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Top Games of 2021

bobjr

You ask too many questions
Staff member
Moderator
It's that time of year where no major releases are left, and we're all ready to make our top games of the year list. Despite 2022 looking stacked, there was a lot of solid games released this year, and even then you might have found a new gem from years ago.

1. Any game that you have played in 2021 is eligible. It could be a game from this year, it could be a game from the past, it could be a game from the future if you're some kind of time traveling god. It could be a gacha game, it could be a romhack, it could be a randomizer, it could be a mod, as long as you played it this year it's all good.

2. The joy of this thread is in getting to shout about your favorites and hear about the hidden gems that you missed and we can only do that if you talk about why you've chosen the games you have. You can write a sentence, you can write an essay, whatever you like as long as you write something.

3. If you want to list more than ten games go for it. If you want to list less than ten games then go for that too. If you don't want to rank your picks then that's fine as well.

4. Don't be a dick about other people's choices. This is a positive thread to celebrate the best of video games, not a place for people to get lost in an argument over which AAA release **** the bed worst. If you want to be critical then take it elsewhere. Please note that this rule will be waived in the event anyone picks hentai games or Dota.

5. Please use spoiler tags when necessary. One of the best part of these threads is people hearing about new games they want to play and we don’t want to spoil them before they even start playing.
 

KillerDraco

Well-Known Member
Honestly... 2021 felt like a pretty tame year. There were plenty of good games, mind you, but it didn't feel like there were (m)any greats that stood above the crowd.

If I had to pick one, my top game of 2021 was probably Tales of Arise. Yes it had some issues, no it may not have been perfect, but I enjoyed the gameplay, the story kept me interested (even if the second half wasn't paced as well), and made me want to keep playing until the end and beyond. It held my attention more than most other games this year and left the best impression upon me.

Metroid Dread was good, although not really groundbreaking. Still, it was solid at what it set it out to do, the movement felt fluid and fun, and seeing Metroid get another 2D entry so long after Fusion was a breath of fresh air.

Although it's an enhanced port, I did really enjoy Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. I really like the foundation that Bowser's Fury laid for a sandbox-style Mario game and I'd love to see Nintendo run with the idea. Plus, 3D World is still a solid game in its own right.

Kena was a little shorter than I hoped and the parries felt pretty janky to learn, but the game was charming and I did enjoy the combat. I've seen a lot of people call it Pixar Souls, and that's not a bad way to describe it. Although one thing that kinda irked me, which is mostly a nitpick, was the lack of a feeling of... "weight" behind some attacks.

I've heard good things about Psychonauts 2 and I do intend to play it at some point, but it's currently lost in backlog hell for me. Still, I loved Psychonauts back in the day, it was a fun and weird cult classic, so I am looking forward to getting into the sequel I never expected it to get.

There were a few other games that were pretty good here and there, such as Bravely Default 2, New Pokemon Snap, and Back 4 Blood, but I don't have quite as much to say about them. They were good at what they set out to do though.

That said I am really looking forward to 2022. BOTW2, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Splatoon 3, Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarok, Elden Ring... I expect to have much more to say a year from now.
 

Divine Retribution

Conquistador de pan
2021 was an exceptionally bland year in terms of gaming for me. I didn't really have much free time for gaming, and there were no games that were released in 2021 that really stood out to me, honestly. Brilliant Diamond was a fun way to kill a couple dozen hours but not exactly amazing, and the replayability of the game just... isn't there for me. Other than that I spent most of the year playing old games.

I revisited Rust with some friends and remembered why I both love and hate that game with a passion. I played through FO:NV again and remembered what it was like to play an actually good Fallout game. I played New World for a while but burnt out on that pretty quickly (I simply don't really have time for a MMORPG anymore). I spent some time bumming around on Escape from Tarkov but honestly that game is far too slow paced for me to ever enjoy playing alone, and almost none of my friends play it. And I've still been playing PlanetSide 2 off and on. That was my year in gaming; pretty uninteresting, really.

Legends: Arceus is looking interesting, and I have a couple other games on my radar for 2022 though.
 

Auraninja

Eh, ragazzo!
Metroid Dread was solid, but I don't think I like it more than the GBA titles.
Still a good game though; I might need to play it again to gain more a more informed perception.

