially recorded this video. It's easy to jump and out of, and remains a pleasure to play. It all feels incredibly familiar, but I have a strong desire to see how this version plays out.

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Persona 5 is the coolest shit.

Oops, spoilers! Let me rewind for a moment, explain why Persona 5 is the coolest shit and discuss the actions Atlus took because of that fact.

The Shin Megami Tensei games took a while to fully catch on in mainstream North America, but Persona first hooked me during my college days in 2006. Cool. Strange. Stylish. Dark. The allure is powerful.

Persona 5 is all of that and perhaps even the best version of it. The formula holds up (realize the personas within yourself, strengthen your relationships, defeat the shadows within a dungeon), but is also able to be twisted into something unique, accessible, and interesting. I've started describing Persona 5 as the "Ocean's Eleven" of Persona. It's a heist movie disguised as a Japanese role-playing game. Even the menus are stylized. It's all-around cool shit!

What can I say?

I'd love to talk about all the details surrounding why Persona 5 is so damn cool, but that's where Atlus comes in. There's a heightened sensitivity to spoilers with this game's release, ranging from discussing specific plot details to streaming past a certain date in the game's calendar. Now that I've completed the first Palace (this game's version of dungeons), I can see why the issue is a bit complicated.

The story in Persona 5 has been a blast to experience. I've got 25 hours under my belt and there's still tons to do. When it comes to the idea of having that experience spoiled, not everyone will agree. Some people do watch streamers play an entire game start to finish, while others might watch an hour of gameplay before deciding to get their own copies. It's like a unscripted demo in that sense.

The execution of these rules is a mess, don't get me wrong. While I don't see the harm in requesting that gamers do their best to avoid spoilers, strict enforcement of these rules and threats of channel or account suspensions gives Persona 5's launch a sour taste. This could be a difference in views between the North American game scene and Japan, but the contention will get worse if guidelines like these continue.

Politics aside, I am wholeheartedly loving Persona 5. It'll be hard to return to my latest Persona 4 Golden save now that I've started building up this team of amazing characters. Yes, I am aware one of them is a blue-eyed talking cat... but I'm willing to let that feline fact slide since the character is funny and kicks shadow ass.

I was married before Tinder came out, which is fine, but Tinder produced my Favorite Internet Thing in 2015 with this:

I can’t say I was waiting with bated breath – while I had dumped a lot of hours into Fallout 3, I took a pass on New Vegas and have never ventured into the world of Skyrim, partly because of the same thing that happened to me when I fired up Fallout 4: Oh, my god, this world is huge. I’m never going to get everything done! And for the first several hours, that’s how I felt. I appreciated the improved gunplay, loved how they changed V.A.T.S., and thought for such a gigantic game, it was pretty darned good looking.

And then it happened.


I found the first set of power armor and mini-gun and a deathclaw came tearing around the corner, charging towards me and I unloaded on it, killing it and watching it slide face first on the asphalt to come to rest at my feet. I am the Vault Dweller and the wasteland of the Commonwealth is my playground. Thank for recess, Fallout 4.

Others Agree This was a Game of 2015

Justin Lacey - "The loot fucking matters. I've never been so terrified in my life. It's like Bethesda wanted to find a way to quadruple the time I wanted to spend in its world. It's all worth it though because I can make a gun that will terrify you and barely scratch your skin, or I can make a rickety, one handed piece of shit that will literally make your head explode. What was I doing again?"

Aaron McNeal - "I finally played Fallout 4 again after over a month of other games. So worth it. I got locked into a battle with what I best described as an unfair legendary Mr. Gutsy with some minigun style armament. I defeated it on the second try, stopped to loot it, and a few seconds after the scuffle had ended, a car I was too close to exploded and I screamed with the fury of a thousand mole rats on the day the bombs fell."

Stay tuned for more Games of 2015 this month as we build towards The 2015 Grimmys - Horrible Night's Games of the Year Awards.