It’s that holly jolly season to spend time with your loved ones, dust off your Christmas tree lights, and reflect on all the great moments you’ve had in the past year — especially your greatest gaming moments!

Here in our Bandai Namco Games America office, we’ve experienced some great highs this year, like finally beating a boss in Dark Souls II with co-workers cheering us on, as well as some face palming lows, like accidentally rolling off a cliff in Dark Souls II… with co-workers watching.

Nonetheless, 2014 has been a great year.

Since the beginning we have prided ourselves on bringing well-loved anime franchises to video games in the West, and 2014 was no exception. Kicking off the year, we launched Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z and One Piece: Romance Dawn and kept the anime train rolling throughout the year with Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Reborn for our anime fans.

Speaking of fans, something needs to be said about our “Tales of” fans. The immense support and devotion we receive from our “Tales of” fans has spurred and motivated the Bandai Namco team to localize more and more Tales of games and prove that classic JRPGs are as strong as ever! Just in 2014, we were able to bring over Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, Tales of Xillia 2, and Tales of Hearts R and the reception for each one was fabulous!

However, the biggest highlight from 2014 that all of us at Bandai Namco Games America would agree on would be the much anticipated and celebrated launch of Dark Souls II. The Bandai Namco elves worked long hours and late into the nights, even during the 2013 holiday season, and boy did all that hard work pay off! With over 400 million in-game deaths worldwide from the game’s launch until now, we believe it’s safe to say that Dark Souls II is the most challenging and punishing, yet gloriously rewarding, action RPG experience that has come out of the Bandai Namco Games lineup to date.

With 2015 creeping up fast, we fully intend to keep the 2014 momentum going and hope everybody is looking forward to another fantastic year of epic battles, nail-biting victories, and pwning noobs! But for now, have a wonderful holiday season and happy New Year!

–From the Bandai Namco Games America crew