Pokemon Shining Pearl was alright. Sinnoh is nowhere close to my favorite region, but the remakes do ease a bit of the burden from a set of games that has poor QoL. BDSP overcompensated IMO, but at least I can play with a whole bunch of different Pokemon.

Xenoblade 2 is probably my game of the year (counting games that I specifically played). I really got enthralled with this title.

Smash Bros. has had DLC that ended this year, and I really like the additions of Pyra/Mythra, Kazuya and Sora.
P.S. A game isn't dead if it is merely completed guys. With that logic, Melee died day 1.

Wario Ware Get it Together was a fun game that helped me through COVID (with me literally having it), so I am thankful for that. It was about as fun as Gold, with some give and take. I thought it was better than Gold at first, but I might say that Gold is still better now.

Lastly, Super Mario 3D World was fun to play through again, with Bowser's Fury being a side mode being more fun that it should be.

Also, while they're old games by now, it is a good idea to buy the Castlevania Advance Collection.
 
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Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Great games from this year for me are:

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD- the button controls was a great addition as it made controlling the Beetle and mine cart much easier and I enjoyed the game much better than I did on the Wii.

BDSP- Pretty good remakes. Sure they have flaws and they didn’t change much to the games but the games look great and the Chibi art style turned out much better than expected.

Paper Mario- I never played the original on the N64 and being able to play on the Switch is nice. I currently am on my way to Koopa Fortress.

Animal Crossing New Horizons: Still an amazing game even a year later with new things to discover. The DLC for Paradise Resort Home is nice and Kapp’n’s Mystery Tour is okay but not something I’ll do very often. But the shops on Harv’s Island is my favorite feature as I can now easily get all of the Art I’m missing in my Museum.
 

Pokefan_1987

Avid Pokemon TCG Card collector.
Mass Effect Legendary Collection: This remake is a fantastic upgrade solving many problems including the slow processing power of the PS3 collection.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond: Its not perfect but the speed is a huge leap forwards. The burden of constant need of having a HM slave on the team 24/7 is finally gone and the HM Move Summoning application in the Poke-etch is a good solution.

-Only major complaints are
The increased Elite 4 difficulty. Having to create a competitive level team to beat em took me a whole week.

-TM are limited use like in the past and certain attacking HM moves like surf not being infinite use, i don't like this downgrade since the hiker vendors are expensive, the Underground Currency for moves is already rare and the hiker locations aren't easy to remember. :mad:
(I want to have Surf my on water starter and imported water starters types)

-The Chibi style doesn't look great in most cutscenes. Looks too much like weird Funko Pop figures, but not in a good way :mad:

-Lastly the Gym Puzzles are reset after you unlock the re-matches, Candice and pretty much most of the Sinnoh gyms have a lot of annoying puzzles to redo.
 
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bobjr

You ask too many questions
Staff member
Moderator
I'm pretty sure I have my top 10 ordered, but after the top 5 or so it's pretty interchangeable.

10. Tales of Arise

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In terms of saving the series, Arise absolutely did. It sold amazingly well, reviewed great, and is pretty well-liked. Also this is the first Tales game where the music stood out for me, instead of being fine but not great. It does have the Tales issues of a good opening, an up and down middle, and an ending that's a bit rushed and out of nowhere, and not enough time and focus is spent on the problems there. The characters are mostly good, but instead of developing a stronger group dynamic they focus on 3 duo groups, which helps in some cases and hurts others, mostly Law. Gameplay-wise, Arise has a very fun and fluid combat system with often terrible enemy and boss design, featuring bosses who are impossible to flinch and have way too much HP and are capable of one or two shotting characters. I don't rank it as a series high, but its on the right path.

9. Psychonauts 2

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This is a game that does a great job of being true to it's routes as a PS2 era platformer, while evolving into a modern game that isn't janky by today's standards. The plaforming and powers do have some issues, but where the strengths lie is the story and how mental health and how we should live with it and treat it has changed in the 15 years since. Instead of invading people's minds without them knowing Raz makes sure they're okay with it, and these people are less treated as jokes or bad people, but often hurt or sympathetic who need more than what little support they got already. It's the only game I felt that got robbed awards wise, because this is a game that has more heart and love put into it than most other AAA type games.

8. Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon

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This was a massive risk for the series, going from a brawler type action game to a strict job based RPG, and it mostly handles the transition well. It has some issues like job balance being out of wack where some are useless and others so good there's no need to change it, and there are some bad difficulty spikes, but right now it's good enough where the next game i feel they'll iron out the worst problems.

Story wise they had a massive task on their hands as well, moving on from former protagonist Kazuma Kiryu to the new character Ichiban, and despite what might be the slowest start of a Yakuza game, the story is up there for best in series. Ichiban is a fun character and I'm excited to see where he goes from this.

7. Persona 5: Strikers

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Persona 5 is one of those "Great start, not so great finish" games, and Persona 5: Strikers is a direct sequel to it, focusing on the summer vacation after 5 ends. The story, while predictable, does have a nice balance of the first half giving a shine to the more notoriously neglected party members of Persona 5 and the second focuses more on the new characters of Strikers, but the game never loses that feeling and vibe of this bring a summer road trip between the Phantom Thieves, even when things get serious story wise.

Gameplay wise this is a weird mix of a Warriors game and a Persona game, so many people treated it just like the former and were overwhelmed or disappointed. If you like Warriors type games you won't be disappointed, but the game is much more about spacing, weaknesses, and party member switching, with an active combat system. It's nothing amazing or groundbreaking, but fun and once you get a hang of it it flows well.

6. Metroid Dread

This was a surprise announcement, and the future of the series arguably rested on this game doing well, which it thankfully did. It's the fastest selling and got great reviews, from new and old players alike. Gameplay wise this game feels the most smooth and natural of any of the 2D Metroid games, right away Samus just feels right and only gets more and more stronger in a good way. Sequence breaks are also possible and designed for, and they did the perfect balance of story, putting enough in to give us wanting more, but not too little where it would just be confusing.

My only big criticism is most of the areas look too same-y, where if they each had a theme I couldn't really tell you what it was except for 1 or 2 of them, and that's is where Super Metroid shines in comparison.

5. Shin Megami Tensei 5

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This was a game that was announced forever ago, and finally released. Overall I'd put it at the top of SMT games, and there's a few modern developments that make the game really fun to play. Additionally, the maps have changed from confusing labyrinth type dungeons to more open world areas, with a lot of little areas to explore for various worthwhile rewards. Combat wise things feel really nice as well. Things are never frustratingly hard where you have no idea what to do, but you're never steamrolling through anything without a challenge either.

Story wise SMT has never been a huge in your face focus, but I really like what they did this time with a slow drip that builds up to an explosive climax. One problem SMT had previously with Law/Neutral/Chaos routes is Law and Chaos just ended up with crazy people yelling at you without a real reason to join them outside of completion's sake, and this time there's more of a solid reason to side with each logic, without one clear golden path.

4. Guardians of the Galaxy

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If any game surprised me this year this was it. The trailers made it look unimpressive, E3 demo wasn't great, and The Avengers game was a mess which didn't help. But after it dropped on a sale I picked it up, and was honestly surprised at how good it was. It divorces itself from other Marvel properties to tell it's own standalone story, and it's really good. The characters are different enough from the Marvel versions to stand on their own as well, and in some cases like Gamora are vastly improved from their MCU versions.

Gameplay wise things work really well, like a more modern Mass Effect game. Things can get a little chaotic, but it feels nice and you're always just one fight away from getting something new, and it leads to a nice pace. Also there is so much cool world and level design you don't see in most games.

3. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

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The remake of Ratchet 1 was good, but outside of that Ratchet had been mostly left alone since the PS3 era. This really does match series highs for gameplay, opting to switch between Ratchet and Clank and new character Rivet, due to dimensional shenanigans. Inventory stays the same between characters for quality of life more than anything else, and the haptics and 60fps+ray tracing on the PS5 really stand out here..

The only real issues I have is the weapons are not as diverse as I would like, and while they aren't bad, a lot of them do the same thing in a sense, compared to the more varied weapons of past games. Some of the weapons do stand out as best in series however.

2. Life is Strange: True Colors

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The original Life is Strange is one of my favorite games of all time, with a good prequel to add to it. 2 was a letdown but not terrible, so I tried to temper my expectations when True Colors was announced, made by the same people who did Before the Storm. This focuses on one small town again, where a young woman named Alex visits and reconnects with her brother before tragedy happens which leads into a bigger mystery. Instead of 5 episodes released over time, this had the entire game come out at once, with a DLC chapter coming out later.

