It's never too late for a mid-year check-in, that's what I always say. Though maybe in this case, it's a year which we don't so much check in but never check out, Hotel California style, since we're still all stuck indoors twiddling our thumbs while watching all the morally vacuous and scientifically disinclined people gallivant outside as they dance and sing and spit into each other's maskless mouths. May their deaths be quick and relatively painless.

That said, it's been a good year for getting in more backlog gaming and I'm forever tinkering around with ideas for future content. There's a real ambitious N64-themed idea that I was batting around as a tie-in for its recent 25th anniversary, and I've of course started several since 2021 began, but for the most part I've been playing it safe: with so many killer years recently, in particular that 2017-2019 period just prior to the world ending, I've let so many great entries in my favorite franchises and "wheelhouse genres" stack up like a precarious Jenga tower. I've also found the time for a few major bucket list items too, largely because they've getting long-delayed remakes or sequels showing up out of the blue this year.

Anyway, I've loosely structured a bunch of global and personal updates for this check-in, so I hope you stick around and find something that intrigues you. If nothing else, I might remind you of some great games that could already be sitting underappreciated in your own libraries, digital or physical.

2021: A Land of Contrasts

There's a remarkable fortitude behind the video game industry that's allowed it to not only persevere during this business-shuttering pandemic but even prosper, as one of the few industries to not necessarily need its employees to be sequestered into a single interior location (if anything they're better off now, if this Activision Blizzard lawsuit is any indication) but is very much benefitted by having its customers in that same boat. With most other social activities curtailed, new video games have continued to be released and celebrated for brightening a darker time in our lives.

Naturally, as a parsimonious son-of-a-gun, I've yet to partake of any this year's new batch of interactive media as I wait for discounts; however, I have been steadily building a wishlist of 2021 highlights and it certainly isn't short, to my ongoing relief. Here's a prospective top ten (in alphabetical order) that I hope to manifest into reality within the near future:

• Chicory: A Colorful Tale (June): An adorable Zelda-like where you can draw wieners everywhere, what's not to like?
• Death's Door (July): An adorable Zelda-like without the wiener doodles, but some challenging Soulslike bosses instead.
• Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights (July): Talking of Souls, I just completed Blasphemous and am looking for more torturously tough platformers. Ender Lilies definitely fits the bill.
• The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (July): A twofer of Ace Attorney games I never expected to see localized, at least not officially. Glad to know I'm not done with the series yet.
• New Pokémon Snap (April): Loved the original but there was plenty of room for it to grow. Sounds like this is a sequel built for the fans first and foremost.
• Persona 5 Strikers (February): Musou games can vary wildly in quality, but hearing how much Strikers feels like an extension of the original game has my interest piqued.
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (June): It may be a while before I purchase a PS5, but this is the first exclusive to make a strong case for it. Provided I ever find one.
• Scarlet Nexus (June): An anime action-RPG even Jeff Gerstmann seemed to enjoy. If something non-Phantasy Star can win him over, that's worth a closer look.
• Strangeland (May): After Unavowed I'm ready for more Wadjet, especially the weirder stuff.
• Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (February): The newest of my beloved Ys games saw a localization in February and it remains my number one priority for this year.

Runners-Up: Eldest Souls, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, Last Stop, Neo: The World Ends with You, World's End Club.

And here's another top ten for the months to come:

• Deathloop (September): Another PS5 exclusive, and another potential reason to jump into the next generation sooner rather than later. I trust Arkane won't lose their worldbuilding touch in the game's mad dashes.
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits (August): Could be an incredible cinematic platformer of a Beyond Good and Evil calibre, or it could be another visually impressive mediocrity like Ary and the Secret of Seasons. Counting on the former.
• Life is Strange: True Colors (September): I should probably play 2 first, but more Life is Strange is always good. Can't wait to romance the D&D dork from Before the Storm.
• Lost Judgment (September): It may be the last Yagami game ever, so I'm determined to enjoy this sequel while hoping they've improved on the original's weaker aspects (please no more mortal wounds).
• Metroid Dread (October): We're finally getting Metroid 4. Psyched this is happening, hope the finished game isn't quite as anodyne and clean as it looks now. Gimme them grubby metroids.
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (September): Another game for which I'll be playing its predecessor in preparation. Could be a busted mess at launch like the first, so I'll wait and see.
• Psychonauts 2 (August): The hype for this long-awaited sequel is off the charts, though who's to say if the formula still holds up?
• Skatebird (August): Skating birbs are cute. Also, it feels like skating games are finally hitting their stride again, and I'm not talking about Shaun White's beloved gum.
• Tales of Arise (September): The seventeenth Tales game has a long legacy to live up to, but it's a consistent franchise and I don't doubt it'll deliver.
• WarioWare: Get It Together! (September): Who'd have thought we'd be getting another WarioWare this year? Here's hoping the microgames won't carry a macro price.