Despite the weird "Psychic power of empathy" they advertised it as, Alex's power is mostly mind reading when someone has strong emotions, with some emotional manipulation as well. The story is really well told and all of the characters feel developed and realistic, and I cannot recommend this game more if you want a narrative game where the choices might not matter as much as advertised, but what I feel is important is that you do have to stop and think for a second about a choice, and the weight and consequences they might carry.

1. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

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This might honestly be one of my favorite games of all time, everything is done near perfectly. The story does time travel with hard sci-fi concepts and put so much work in to making everything work and be logically consistent, while delivering it's plot beats in a way a series like Lost or X-Files wishes it could do, you'll always be guessing and even if you're right, it will swing in with some new development that just makes sense later on.

The game is divided into a kind of exploratory visual novel segment, and a RTS level aspect. The former is amazing outside of 1-2 parts where it isn't super clear what to do, and the second is surprisingly engaging, as someone who does not normally like those games.

The big hurdle for this game is that it was Playstation only, but next March it is getting a Switch release, and if you have any interest in the game please let me sell you on it.

Honorable Mentions:

Mass Effect Trilogy
Skyward Sword HD

These two games did release this year as updated versions, but honestly as I had played them before and did like the little changes they did, I feel weird listing them when they were mostly just little changes that didn't add anything substantial. I'd recommend them in a heartbeat and would never fault someone else for putting them though.
 

Auraninja

Eh, ragazzo!
I did play a bit of P5: Strikers, and while I really did like it, I have barely gotten past the first boss. I would like to continue that game sometime. The gameplay did something different than traditional warrior titles which I did appreciate.
 

The Teller

King of Half-Truths
I'm pretty sure I have my top 10 ordered, but after the top 5 or so it's pretty interchangeable.
You did a lengthy, informative post, so I'm gonna do my yearly duty to provide my lengthy informative post. Here it is, everyone! My Grand List of Games I Beat in 2021 (in roughly the order of when I beat them)!

#1. Fire Emblem DLC- Yeah, I’m a year late; Claude still best boi; reminded me why I liked the main game so much; bit weird playing it as it was clearly designed to be played WHILE you’re playing the main game.

#2. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie’s Double Trouble- Again; Dixie still best grill; #andthatsthelastweeversawofkingkrool.

#3. Yu-Gi-Oh!: Legacy of the Duelist- Sadly, probably my GOTY; it’s SO much fun deciphering character decks and trying to use them against opponents; when all else fails, Skill Drain.

#4. Cyberpunk 2077- V Lives!; I, along with 98% of us sheeple, romanced Panam, though it took her awhile to even appear; Side quests will make everything seem trivial, so do them first; trigger warnings.

#5. Bravely Default 2- What I WANTED to be GOTY; no meta-twists or mind-blowing songs (besides that one song); it’s just…meh.

#6. Twin Mirror- Probably a better Life is Strange game than LiS; good use of emerging PS5 graphics, compelling story, prerequisite traumatic childhood; find it on sale.

#7. Picross S6- IT BEGINS; Nintendo, no joke, sent me an email saying this was my second most played game this year; I have an addiction and this is NOT a plea for help, but for MORE PICROSS!!!

#8. Hades (completed?)- Look, I got out of Tartarus, and I know half or more of the game’s story takes place after that, but I’m counting it as “beaten;” game’s great once you learn how it really works.

#9. New Pokémon Snap- So many new Pokémon, so many new areas, a returning face!; it’s completely on me that I felt the game should’ve been perfect and it clearly wasn’t ever going to be.

#10. Spongebob Squarepants- Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated- I saw someone else play this and saw how good the mechanics were and how the game kept in the original season’s humor, so I picked it up; A fun little action-adventure-platformer for the nostalgic nerds.

#11. Mass Effect 1- Celibate; that is all.

#12. Pinstripe- aka the one with Pewdiepie and Markiplier; I liked the receptionist the best; “melk”.

#13. Little Misfortune- Black humor: the game; I played it mostly because it was cheap and I had time and had already watched someone play it; still good, even if it gets teary-eyed in the end.

#14. Astro’s Playroom- How’d you know I upgraded to a PS5?; a fun tech demo that taught me that I will always be afraid of breaking my shoulder buttons every time they resist.

#15. Mass Effect 2- Miranda best babe; that is all; (oh, I also saved Kaiden cuz I knew you losers wouldn’t).

#16. A Short Hike- Unassisted speedrun of this game is supposed to be, like, 2 minutes; it took me maybe 3 hours?; and that was after doing as many of the side stuff as I thought there were; ending is a little teary.

#17. Leo’s Fortune- Clearly a phone game ported onto the PS4; runs like Sonic, if Sonic also had Kirby’s floaty powers; not a bad distraction, but maybe a tad too expensive.

#18. The Shapeshifting Detective- This got me into my FMV kick this year; if I hadn’t already seen other people play this game, it’d easily be one of my GOTY; randomized killers are always a plus.

#19. Dark Nights with Poe & Munro- The quasi-prequel to the above; like a homemade X-Files; getting the good endings basically requires either extreme luck or looking up a guide.

#20. Five Dates- I thought the main guy was the same guy who played Oscar in Shapeshifting Detective; I was wrong; I wound up matching really well with the wet blanket lawyer lady; probably the best game that actually takes place in the real world current pandemic.

#21. I Saw Black Clouds- Wow this game takes a sharp turn towards the end; I think the game froze up on me once; I swear the side girl was a zombie towards the end; my honesty locked me out of the good ending?

#22. Contrast- Not an FMV like the last 4 and next 2; a platformer where the platforms are shadows and you are a shadow, set in Ye Olde Paris; usual issues with learning how finicky the controls are, and the game DEFINITELY glitched at the very end, forcing me to redo the final puzzle from scratch.

#23. Death Come True- From the people who brought you Danganronpa comes something…not quite as intense; you have to die to progress the story, okay; apparently the best character is a hard-to-find optional route, boo.

#24. The Complex- This veers dangerously close to torture p**n towards the end; will definitely trigger some people with its subject matter; good acting though.

#25. Disgaea 6- Really let down by this one; level 1 should not mean stats in the 100,000s!; repeat character archetypes; Cerberus was the best character; but at least you can auto-grind.

#26. Mass Effect 3- I chose Synthesis because I didn’t want to lose Legion and EDI; I’m sure Guy Shepard will be back for Mass Effect 5 (yes, that’s what I named him).

#27. Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet- It was like $2 and I like the idea of a pragmatic scientist candy maker in a town full of magical wizards and witches that make inferior candy; plus you get a candy golem who you can eat!

#28. Jazzpunk- This one’s hilarious, but it’s also Futurama humor, so a lot of it will go over your heads, but there’s plenty of jokes you will get.

#29. Sackboy: A Big Adventure- I did half this game in co-op and it was great; I forgot LBP games tend to have music levels; I died a lot in the Toxic stage because I was too busy grooving; #backseatgamer.

#30. Layers of Fear 2- Not as good as the first one; themes seem to be more scattered; the game goes monochrome a lot and that makes it hard to see; maybe get it cheap?

#31. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond- Literally Diamond Remastered; I trained up 2 full teams simultaneously and still had an easy time until the E4 and Cynthia; still, it scratches that Pokémon itch.

#32. Picross S5- IT CONTINUES; this was my THIRD most played Switch game this year; I think I’ll just go down the series list…

#33. Mario Kart 64- I got first on almost all tracks, so I consider it beaten; Yoshi main; I hated that one canyon level with the giant rolling Yoshi egg; is Mario Kart more fun now that it’s way more complicated?

#34. Mario Tennis- I used to be God at this; now I’m just a president; I tried to main Yoshi, but ironically enough got walled by Birdo (another speed character) at the final level; mained Birdo and oneshotted everything; Birdo top tier plz nerf.

#35. Yoshi’s Story- I remember this game being WAY easier when it first came out; am I getting…old?; no…it is the children who are wrong; Yoshi’s jump mechanics makes it hard.

If anyone wants me to talk a bit more about any particular game I just mentioned, then just let me know. I'll gladly get into more specifics.
 