Runners-Up: 12 Minutes, No More Heroes III, Sable, Axiom Verge 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong (provided the last two even happen this year).

What Have You Been Playing Then, If Not 2021 Games?

Well, Mr. Sassy Rhetorical, I've been focusing on games involved in a number of blog features for the most part. I'll be starting the thirtieth Indie Game of the Week in short order, I've still been hammering away at a dwindling list of 2017 stragglers for Dredge of Seventeen, took on a batch of '00s games for May Millennials, and I've planned out a virtual Books Kinokuniya's worth of visual novel playthroughs for VN-ese Waltz. Some highlights out of all those include: Finding Paradise, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Painkiller: Black Edition, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Blasphemous, and The House in Fata Morgana.

Some of the long-standing backlog stuff I've been working through includes Judgment (just in time for its sequel in September), The World Ends With You (just in time for its sequel this month), AI: The Somnium Files (which just had a sequel announced, but only after my playthrough), Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (ditto), and Ys: Memories of Celceta (which I played instead of the new Ys IX).

My favorite game of the year so far is... hmm. Dragon Quest XI and Ys: Memories of Celceta were both exceptional, but I might give it to Tales of Graces F for completely bowling me over. Graces F had been my "back up" Tales game, sitting in my PS3 HDD for years, since I'd always heard mixed things and usually had more pressing/acclaimed Tales entries to check out like Xillia or Berseria. My plan to play Graces F this year was prompted by another imminent release - September's Tales of Arise, the first Tales entry in almost four years - but Graces F proved itself as one of the most exciting entries in the series on pure mechanical depth alone. Possessed of ingenious quality-of-life features inexplicably dropped from later games, Graces F balanced a modified Linear Motion Battle combat system equipped to allow for more elaborate arte combos with its permissive regenerating mana equivalent along with a cooking pot that essentially ran on magic, allowing it to spit out mid- and post-battle support meals and curatives on a constant basis without the need to head back to vendors to restock (though the mana powering it would eventually run out without refills). Even its weaker elements - the story and characters - weren't so bad to detract from the experience; they were mostly just mediocre enough to not add to it either (besides Malik, who was a lot of fun as an older "I'm just going to keep messing around with these kids" type, and Hubert, who had one of the coolest weapons and mystic artes in the series so far).

We're not done with 2021 yet though, and I've no shortage of material to play and blog about even if I don't touch any new releases this year. (Maybe it's time I considered rebooting my Sega Mega Drive wiki-spelunking?)

Other 2021 Highlights

• Guilty Treasures looks to be some esoteric, well-edited fun and a return to the site's prior focus on the unloved and underappreciated. Rorie's being tight-lipped about his pick when his turn comes around; we suspect it's something more obscure than his expected choices however. Excited to find out what other contractor features the site has in store for us - the site's planning to roll out several more before the end of summer.
• Nextlander's been a little uneven so far, mostly regurgitating the type of content those three fellows made at GB, but I'm anticipating some novel ideas from them in the future and possibly a few more staff members to mix it up and offer some fresh perspective. I'll pop by occasionally to see whatever new FMV monstrosity Vinny managed to dig up, or Alex playing through a Yakuza, or Brad... doing whatever it is Brad does.
• Dan Ryckert, unsurprisingly, continues to kill it with his Twitch streams, demonstrating what his fully unleashed creativity can do. The sound alerts can make those live shows an ordeal but his enthusiasm for gaming and dumb gimmicks hasn't diminished any. Speaking of which, his Fire Escape podcast with Mary Kish and Mike Mahardy hits that right flavor of hang out energy, though episodes could be a little shorter.
• Recent seasons of Castlevania, Thunderbolt Fantasy, Loki, WandaVision, The Expanse, and Invincible were all a tremendous amount of uncomplicated fun. I've been trying to fit in more anime too, including the 2019 adaptation of Dororo and the somewhat disposable silliness of Dragon Goes House-Hunting, Heaven's Design Team, and I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level. In the next couple of months I'm looking forward to that Marvel What If animated show - an opportunity to get real crazy with all that established MCU lore - and the next seasons of Archer and Taskmaster (neither of which are Marvel affiliated, though they sound like they should be). I swear I'll start watching TV shows intended for discerning adults any day now.