The Mega Champion

Well-Known Member
Alright I've made you all wait for mine long enough. Please keep in mind that my list is based off of the games that I played this year. So when they actually came out doesn't matter in the slightest.

Mega's Game of the Year 2021

Let's give out some Special Awards first for some games that I played this year that deserve acknowledgement in some form or another.

World of Final Fantasy (PS4) wins Easiest Game of the Year
Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Switch) wins Hardest Game of the Year
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) wins Funnest Game of the Year/Most Fun Game
Akiba's Beat (PS4) wins Underrated Game of the Year

With that out of the way... here is my Top 3 games that I played this year overall. With an extra game receiving an Overall Special Mention. I'll provide links to their information on GameFAQs if you wish to check them out for yourself and maybe decide if you wish to play these games yourself or not.

Overall Special Mention: Akiba's Beat (PS4) (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/190967-akibas-beat). Honestly... I don't even know where to begin with this game. It was just so god damn good and so god damn fun. As you can see... it won my underrated game of the year. Because it's exactly that. Extremely underrated. I still to this day fail and don't understand why it has such mediocre/bad reviews. I really don't. The game is just great. It's like an anime in video game form. Which just makes it even better in my opinion. That's not even all either. The game is so self aware of itself and what it is that there are lots of funny moments in the game that legimately made me laugh out loud when these moments happened and as I played it. Like... there are a lot of fourth wall breaking moments as well as anime culture references and just anime stuff in general. It was just great and I enjoyed playing this game every moment I played it. The story is surprisingly good too. Especially once it gets to endgame. Some pretty shocking and unexpected twists that honestly made me sad. Which just made it even better. Easy game too. Which most will probably be turned off from but I, for one, managed to still enjoy everything this game had to offer despite it being Easy. So it didn't matter to me. At all. I really do need more games like this one. Seriously. I do. I wish more people would play this one and give it the love it deserves and deserved back when it came out. But it is what it is I suppose. Do I recommend it? Yes. Please go play this. Please? I swear you won't regret it...

#3. Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/184021-ni-no-kuni-ii-revenant-kingdom). Again... I wish I knew where to start with this game too. The sequel to Wrath of the White Witch. Which was done utterly and completely differently. Which many might and were turned off by. It's no longer a Monster Catcher/Tamer. It's an ARPG (Action Role Playing Game) now. Similar to Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV sort of. Personally... I thought this game worked MUCH BETTER as an ARPG and thought the series worked MUCH BETTER this way in general. The anime cutscenes from the first game were gone, but the game looked so good and was so fun... I pretty much didn't care and didn't even notice. Yep. It was just THAT good. The game already looked anime-ish anyway so it was fine. The gameplay was EXTREMELY fun. Which is why this one won my Most Fun Game/Funnest Game of the Year Special Award. There wasn't a single time when I wasn't having fun playing this game back when I was playing it. Not only that... I actually looked forward to playing it every time before I played it. Which just made it a better overall experience and just a great game in general. Story was pretty decent and really good too. Everything about this game was just great. I can't praise it more. I just hope that if there are more Ni No Kuni games... that they get localized and english dubbed for the west (due to Level 5's NA death). Well... we can only hope for the best I suppose. Do I recommend it? YES. IT'S SO FUN AND SO GOOD.

Game of the Year 2021 Runner-Up (#2). Final Fantasy 7 Remake (Part 1) (PS5) (PS4 version will be linked. I just upgraded to the PS5 version since it was free. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/168653-final-fantasy-vii-remake). Wow. Just wow. This game. It got so close to winning my overall GOTY. It really did. It was extremely fun (at times) and extremely good as well. Re-experiencing FF7 is something that I never honestly expected to be this good or like this. Everything about it was just great and the retelling worked really well. There was just one problem. The one thing that made this game my personal runner-up instead of my overall GOTY. No it wasn't the ending. I didn't notice anything bad or so-called 'controversial' about the ending AT ALL. In fact... I thought the ending was actually pretty good and it makes me look forward to the future parts (whenever those come out lol). I'll admit the absolute final boss was... shocking. To say the least. But it made sense in context I guess. I even finished him off with a Limit Break from Cloud. Perfect way to end it if you ask me. Either way... the one thing that prevented this game from winning my overall GOTY... was it's difficulty. I struggled WAY too much with this game. More than I really should have if you ask me honestly. A couple of the boss fights too me way too many attempts to beat them. Some I would manage to beat on my 2nd or 3rd attempt. But a few took longer to that. Yeah... that's ridiculous. I was playing on Normal just so you know. I don't know if it would have made a difference or not if I had played on Easy or something. Maybe it would have. In fact it probably would have. But I don't like switching to Easy modes unless I'm struggling with the entire game as a whole. Not specific parts. I mean it goes without saying that I overcame them all eventually. But I just felt like I was struggling too much when I really shouldn't have been. So it just hindered my enjoyment of it and prevented this game from winning my overall GOTY. Although honestly... even if I hadn't of struggled as much as I did. I... honestly don't think the list would be any different. My winner... was just too good to not win. Either way... I still really enjoyed this game and I can't wait for more parts. Do I recommend it? Yes. Don't listen to the whiny baby complainers about the way the game ends. It's a great game that is definitely worth experiencing for yourself.

Game of the Year 2021 (#1)

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Nier Automata (PS4) (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/252848-nier-automata-game-of-the-yorha-edition)

I can't give this game justice. As much as I really want to. I just can't. Why? BECAUSE EVERY. SINGLE. GOD DAMN. THING. IN THIS GAME. IS JUST. SO. GOD DAMN. GOOD. IT REALLY. FREAKING. IS. Story? AMAZING. Graphics? AMAZING. Characters? AMAZING. Gameplay? AMAZING. Music? AMAZING. You see? I'm just not good at this lol. Oh... I forgot to mention... I GOT THE PLATINUM FOR THIS GAME. LEGITIMATELY. WITHOUT BUYING A SINGLE ONE OF THE TROPHIES. (yes you can buy the trophies for this game at one point in the game lol. I didn't. I got them all legitimately. Even if it was a pain in the god damn ass. Which it was. But it was worth it. This game DESERVED me to put myself through some suffering with how GOD DAMN GOOD it was). Not only that... you have to practically replay the game. Multiple times. In order to get the 'Tru(E)' Ending. See what I did there? lol. But don't worry. It's not the same game. At least not when you get to the second and third playthrough. It's practically like a completely different game altogether. I'd explain further... but honestly... just experience it for yourself. It's just better that way. Besides, as you can see, I'm not good at explaining how good a game really is lol. This game was just too damn good. It really was. I wanted to keep playing it. I wanted to get the Platinum for it. I wanted to do everything in this game that I could (for the Platinum at least). This is the second year in the row where a game has won my personal Game of the Year where I'm just like 'HOW IN THE F DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME EARLIER?! WHY DIDN'T I BUY THIS GAME EARLIER?! WHY DIDN'T I PLAY THIS GAME EARLIER?!' It happened last year with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. It happens again this year with Nier Automata. It's just so damn good. Everyone needs to and should play this game. So go do that. Instead of reading this wall of text praising it. I just wish I had known about this game and played it earlier. Like Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. I'm hoping stuff like this will stop happening. But I always end up finding out about really good games late. That's just how I am I guess. Either way... well deserved honestly. Do I recommend it? COME ON THIS IS OBVIOUS. JUST GO PLAY THIS. RIGHT NOW.

Needless to say... I'm hyped to play Nier Replicant. Whenever that happens. I'm hoping next year but my backlog is still... bad. Which is quite the massive understatement. We'll see I guess.

So yeah. Take that however you want. See you all next year where Digimon Survive wins except it actually won't because even if it comes out next year I probably won't actually play it until 2023 lol
 
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Humuskk1

Member
The game came out last year, I believe it was released last year, however Control absolutely blows me off currently. I'm not usually a fan when playing combat-based games however the concept and story make it worthwhile. For it's the first time in quite a while I'm actually enjoying fighting this time around, thanks to the way it is played in this game. It's one of the games that I cannot stop contemplating for quite a while since I've felt this kind of way about an activity.
 

SerebieNi

Active Member
No one mention New World? There is truly something for everyone in this game (it offers a choice of PvE or PvP), even a newbie without any discernable skills. It also allows me to play online with my kids, who are physically many miles away; and who knew it would be so much fun to harvest a Lifebloom! The graphics, music, and overall environmental details are excellent & look very real as you're running around.
 
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